Five or six hours are required to
fully extract the juices. When both are cooled they are mixed and
immediately a rich, bluish-black fluid called "ele-gee-batch" is formed.
For yellow dye the tops of a flowering weed (Bigelovia graveolens) are
boiled for hours until the liquid assumes a deep yellow color. As soon as
the extraction of color juices is complete the dyer takes some native alum
(almogen) and heats it over the fire. When it becomes pasty she generally
adds it to the boiling concoction, which slowly becomes of the required
yellow color, - "kayel-soly-batch."
The brick red dye, "says-tozzie-batch," is extracted from the bark and the
roots of the sumac, and ground alder bark, with the ashes of the juniper as
a mordant. She now immerses the wool and allows it to remain in the dye for
half an hour or an hour.
Whence come the designs incorporated by these simple weavers into their
blankets, sashes and dresses? In this as in basketry and pottery, the
answer is found in nature. Many of their textile designs suggest a
derivation from basketry ornamentation, which originally came from nature.
The angular, curveless figures of interlying plaits predominate and the
principal subjects are the same - conventional devices representing clouds,
stars, lightning, the rainbow, and emblems of the deities.
