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This bayeta or baize was unravelled and the Indian woman often retwisted the warp to make it firmer. She then rewove it into her incomparable blankets. From the earliest days the Navahos have been expert dyers, their colors being black, brick-red, russet, blue, yellow, and a greenish yellow akin to an old gold shade.

I have heard that the man who wove this often draws his designs on sand before he begins to work them on the loom. It is 6 feet 6 inches by 5 feet 3 inches, and is made of native yarn and bayeta. Its colors are yellow, green, dark blue, gray, and red, all but the latter color being in native yarn. Figs. 52 and 53 illustrate small or half-size blankets made for children's wear.

These have not been made for many years past and most of the specimens in perfect state of preservation that are in existence were obtained from Mexican families where they had been handed down from generation to generation as heirlooms. Often in these old specimens the red figures were made of bayeta.

Bayeta is a bright scarlet cloth with a long nap, much finer in appearance than the scarlet strouding which forms such an important article in the Indian trade of the North. It was originally brought to the Navajo country from Mexico, but is now supplied to the trade from our eastern cities. The Indians ravel it and use the weft.

It is invariably woven in black or dark-blue native wool with a broad variegated stripe in red imported yarn or red bayeta at each end, the designs being of countless variety. Plates XXXIV and XXXV represent women wearing such dresses.

A tunic-like skirt of woollen cloth, that home-made sort called "bayeta," was fastened around his waist, and reached down to the knees; but the upper part of his body was quite bare, and you could see the naked breast and arms, corded with strong muscles, and covered with a skin of a dark copper colour. The upper part of his body was naked only when the sun was hot.

Besides the hues above indicated, this people have had, ever since the introduction of sheep, wool of three different natural colors white, rusty black, and gray so they had always a fair range of tints with which to execute their artistic designs. The brilliant red figures in their finer blankets were, a few years ago, made entirely of bayeta, and this material is still largely used.

As Mason says: "The word 'bayeta' is nothing but the simple Spanish for the English 'baize' and is spelled 'bayeta' and not 'ballets' or 'valets." Formerly bayeta was a regular article of commerce. It was generally sold by the rod and not by the pound. Now, however, the duty is so high that its importation is practically prohibited.

A tunic-like skirt of woollen cloth, that home-made sort called "bayeta," was fastened around his waist, and reached down to the knees; but the upper part of his body was quite bare, and you could see the naked breast and arms, corded with strong muscles, and covered with a skin of a dark copper colour. The upper part of his body was naked only when the sun was hot.

The Spider's preparations for leaving Showdown were simple enough. He had his Mexican bale and cord the choicest of the rugs and blankets, the silver-studded saddle and bridle, the Bayeta cloth rare and priceless and the finest of his Indian beadwork. Each bale was tagged, and on each tag was written the name of Boca's mother. All these things were left in his private room, which he locked.