Excerpt from Nah-Nee-Ta: A Tale of the Navajos The purpose of the author in giving this labor of real and fictitious things to the public may find expression better in a preface, probably, than elsewhere. For a period of several years following close upon the war of the rebellion, he was stationed in Western New Mexico in the immediate vicinity of the country occupied by the Navajos, and became during that time largely acquainted with the customs and habits of this remarkable people. Since that period a railroad has been built almost upon the Southern line of their reservation, and settlements of white people have been made upon all sides about them. Influenced by these means, many of their time-honored practices and customs have been largely modified or entirely abandoned. A new people, virtually, has made its appearance in place of the old one, with entirely different views of life, and its duties. A people, it may be said, without practically a single national characteristic yet developed in this new transitional state. The influences thus exerted have caused the young men to become skeptical of the teachings of their elders, and at the same time have made them slow to adopt the habits and practices of strangers. The customs of the people before these changes occurred, will now only be preserved by means of unreliable legends. Anticipating this result, the author endeavored during his residence near them, to obtain reliable information concerning their ancient customs and beliefs, in order that it might be preserved as a possible contribution to science. The task proved to be a difficult one. Such practices and evidences, of belief as fell under his personal observation, day after day, for long periods of time, alone seemed well substantiated. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.