Borax is now generally used for soldering, but before it was brought to their country, the Navajo silversmiths are said to have mined a certain substance for this use, probably a kind of native alum. Rock salt, an easily attainable material, called in the Navajo tongue _tse dokozh_ (saline rock), was used for whitening tarnished or oxidized silver. For this purpose the salt was dissolved in boiling water, into which the silver articles were thrown and left for a time. In place of the sandstone, sand and ashes originally used, the silversmiths are now able to employ sandpaper or emery paper bought at the stores. Of the tools employed we have already treated at some length. The details in this and the preceding paragraph have been derived from the very interesting and valuable “Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language,” published in 1910 by the Franciscan Fathers, at St. Michaels, Arizona.[51] Here the nouns and verbs denoting action are grouped in the only really logical way, under the respective industries and trades, or other forms of human activity. As some of the foremost writers on the origin of language have urged that its beginnings are to be sought in the various rhythmic exclamations of a body of workers, at first uttered automatically and later used consciously as calls to work, or to favor a coördination of efforts, no better classification of the vocabulary of a primitive race can be employed. The various forms and qualities of silver rings found full expression in the Navajo language, a proof of the importance accorded to this branch of silversmithing among them. The word for ring being _yostsá_, we have the following designations:[52] yostsá deshzházh, a worn down ring yostsá geéldo, a broken ring yostsá énidi, a new ring yostsá quastqí, an old ring yostsá ntqél, a broad ring yostsá altsósi, a slender ring yostsá ntsa, a large ring yostsá altsisi, a small ring yostsá náilgai, a polished ring yostsá yijí, a blackened, oxidized ring yostsá do-bikeeshchíni, a plain ring yostsá bikeeshchíni, a ring with a design yostsá alkésgiz, a twisted ring yostsá bitsá, a ribbed ring yostsá biná, the setting of a ring yostsá tséso biná, a ring with a glass setting yostsá dotlízhi biná, a ring with a turquoise setting yostsá tlish beélya, a snake-shaped ring [Illustration: THE ARMY AND NAVY CLUB WASHINGTON.] [handwritten text] [Illustration] [handwritten page] [Illustration] [handwritten page]