This article, published in 1900, explores the Navajo superstition that states it is very unlucky to make a fire out of wood that has been struck by lightning.
A Navajo Belief
No Navajo Indian will ever make a campfire of wood from a tree that has been struck by lightning or that might have been. If such a fire is made by an irreverent white man the Indians will retire to a distance, where they cannot feel the heat or smell the smoke, and they will go to sleep in their blankets, fireless and supperless, rather than eat of food prepared on that kind of fire.
The Navajo believes that if he comes within the influence of the flames he will absorb some of the essence of lightning, which will there-after be attracted to him and sooner or later will kill him.
Up in the mountains more than half the great pines are scarred by lightning, but no wood from them is used. Almost any old Navajo can narrate instances where the neglect of the precaution has resulted disastrously, for men are sometimes killed by lightning in a region where thunder storms are frequent, and it is but a step from the effect to the cause. [Source]
