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George Grätzer
The Congruences
of a Finite Lattice
A “Proof-by-Picture” Approach
Third Edition
George Grätzer
The Congruences
of a Finite Lattice
A “Proof-by-Picture” Approach
Third Edition
George Grätzer
Toronto, ON, Canada
ISBN 978-3-031-29062-6 ISBN 978-3-031-29063-3 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29063-3
Mathematics Subject Classification (2020): 06B10, 06D05, 06C05, 06C10
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland
AG 2006, 2016, 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
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The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
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This book is published under the imprint Birkhäuser, www.birkhauser-science.com by the registered
company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To László Fuchs,
my thesis advisor, my teacher,
who taught me to set the bar high;
and to my coauthors,
who helped to raise the bar;
especially to Gábor Czédli,
for his help in the last dozen years or so.
Short Contents
Glossary of Notation xix
Picture Gallery xxiii
Preface xxv
Introduction xxvii
I A Brief Introduction to Lattices 1

1 Basic Concepts 3
2 Special Concepts 17
3 Congruences 35
4 Planar Semimodular Lattices 45
II Some Special Techniques 67

5 Chopped Lattices 69
6 Boolean Triples 79
7 Cubic Extensions 93
III RTs 99
8 Sectionally Complemented RT 101
vii
viii SHORT CONTENTS
9 Minimal RT 117
10 Semimodular RT 129
11 Rectangular RT 141
12 Modular RT 147
13 Uniform RT 161
IV ETs 175
14 Sectionally Complemented ET 177
15 Semimodular ET 185
16 Isoform ET 195
17 Magic Wands 213
V Congruence Lattices of Two Related Lattices 235

18 Sublattices 237
19 Ideals 249
20 Two Convex Sublattices 265
21 Tensor Extensions 275
VI The Ordered Set of Principal Congruences 295

22 The RT for Principal Congruences 297
23 Minimal RTs 307
24 Principal Congruence Representable Sets 339
25 Isotone Maps 353
VII Congruence Extensions and Prime Intervals 359

26 The Prime-projectivity Lemma 361
SHORT CONTENTS ix
27 The Swing Lemma 365
28 Fork Congruences 381
VIII The Six Congruence Properties of SPS lattices 389

29 Six Major Properties 391
Bibliography 403
Index 421
Contents
Glossary of Notation xix
Picture Gallery xxiii
Preface xxv
Introduction xxvii
The Topics xxvii
Proof-by-Picture xxix
Outline and notation xxx
I A Brief Introduction to Lattices 1

1 Basic Concepts 3
1.1 Ordering 3
1.1.1 Ordered sets 3
1.1.2 Diagrams 5
1.1.3 Constructions of ordered sets 6
1.1.4 Partitions 7
1.2 Lattices and semilattices 8
1.2.1 Lattices 8
1.2.2 Semilattices and closure systems 10
1.3 Some algebraic concepts 11
1.3.1 Homomorphisms 11
1.3.2 Sublattices 12
1.3.3 Congruences 13
xi
xii Contents
2 Special Concepts 17
2.1 Elements and lattices 17
2.2 Direct and subdirect products 18
2.3 Terms and identities 20
2.4 Gluing and generalizations 25
2.4.1 Gluing 25
2.4.2 Generalizations 27
2.5 Modular and distributive lattices 27
2.5.1 The characterization theorems 27
2.5.2 Finite distributive lattices 30
2.5.3 Finite modular lattices 32
3 Congruences 35
3.1 Congruence spreading 35
3.2 Finite lattices and prime intervals 38
3.3 Congruence-preserving extensions and variants 40
4 Planar Semimodular Lattices 45

4.1 Planar lattices 45
4.2 Two acronyms: SPS and SR 47
4.3 SPS lattices 48
4.4 Forks 50
4.5 Rectangular lattices 52
4.6 Rectangular intervals 57
4.7 Special diagrams for SR lattices 60
4.8 Natural diagrams and C1 -diagrams 62
4.9 Discussion 64
II Some Special Techniques 67

5 Chopped Lattices 69
5.1 Basic definitions 69
5.2 Compatible vectors of elements 71
5.3 Compatible vectors of congruences 72
5.4 From the chopped lattice to the ideal lattice 74
5.5 Sectional complementation 76
6 Boolean Triples 79
6.1 The general construction 79
6.2 The congruence-preserving extension property 82
6.3 The distributive case 84
6.4 Two interesting intervals 85
6.5 Discussion 92
Contents xiii
7 Cubic Extensions 93
7.1 The construction 93
7.2 The basic property 95
III RTs 99
8 Sectionally Complemented RT 101

8.1 The Basic RT 101
8.2 Proof-by-Picture 102
8.3 Computing 104
8.4 Sectionally complemented lattices 106
8.5 The N-relation 108
8.6 Discussion 113
9 Minimal RT 117
9.1 The results 117
9.2 Proof-by-Picture for the minimal construction 118
9.3 The formal construction 120
9.4 Proof-by-Picture for minimality 121
9.5 Computing minimality 123
9.6 Discussion 124
10 Semimodular RT 129
10.1 Semimodular lattices 129
10.3 Construction and proof 131
10.4 All congruences principal RT for planar semimodular lattices 138
10.5 Discussion 139
11 Rectangular RT 141
11.1 Results 141
11.3 All congruences principal RT 143
11.4 Discussion 143
12 Modular RT 147
12.1 Modular lattices 147
12.3 Construction and proof 151
12.4 Discussion 157
xiv Contents
13 Uniform RT 161
13.1 Uniform lattices 161
13.3 The lattice N (A, B) 164
13.4 Formal proof 169
13.5 Discussion 170
IV ETs 175
14 Sectionally Complemented ET 177
14.1 Sectionally complemented lattices 177
14.3 Easy extensions 180
14.5 Discussion 184
15 Semimodular ET 185
15.1 Semimodular lattices 185
15.3 The conduit 188
15.4 The construction 189
15.6 Rectangular ET 191
15.7 Discussion 194
16 Isoform ET 195
16.1 Isoform lattices 195
16.3 Formal construction 199
16.4 The congruences 205
16.5 The isoform property 206
16.6 Discussion 207
16.6.1 Variants 207
16.6.2 Problems 209
16.6.3 The Congruence Lattice and the Automorphism Group 210
16.6.4 More problems 211
17 Magic Wands 213

17.1 Constructing congruence lattices 213
17.2 Proof-by-Picture for bijective maps 215
17.3 Verification for bijective maps 218
17.4 2/3-Boolean triples 221
17.5 Proof-by-Picture for surjective maps 227
Contents xv
17.6 Verification for surjective maps 229

17.7 Discussion 230
V Congruence Lattices of Two Related Lattices 235

18 Sublattices 237
18.1 The results 237
18.3 Multi-coloring 241
18.5 Discussion 244
19 Ideals 249
19.1 The results 249
19.2 Proof-by-Picture for the main result 250
19.4 Proof-by-Picture for planar lattices 261
19.5 Discussion 263
20 Two Convex Sublattices 265

20.1 Introduction 265
20.3 Proof 269
20.4 Discussion 272
21 Tensor Extensions 275

21.1 The problem 275
21.2 Three unary functions 276
21.3 Defining tensor extensions 278
21.4 Computing 280
21.5 Congruences 284
21.6 The congruence isomorphism 292
21.7 Discussion 293
VI The Ordered Set of Principal Congruences 295

22 The RT for Principal Congruences 297
22.1 Representing the ordered set of principal congruences 297
22.2 Proving the RT 297
22.3 An independence theorem 303
22.3.1 Frucht lattices 303
22.3.2 An independence result 303
22.4 Discussion 304
xvi Contents
23 Minimal RTs 307

23.1 The Minimal RT 307
23.2 Three or more dual atoms 309
23.3 Exactly two dual atoms 311
23.3.1 Constructing the lattice L 311
23.3.2 Fusion of ordered sets 313
23.3.3 Splitting an element of an ordered set 316
23.3.4 Admissible congruences and extensions 318
23.3.5 The Bridge Theorem 321
23.3.6 Some technical results and proofs 328
23.4 Small distributive lattices 332
23.5 Full representability and planarity 335
23.6 Discussion 336
24 Principal Congruence Representable Sets 339

24.1 Chain representability 339
24.2 Proving the Necessity Theorem 341
24.3 Proof-by-Picture for the Sufficiency Theorem 342
24.3.1 A colored chain 342
24.3.2 The frame lattice Frame C and the lattice W (p, q) 343
24.3.3 Flag lattices 343
24.4 Construction for the Sufficiency Theorem 343
24.5 Proving the Sufficiency Theorem 347
24.5.1 Two preliminary lemmas 347
24.5.2 The congruences of a W (p, q) lattice 347
24.5.3 The congruences of flag lattices 348
24.5.4 The congruences of L 348
24.5.5 Principal congruences of L 351
24.6 Discussion 352
25 Isotone Maps 353

25.1 Two isotone maps 353
25.2 Sublattices, sketching the proof 355
25.3 Isotone surjective maps 355
25.4 Proving the Representation Theorem 356
25.5 Discussion 357
VII Congruence Extensions and Prime Intervals 359

26 The Prime-projectivity Lemma 361
26.2 Proof 363
26.3 Discussion 364
Contents xvii
27 The Swing Lemma 365

27.1 The statement 365
27.2 Proving the Swing Lemma 367
27.3 Some variants and consequences 375
27.4 The Two-Cover Condition is not sufficient 377
27.5 Applying the Swing Lemma to trajectories 378
28 Fork Congruences 381

28.1 The statements 381
28.2 Proofs 382
28.3 Discussion 387
VIII The Six Congruence Properties of SPS lattices 389

29 Six Major Properties 391
29.2 Czédli’s four properties 391
29.2.1 Proofs 392
29.3 The 3P3C property 395
29.3.1 Some relations 395
29.3.2 Proof 399
29.4 Discussion 401
Bibliography 403
Index 421
Glossary of Notation
Symbol Explanation Page

a∗ (a∗ ) the unique lower (upper) cover of a 17
0I and 1I the zero and unit of the interval I 12
Atom(U ) set of atoms of the ideal U 106
Aut L automorphism group of L 11
Bn Boolean lattice with n atoms 4
Cl (L), Cll (L), Cul (L) left boundary chains of a planar lattice 47
Cn n-element chain 4
con(a, b) smallest congruence under which a ≡ b 15
con(H) smallest congruence collapsing H 15
con(p) principal congruence generated by p 38
Con L congruence lattice of L 14, 70
J(Con L) join-irreducible congruences of L 38
Cr (L), Clr (L), Cur (L) right boundary chains of a planar lattice L 47
Cube K cubic extension of K 93
D class (variety) of distributive lattices 22
Diag(K) diagonal embedding of K into Cube K 93
Dn P down sets of the ordered set P 5, 9
ext : Con K → Con L for K ≤ L, extension map: α 7→ conL (α) 41
fil(a) filter generated by the element a 13
fil(H) filter generated by the set H 13
Flag(c3 ) flag lattice 343
FreeD (3) free distributive lattice on three generators 23
FreeK (H) free lattice generated by H in a variety K 23
FreeM (3) free modular lattice on three generators 25
Fuse(P, A) Fusion of ordered sets 313
hom{∨,0} (X, Y ) {∨, 0}-homomorphisms of X into Y 283
id(a) ideal generated by the element a 13
id(H) ideal generated by the set H 13
Id L ideal lattice of L 13, 71
(Id) condition to define ideals 13, 71
xix
xx Table of Notation

J(D) ordered set of join-irreducible elements of D 17
J+ (D) J(D) ∪ {0, 1} 305
J(a) set of join-irreducible elements below a 17
ker(γ) congruence kernel of γ 15
L class (variety) of all lattices 22
Lbottom , Ltop bottom and top of a rectangular lattice L 55
lc(L) left corner of a rectangular lattice L 47
Lleft , Lright left and right boundary of L 47
M class (variety) of modular lattices 22
Max maximal elements of an ordered set 71
mcr(n) minimal congruence representation function 126
mcr(n, V) mcr for a class V 126
M3 five-element modular nondistributive lattice 28
M3 [L] ordered set of Boolean triples of L 80
M3 [L, a] interval of M3 [L] 85
M3 [L, a, b] interval of M3 [L] 88
M3 [a, b] Boolean triples of [a, b] 80
M(D) ordered set of meet-irreducible elements of D 17
N5 five-element nonmodular lattice 28
N5,5 seven-element nonmodular lattice 118
N6 = N (p, q) six-element nonmodular lattice 102
N (A, B) a lattice construction 164
Part A partition lattice of A 7, 9
Pow X power set lattice of X 5
Princ L ordered set of principal congruences L 37
rc(L) right corner of a rectangular lattice 47
Prime(L) set of prime intervals of L 38
re : Con L → Con K restriction map: α 7→ α⌉K 40
(SD∨ ), (SD∧ ) semidistributive laws 50
SecComp class of sectionally complemented lattices 18
SemiMod class of semimodular lattices 139
Simp K simple extension of K 93
(SP∨ ), (SP∧ ) substitution properties 13
Split(P, a) splitting an element 316
S(p, q), W (p, q) small lattices used in lattice constructions 298
sub(H) sublattice generated by H 12
in ex
Swing, ,
↶ ↶ ↶ , p ↶ q, p swings to q 365
Traj L set of all trajectories of L 48
Glossary of Notation xxi
Relations and
Congruences
A2 binary relations 3
α, β, . . . congruences 13
0 zero of Part A and Con L 8
1 unit of Part A and Con L 8
a ≡ b (mod π) a and b in the same block of π 7
aϱb a and b in relation ϱ 3
a ≡ b (mod α) a and b in relation α 3
a/π block containing a 7, 13
H/π blocks represented by H 7
α◦β product of α and β 18
r
α◦β reflexive product of α and β 26
α⌉K restriction of α to the sublattice K 13
L/α quotient lattice 15
β/α quotient congruence 16
πi projection map: L1 × · · · × Ln → Li 18
α×β direct product of congruences 18
Ordered sets
≤, < ordering 3
≥, > ordering, inverse notation 3
K≤L K a sublattice of L 12
≤Q ordering of P restricted to a subset Q 4
a∥b a incomparable with b 3
a≺b a is covered by b 5
b≻a b covers a 5
0 zero, least element of an ordered set 4
1 unit, largest element of an ordered set 4
W∨ b
a join operation 8
H least upper bound of H 3
a ∧
V b meet operation 8
H greatest lower bound of H 4
Pδ dual of the ordered set (lattice) P 4, 10
[a, b] interval 12
↓H down set generated by H 5
↓a down set generated by {a} 5
P ∼=Q ordered set (lattice) P isomorphic to Q 4, 11
xxii Table of Notation
Constructions
P ×Q direct product of P and Q 6, 18
P +Q sum of P and Q 6
P ∔Q glued sum of P and Q 16
A[B] tensor extension of A by B 278
A⊗B tensor product of A and B 275
U ⊛V modular lattice construction 151
Prime intervals
p, q, . . . prime intervals
con(p) principal congruence generated by p 38
Prime(L) set of prime intervals of L 38
Princ L the ordered set of principal congruences 37
Perspectivities
[a, b] ∼ [c, d] [a, b] perspective to [c, d] 32
up
[a, b] ∼ [c, d] [a, b] up-perspective to [c, d] 32
dn
[a, b] ∼ [c, d] [a, b] down-perspective to [c, d] 32
[a, b] ≈ [c, d] [a, b] projective to [c, d] 32
[a, b] ↠ [c, d] [a, b] congruence-perspective onto [c, d] 36
up
[a, b] ↠ [c, d] [a, b] up congruence-perspective onto [c, d] 35
dn
[a, b] ↠ [c, d] [a, b] down congruence-perspective onto [c, d] 35
[a, b] ⇒ [c, d] [a, b] congruence-projective onto [c, d] 35
p
p −→ q p prime-perspective to q 361
p-up
p −→ q p prime-perspective up to q 361
p-dn
p −→ q p prime-perspective down to q 361
p
p =⇒ q p prime-projective to q 361
p q
↶ p swings to q 365
in
p ↶ q internal swing 365
ex
p ↶ q external swing 365
Miscellaneous
x closure of x 10
∅ empty set 4
⌉ restriction 4
Acronyms
SPS lattice slim, planar, semimodular lattice 47
SR lattice slim rectangular lattice 47
Picture Gallery
C2 C3 B2
N5 N5,5 N6
S7 S8 M3
xxiii
Preface
A book such as this is largely autobiographical; it references about a third of

my (mathematical) publications from 1956 to 2022.
Compared with the first edition (in 2006), this book grew from 281 to 430
pages, from 265 to 360 statements, and from 123 to 262 references.
The manuscript was read for the publisher by Friedrich Wehrung; he offered
many corrections.
I received detailed reports from Gábor Czédli, Shriram K. Nimbhorkar,
Sylvia Pulmannová, Andreja Tepavčević, offering new evidence that Fred’s
Law is true (a manuscript of n characters has 2n typos; this book has about
900,000 characters).
And after all this, I received a 30-page report from Gregory L. Cherlin,
full of corrections and suggestions. I’m not sure how I can thank him for his
contribution.
I updated the Introduction and the freely available Part I:
arXiv:2104.06539
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360184868
Toronto, Ontario George Grätzer

February 2, 2023
xxv
Introduction
The topics
This book is an introduction to congruences of finite lattices, which naturally
splits into four fields of research:
A. Congruence lattices of finite lattices.
B. The ordered set of principal congruences of finite lattices.
C. The congruence structure of finite lattices.
D. Congruence properties of slim, planar, semimodular (SPS) lattices.
These topics cover about 80 years of research and 250 papers.
Some of the results extend naturally, for instance, to lattices of finite length
and to some classes of universal algebras. To keep this book reasonably short,
we do not include these results.
Topic A. Congruence lattices of finite lattices

The congruences of a finite lattice L form a lattice, called the congruence
lattice of L, denoted by Con L. According to a 1942 result of N. Funayama and
T. Nakayama [95], the lattice Con L is a finite distributive lattice. The converse
is a result of R. P. Dilworth from around 1944 (see the book [22]).
Basic Representation Theorem. Every finite distributive lattice D can
be represented as the congruence lattice of a finite lattice L.
We will refer to this result as the Basic RT (Representation Theorem).
The Basic RT was not published until 1962 in my joint paper with E. T.
Schmidt [172]. A large number of papers have strengthened and generalized
the Basic RT. These papers form two distinct subfields:
A1. RTs of finite distributive lattices as congruence lattices of finite lattices
with special properties.
xxvii
xxviii Introduction
A2. The Congruence Lattice Problem (CLP): Can congruence lattices of

general lattices be characterized as distributive algebraic lattices?
A1. A finite distributive lattice D of more than one element is determined

by the ordered set J(D) of join-irreducible elements. So a representation of D
as the congruence lattice of a finite lattice L is the same as a representation of
a finite ordered set P (= J(D)), as the ordered set, J(Con L), of join-irreducible
congruences of a finite lattice L. A join-irreducible congruence of a finite lattice
of more than one element L is exactly the same as a congruence of the form
con(a, b), where a ≺ b in L; that is, the smallest congruence collapsing a prime
interval [a, b]. Therefore, it is enough to concentrate on such congruences, and
make sure that they are ordered as required by P .
A2. The infinite case is much different. There are really only two general
positive results.
1. The ideal lattice of a distributive lattice with zero is the congruence
lattice of a lattice (see E. T. Schmidt [241] and also P. Pudlák [230]).
2. Any distributive algebraic lattice with at most ℵ1 compact elements
is the congruence lattice of a lattice (A. P. Huhn [214] and [215], see also
H. Dobbertin [80]).
The big breakthrough for negative results came in 2007 in F. Wehrung
[258] (based on his paper [255]). Wehrung proved that there is a distributive
algebraic lattice with ℵω+1 compact elements that is not representable as
the congruence lattice of a lattice. P. Růžička [235] improved this result:
there is a distributive algebraic lattice with ℵ2 compact elements that is not
representable as the congruence lattice of a lattice. This is the sharp bound.
This book deals almost exclusively with the finite case. F. Wehrung [259]–
[261] (Chapters 7–9 of the book LTS1-[206]) provide a detailed review of the
infinite case.
The two types of RTs

RTs for the finite case are all of the same general type. We represent a finite
distributive lattice D as the congruence lattice of a “nice” finite lattice L.
For instance, in my joint 1962 paper with E. T. Schmidt [172], we proved
that the finite lattice L for the Basic RT can be constructed as a sectionally
complemented lattice.
To understand the second, more sophisticated, type of RT, we need the
concept of a congruence-preserving extension.
Let L be a lattice, and let K be a sublattice of L. In general, there is not
much connection between the congruence lattices of L and K. If they happen
to be naturally isomorphic, we call L a congruence-preserving extension of K.
(More formally, see Section 3.3.)
For sectionally complemented lattices, the congruence-preserving extension
theorem, ET, was published in my 1999 paper with E. T. Schmidt [184], Every
Introduction xxix
finite lattice K has a finite, sectionally complemented, congruence-preserving

extension L. In particular this reduces the result of [172] to the Basic RT.
Reading this statement for the first time, it is difficult to appreciate how
much stronger this theorem is than the Basic RT. For a finite distributive
lattice D, the 1962 theorem provides a finite sectionally complemented lattice L
whose congruence lattice is isomorphic to D; the 1999 theorem starts with
an arbitrary finite lattice K, and builds a sectionally complemented lattice L
extending it with the “same” congruence structure.
Topic B. The ordered set of principal congruences

of finite lattices
A large part of this book investigates the congruence lattice, Con L, of a finite
lattice L. But Con L is not the only interesting congruence construct we can
associate with a finite lattice L. A newer one, from a decade ago, is Princ L,
the ordered set of principal congruences of L. We discuss this topic in Part VI.
Topic C. The congruence structure of finite lattices

The spreading of a congruence from a prime interval to another prime interval
involves intervals of arbitrary size. Can we describe such a spreading with
prime intervals only?
We can indeed, by introducing the concept of prime-projectivity (see
Chapter 26), and obtaining the Prime-projectivity Lemma (see my paper [112]).
Then in Chapter 27, we develop much sharper forms of this result for SPS
(slim, planar, semimodular) lattices. The main result is the Swing Lemma (see
my paper [114]), from which we derive many of the known results of G. Czédli
and myself concerning congruences of SPS lattices.
Topic D. Congruence properties of slim, planar, semimodular (SPS)

lattices.
A finite ordered set P satisfies the Two-Cover Condition, if any element of P
has at most two covers. The Two-Cover Theorem (Theorem 27.7) states that
the ordered set of join-irreducible congruences of an SPS lattice L has the
Two-Cover Condition (see my paper [117]).
This theorem is the start of a new field covered in Part VIII.
Proof-by-Picture
In 1960, trying with E. T. Schmidt to prove the Basic RT (unpublished at
the time), we came up with the construction—more or less—as presented in
Section 8.2. In 1960, we did not anticipate my 1968 result with H. Lakser [139],
establishing that the construction of a chopped lattice solves the problem.
So we translated the chopped lattice construction to a closure space, as in
xxx Introduction
Section 8.4, proved that the closed sets form a sectionally complemented
lattice L, and based on that, we verified that the congruence lattice of L
represents the given finite distributive lattice.
When we submitted the paper [172] for publication, it had a three-page
section explaining the chopped lattice construction and its translation to
a closure space. The referee was strict:
“You cannot have a three-page explanation for a two-page proof.”
I believe that in the 50 plus years since the publication of that article, few
readers have developed an understanding of the idea behind the published
proof.
The referee’s dictum is quite in keeping with mathematical tradition and
practice. When mathematicians discuss new results, they explain the construc-
tions and the ideas with examples; when these same results are published,
the motivation and the examples are largely gone. We publish definitions,
constructions, and formal proofs (and conjectures, Paul Erdős would have
added).
After Gauss proved one of his famous results, he was not yet ready to pub-
licize it because the proof gave away too much as to how the theorem was
discovered. “I have had my results for a long time: but I do not yet know how
I am to arrive at them,” Gauss is quoted in A. Arber [13].
I try to break with this tradition in this book. In many chapters, after
stating the main result, I include a section: Proof-by-Picture. This is a mis-
nomer. A Proof-by-Picture is not a proof. The Pythagorean Theorem has
many well-known Proofs-by-Picture—sometimes called “Visual Proofs;” these
are really proofs. My Proof-by-Picture is an attempt to convey the idea of the
proof. I trust that if the idea is properly understood, the reader should be
able to skip the formal proof, or should at least have less trouble reading it.
Think of a Proof-by-Picture as a lecture to an informed audience, concluding
with “its formal details now you can provide.”
Outline and notation

Part I. A Brief Introduction to Lattices
In the last paragraph, I call an audience “informed” if they are familiar with
the basic concepts and techniques of lattice theory. Part I provides this. It can
be downloaded at
arXiv:submit/4276288
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360184868
I am quite selective as to what to include. There are few proofs in this part
(with a few exceptions) they are easy enough for the readers to work them
out on their own. For proofs, lots of exercises, and a more detailed exposition,
I refer the reader to my book LTF-[105].
This part has only two sections with novel results.
Introduction xxxi
Part II. Some Special Techniques

Most of the research in this book deals with RTs; lattices with certain properties
are constructed with prescribed congruence structures. The constructions are
ad hoc. Nevertheless, there are three basic techniques to verify them.
• Chopped lattices, used in almost every chapter in Parts III–V.
• Boolean triples, used in Chapters 12, 14, and 17, and generalized in
Chapter 21. also used in some papers that did not make it in this book,
for instance, my joint paper with E. T. Schmidt [186].
• Cubic extensions, used in most chapters of Part IV.
These are presented in Part II with proofs.
There are two more basic techniques. Multi-coloring is used in several
papers; however, it appears in the book only in Chapter 18, so we introduce it
there. Pruning is utilized in Chapters 13 and 16—it would seem to qualify for
Part II; however, there are only concrete uses of pruning, there is no general
theory to discuss.
Part III. RTs

This major part contains the RTs of congruence lattices of finite lattices,
requiring only chopped lattices from Part II. I cover the following topics.
• The Basic RT and the RT for sectionally complemented lattices in
Chapter 8 (my joint paper with E. T. Schmidt [172], P. Crawley and R. P.
Dilworth [24]; see also the book [22]). The closure relation of Section 8.4
is generalized in Section 8.5 using the N-relation (called D-relation or
J-relation in the literature) due to J. B. Nation et al.
• Minimal representations in Chapter 9; that is, for a given |J(D)|, we
minimize the size of L representing the finite distributive lattice D
(G. Grätzer, H. Lakser, and E. T. Schmidt [156], G. Grätzer, Rival, and
N. Zaguia [168]).
• The semimodular RT in Chapter 10 (G. Grätzer, H. Lakser, and E. T.
Schmidt [159]).
• The rectangular RT (my joint paper with E. Knapp [137]) in Chapter 11.
• The RT for modular lattices in Chapter 12 (E. T. Schmidt [238] and my
joint paper with E. T. Schmidt [189]); we are forced to represent with
a countable lattice L, since the congruence lattice of a finite modular
lattice is always Boolean.
• The RT for uniform lattices (that is, lattices in which any two congruence
classes of a congruence are of the same size) in Chapter 13 (G. Grätzer,
E. T. Schmidt, and K. Thomsen [195]).
xxxii Introduction
Part IV. ETs

I present the ETs for the following classes of lattices.
• Sectionally complemented lattices in Chapter 14 (my joint paper with

E. T. Schmidt [184]).
• Semimodular lattices in Chapter 15 (my joint paper with E. T. Schmidt

[187]).
• Isoform lattices (that is, lattices in which any two congruence classes of
a congruence are isomorphic) in Chapter 16 (G. Grätzer, R. W. Quacken-
bush, and E. T. Schmidt [167]).
These three constructions are based on cubic extensions, introduced in Part II.
Finally, in Chapter 17, I discuss two congruence “destroying” extensions,
which we call “magic wands” (my joint paper with E. T. Schmidt [190], G.
Grätzer, M. Greenberg, and E. T. Schmidt [132]).
Part V. Congruence Lattices of Two Related Lattices

What happens if we consider the congruence lattices of two related lattices,
such as a lattice and a sublattice? I take up some variants of this question
in this part.
Let L be a finite lattice, and let K be a sublattice of L. As we discuss
in Section 3.3, there is an extension map ext : Con K → Con L: for a congru-
ence α of K, let the image ext α be the congruence conL (α) of L generated
by α. The map ext is a {0}-separating join-homomorphism.
Chapter 18 proves the converse, a 1974 result of A. P. Huhn [213]. It is
presented in a stronger form due to G. Grätzer, H. Lakser, and E. T. Schmidt
[157].
I deal with ideals in Chapter 19. Let K be an ideal of a lattice L. Then the
restriction map re : Con L → Con K (which assigns to a congruence α of L,
the restriction α⌉K of α to K) is a bounded homomorphism (that is, {0, 1}-
homomorphism). We prove the corresponding representation theorem for finite
lattices, based on my joint paper with H. Lakser [140] (see Theorem 19.1).
Let D and E be finite distributive lattices. Let φ be a bounded homomor-
phism of D into E. Then there exists a finite lattice L and an ideal I of L
such that D ∼
= Con L, E ∼= Con I, and φ is represented by re, the restriction
map.
This is an
abstract/abstract
result. The congruence lattices are given as D and E, they are abstract finite
distributive lattices, whereas the finite lattices L and G are constructed.
Introduction xxxiii
G. Czédli [28] improved on the abstract/abstract representation (see Theo-

rem 20.2), obtaining a
concrete/abstract
result, where E is given as Con L. Earlier, E. T. Schmidt [246] proved this
result for injective homomorphisms.
In Chapter 19, we also prove two variants. The first is in my joint paper with
H. Lakser [147], stating that this result also holds for sectionally complemented
lattices. The second is in another joint paper with H. Lakser [145] stating that
this result also holds for planar lattices.
Chapter 20 contains sharper forms of Theorem 19.1.
Now let L be a lattice and let F and G be convex sublattices of L. How
should we map Con F into Con G? We could try to map a congruence α of
the convex sublattice F to α, the minimal extension of α to L, and restrict it
to the convex sublattice G as follows,
σ : α → α⌉G, α ∈ Con F.
Minimal extensions do not preserve meets, so σ is not a bounded homomor-

phism of Con F to Con G, in general. This problem does not arise if we assume
that L is a congruence-preserving extension of F . This leads us to Theorem 20.3
(see my joint paper with H. Lakser [152]), which is a
concrete/concrete
result.
The final Chapter 21 is a first contribution to the following class of problems.
Let ⊛ be a construction for finite lattices (that is, if D and E are finite lattices,
then so is D ⊛ E). Find a construction ⊚ of finite distributive lattices (that
is, if K and L are finite distributive lattices, then so is K ⊚ L) satisfying
Con(K ⊛ L) ∼ = Con K ⊚ Con L.
If the lattice construction is the direct product, the answer is obvious since
Con(K × L) ∼ = Con K × Con L.
In Chapter 21, we take up the construction defined as the distributive
lattice of all isotone maps from J(E) to D.
In my joint paper with M. Greenberg [128], we introduced another con-
struction: the tensor extension, A[B], for nontrivial finite lattices A and B.
In Chapter 21, we prove that Con(A[B]) ∼ = (Con A)[Con B].
Part VI. The Ordered Set of Principal Congruences

In 2013, I raised the question whether one can associate with a finite lattice L
a structure of some of its congruences? We could take the ordered set of the
principal congruences generated by prime intervals, but this is just J(Con L),
which is “equivalent” to Con L (see Section 2.5.2 for an explanation). I proposed
xxxiv Introduction
to consider the ordered set Princ K of principal congruences of a lattice K.

In Part VI, we state and prove the two major results of this new field.
Chapter 22 contains the first RT for Principal Congruences (Theorem 22.1),
characterizing Princ K of a finite lattice K as a finite, bounded, ordered set
(my paper [107]). This chapter also contains the Independence Theorem: for a
finite lattice L, the two related structures Princ L and Aut L are independent
(G. Czédli [35], see also my paper [119]).
The second major result is the Minimal RT in Chapter 23, based on my
joint paper with H. Lakser [150]. A finite lattice L has a minimal set of
principal congruences, if all proper principal congruences are join-irreducible.
Similarly, for a finite distributive lattice D, we call the finite lattice L a minimal
representation of D, if D and Con L are isomorphic and L has a minimal set
of principal congruences. The Minimal RT states that a finite distributive
lattice D has a minimal representation L iff D has at most two dual atoms.
Chapter 24 deals with a related result. Let D be a finite distributive lattice
and let Q ⊆ D. We call the subset Q of D principal congruence representable,
if there is a finite lattice L such that Con L is isomorphic to D and Princ L
corresponds to Q under this isomorphism.
We introduce a simple combinatorial condition, called chain representability
(see Section 24.1), for a subset Q of a finite distributive lattice D and we prove
two results.
• The Necessity Theorem. Let D be a finite distributive lattice and let

Q ⊆ D. If Q is representable, then it is chain representable.
• The Sufficiency Theorem. Let D be a finite distributive lattice with

a join-irreducible unit element. Then Q ⊆ D is representable iff it is
chain representable.
Part VII. Congruence Extensions and Prime Interval
We discuss in Section 4.4, how an SPS lattice can be constructed by inserting

forks and removing corners.
In Chapter 28, we examine the extendibility of congruences to a fork
extension. Since by the Structure Theorem for SR Lattices (Theorem 4.11),
any SR lattice can be obtained from a grid by inserting forks, this gives us
an insight into the congruence lattice of SR lattices. The results are mostly
technical, except for the Two-cover Theorem we discussed in Topic D.
The spreading of a congruence from a prime interval to another prime
interval involves intervals of arbitrary size (as illustrated by Figure 3.2).
We would like to describe such a spreading with prime intervals only. We do
this in Chapter 26 with the Prime-projectivity Lemma (see my paper [112]).
Chapter 27 sharpens the Prime-projectivity Lemma to the Swing Lemma,
a very strong form of the Prime-projectivity Lemma, for slim, planar, and
Introduction xxxv
semimodular lattices (see my paper [114]). Almost all results for congruences of
slim, planar, and semimodular lattices can be derived from the Swing Lemma.
Part VIII. Six Congruence Properties of SPS lattices

We introduced this field in Topic D. We state and prove Czédli’s four properties
(G. Czédli [46] and my paper [125]). The sixth major property is from my
joint paper with G. Czédli [59], the proof is from my paper [127].
Notation
Lattice-theoretic terminology and notation evolved from the three editions of G.
Birkhoff’s Lattice Theory, [21], by way of my books, UA-[97], GLT-[99], UA2-
[100], GLT2-[102], CFL-[103], LTF-[105], CFL2-[115], and R. N. McKenzie,
G. F. McNulty, and W. F. Taylor [224], changing quite a bit in the process.
Birkhoff’s notation for the congruence lattice and ideal lattice of a lattice
changed from Θ(L) and I(L) to Con L and Id L, respectively. The advent of
LATEX promoted the use of operators for lattice constructions. I try to be
consistent: I use an operator when a new structure is constructed; so I use
Con L, Id L, and Aut L, and so on, without parentheses, unless required for
readability, for instance, J(D) and Con(Id L). I use functional notation when
sets are constructed, as in Atom(L) and J(a). “Generated by” uses the same
letters as the corresponding lattice construction, but starting with a lower
case letter: Con L is the congruence lattice of L and con(H) is the congruence
generated by H, whereas Id L is the ideal lattice of L and id(H) is the ideal
generated by H.
New concepts introduced in more recent research papers exhibit the usual
richness in notation and terminology. I use this opportunity, with the wisdom
of hindsight, to make their use more consistent. The reader will often find
different notation and terminology when reading the original papers. The
detailed Table of Notation and Index may help.
In combinatorial results, I use Landau’s big O notation: for the functions f
and g, we write f = O(g) to mean that |f | ≤ C|g| for a suitable constant C.
Natural numbers start at 1.
In Section 4.2, we introduce acronyms for two classes of lattices: SPS (slim,
planar, semimodular) and SR (slim rectangular).
We also use acronyms for my books; for instance, LTF for “Lattice Theory:
Foundation;” we use them in the form LTF-[105].
Part I
A Brief Introduction to
Lattices
1
Chapter
Basic Concepts
In this chapter we introduce the most basic order theoretic concepts: ordered
sets, lattices, diagrams, and the most basic algebraic concepts: sublattices,
congruences, products.
1.1. Ordering
1.1.1 Ordered sets
A binary relation ϱ on a nonempty set A is a subset of A2 , that is, a set
of ordered pairs (a, b), with a, b ∈ A. For (a, b) ∈ ϱ, we will write a ϱ b or
a ≡ b (mod ϱ).
A binary relation ≤ on a set P is called an ordering if it is reflexive (a ≤ a
for all a ∈ P ), antisymmetric (a ≤ b and b ≤ a imply that a = b for all
a, b ∈ P ), and transitive (a ≤ b and b ≤ c imply that a ≤ c for all a, b, c ∈ P ).
An ordered set (P, ≤) consists of a nonempty set P and an ordering ≤.
a < b means that a ≤ b and a ̸= b. We also use the “inverse” relations,
a ≥ b defined as b ≤ a and a > b for b < a. If more than one ordering is being
considered, we write ≤P for the ordering of (P, ≤); on the other hand if the
ordering is understood, we will say that P (rather than (P, ≤)) is an ordered
set. An ordered set P is trivial if P has only one element.
The elements a and b of the ordered set P are comparable if a ≤ b or b ≤ a.
Otherwise, a and b are incomparable, in notation, a ∥ b.
Let H ⊆ P and a ∈ P . Then a is an upper bound of H iff h ≤ a for all
h ∈ H. An upper bound a of H is the least upper bound W of H iff a ≤ bWfor
any upper bound b of H; in this case, we will write a = H. If a = H
3
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
G. Grätzer, The Congruences of a Finite Lattice, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29063-3_1
4 1. Basic Concepts
W
exists, then it is unique. By definition, ∅ exist (∅ is the empty set) iff P
has a smallest element, zero, denoted by 0. The concepts of lower V bound and
greatest
V lower bound are similarly defined; the latter is denoted by H. Note
that ∅ exists iff P has a largest element, unit, denoted by 1. A bounded
V 1. We often denote the 0 and 1 of P by 0P and 1P .
ordered set hasWboth 0 and
The notation H and H will also be used for families of elements.
The adverb “similarly” (in “similarly defined”) in the previous paragraph
can be given concrete meaning. Let (P, ≤) be an ordered set. Then (P, ≥) is
also an ordered set, called the dual of (P, ≤). The dual of the ordered set P
will be denoted by P δ . Now if Φ is a “statement” about ordered sets, and if
we replace all occurrences of ≤ by ≥ in Φ, then we get the dual of Φ.
Duality Principle for Ordered Sets. If a statement Φ is true for all ordered
sets, then its dual is also true for all ordered sets.
For a, b ∈ P , if a is an upper bound of {b}, then a is an upper bound of b.
If for all a, b ∈ P , the set {a, b} has an upper bound, then the ordered set P is
directed.
A chain (linearly ordered set, totally ordered set ) is an ordered set with no
incomparable elements. An antichain is one in which a ∥ b for all a ̸= b.
Let (P, ≤) be an ordered set and let Q be a nonempty subset of P . Then
there is a natural ordering ≤Q on Q induced by ≤: for a, b ∈ Q, let a ≤Q b iff
a ≤ b; we call (Q, ≤Q ) (or simply, (Q, ≤), or even simpler, Q) an ordered subset
(or suborder ) of (P, ≤). We denote this ordered set (P, ≤)⌉Q, the restriction
of (P, ≤) to Q.
A chain C in an ordered set P is a nonempty subset, which, as a suborder,
is a chain. An antichain C in an ordered set P is a nonempty subset which,
as a suborder, is an antichain.
The length of a finite chain C, length C, is |C| − 1. An ordered set P is
said to be of length n (in symbols, length P = n), where n is a natural number
iff there is a chain in P of length n and all chains in P are of length ≤ n.
The ordered sets P and Q are isomorphic (written as P = ∼ Q) and the map
ψ : P → Q is an isomorphism iff ψ is one-to-one and onto and
a ≤ b in P iff ψa ≤ ψb in Q.
Let Cn denote the set {0, . . . , n − 1} ordered by
0 < 1 < 2 < · · · < n − 1.
Then Cn is an n-element chain. Observe that length Cn = n − 1. If C =

{x0 , . . . , xn−1 } is an n-element chain and x0 < x1 < · · · < xn−1 , then
ψ : i 7→ xi is an isomorphism between Cn and C. Therefore, the n-element
chain is unique up to isomorphism.
Let Bn denote the set of all subsets of the set {0, . . . , n − 1} ordered by con-
tainment. Observe that the ordered set Bn has 2n elements and length Bn = n.
1.1. Ordering 5
In general, for a set X, we denote by Pow X the power set of X, that is, the
set of all subsets of X ordered by set inclusion.
A quasiordered set is a nonempty set Q with a binary relation ≤ that is
reflexive and transitive. Let us define the binary relation a ≈ b on Q as a ≤ b
and b ≤ a. Then ≈ is an equivalence relation. Define the set P as Q/≈, and
on P define the binary relation ≤:
a/≈ ≤ b/≈ iff a ≤ b in Q.
It is easy to see that the definition of ≤ on P is well defined and that P is an

ordered set. We will call P the ordered set associated with the quasiordered
set Q.
Starting with a binary relation ≺ on the set Q, we can define the reflexive-
transitive closure ≤ of ≺ by the formula: for a, b ∈ Q, let a ≤ b iff a = b or
if a = x0 ≺ x1 ≺ · · · ≺ xn = b for elements x1 , . . . , xn−1 ∈ Q. Then ≤ is a
quasiordering on Q. A cycle on Q is a sequence x1 , . . . , xn ∈ Q satisfying
x1 ≺ x2 ≺ · · · ≺ xn ≺ x1 (n > 1). The quasiordering ≤ is an ordering iff there
are no cycles.
For an ordered set P , call A ⊆ P a down set iff x ∈ A and y ≤ x in P ,
imply that y ∈ A. For H ⊆ P , there is a smallest down set containing H,
namely, { x | x ≤ h, for some h ∈ H }; we use the notation ↓ H for this set.
If H = {a}, we write ↓ a for ↓ {a}. Let Dn P denote the set of all down sets
ordered by set inclusion. If P is an antichain, then Dn P ∼ = Bn , where n = |P |.
The map ψ : P → Q is an isotone map (resp., antitone map) of the ordered
set P into the ordered set Q iff a ≤ b in P implies that ψa ≤ ψb (resp.,
ψa ≥ ψb) in Q. Then ψP is a suborder of Q. Even if ψ is one-to-one, the
ordered sets P and ψP need not be isomorphic. If both P and Q are bounded,
then the map ψ : P → Q is bounded or a bounded map, if it preserves the
bounds, that is, ψ0P = 0Q and ψ1P = 1Q . Most often, we talk about bounded
isotone maps (and bounded homomorphisms, see Section 1.3.1).
1.1.2 Diagrams
In the ordered set P , the element a is covered by b or b covers a (written as
a ≺ b or b ≻ a) iff a < b and a < x < b for no x ∈ P . The binary relation ≺ is
called the covering relation. The covering relation determines the ordering.
Let P be a finite ordered set. Then a ≤ b iff a = b or if there exists a finite
sequence of elements x1 , x2 , . . . , xn such that
a = x1 ≺ x2 ≺ · · · ≺ xn = b.
A diagram of an ordered set P represents the elements with small circles ;

the circles representing two elements x, y are connected by a line segment iff
one covers the other; if x is covered by y, then the circle representing x is
placed lower than the circle representing y.
6 1. Basic Concepts
The diagram of a finite ordered set determines the order up to isomorphism.

In a diagram the intersection of two line segments does not indicate an
element. A diagram is planar if no two line segments intersect. An ordered
set P is planar if it has a diagram that is planar. Figure 1.1 shows three
diagrams of the same ordered set P . Since the third diagram is planar, P is a
planar ordered set.
1.1.3 Constructions of ordered sets

Given the ordered sets P and Q, we can form the direct product P × Q,
consisting of all ordered pairs (x1 , x2 ), with x1 ∈ P and x2 ∈ Q, ordered
componentwise, that is, (x1 , x2 ) ≤ (y1 , y2 ) iff x1 ≤ y1 and x2 ≤ y2 . Therefore,
(x1 , x2 ) ≺ (y1 , y2 ) in P × Q iff x1 ≺ y1 , x2 = y2 or x1 = y1 , x2 ≺ y2 . If P = Q,
then we write P 2 for P × Q. Similarly, we use the notation P n for P n−1 × P
for n > 2. Figure 1.2 shows a diagram of C2 × P , where P is the ordered set
with diagrams in Figure 1.1.
Another often used construction is the (ordinal) sum P + Q of P and Q,
defined on the (disjoint) union P ∪ Q and ordered as follows:


x ≤P y for x, y ∈ P ;
x ≤ y iff x ≤Q y for x, y ∈ Q;


x ∈ P, y ∈ Q.
Figure 1.3 shows diagrams of C2 + P and P + C2 , where P is the ordered
Figure 1.1: Three diagrams of the ordered set P
Figure 1.2: A diagram of C2 × P

1.1. Ordering 7
Figure 1.3: Diagrams of C2 + P , P + C2 , and P ∔ C2
set with diagrams in Figure 1.1. In both diagrams, the elements of C2 are
black-filled. Figure 1.3 also shows the diagram of P ∔ C2 .
A variant construction is the glued sum, P ∔ Q, applied to an ordered set P
with largest element 1P and an ordered set Q with smallest element 0Q ; then
P ∔ Q is P + Q in which 1P and 0Q are identified (that is, 1P = 0Q in P ∔ Q).
1.1.4 Partitions
We now give a nontrivial example of an ordered set. A partition of a nonempty
set A is a set π of nonempty pairwise disjoint subsets of A whose union is A.
The members of π are called the blocks of π. The block containing a ∈ A will
be denoted by a/π. A singleton as a block is called trivial. If the elements
a and b of A belong to the same block, we write a ≡ b (mod π) or a π b or
a/π = b/π. In general, for H ⊆ A,
H/π = { a/π | a ∈ H },
a collection of blocks.
An equivalence relation ε on the set A is a reflexive, symmetric (a ε b
implies that b ε a, for all a, b ∈ A), and transitive binary relation. Given a
partition π, we can define an equivalence relation ε by (x, y) ∈ ε iff x/π = y/π.
Conversely, if ε is an equivalence relation, then π = { a/ε | a ∈ A } is a
partition of A. There is a one-to-one correspondence between partitions and
equivalence relations; we will use the two terms interchangeably.
Part A will denote the set of all partitions of A ordered by
π1 ≤ π2 iff x ≡ y (mod π1 ) implies that x ≡ y (mod π2 ).
We draw a picture of a partition by drawing the boundary lines of the (non-

trivial) blocks. Then π1 ≤ π2 iff the boundary lines of π2 are also boundary
lines of π1 (but π1 may have some more boundary lines). Equivalently, the
blocks of π2 are unions of blocks of π1 (see Figure 1.4).
8 1. Basic Concepts
π1 ≤ π2
π1 : and
π2 :
Figure 1.4: Drawing a partition
Part A has a zero and a unit, denoted by 0 and 1, respectively, defined by
x≡y (mod 0) iff x = y;

x≡y (mod 1) for all x, y ∈ A.
Figure 1.5 shows the diagrams of Part A for |A| ≤ 4. The partitions are
labeled by listing the nontrivial blocks.
1.2. Lattices and semilattices

1.2.1 Lattices
We need two basic concepts from Universal Algebra. An (n-ary) operation on
a nonempty set A is a map from An to A. For n = 2, we call the operation
binary. An algebra is a nonempty set W A with operations
V defined on A.
An ordered set (L, ≤) is a lattice if {a, b} and {a, b} exist for all a, b ∈ L.
A lattice L is trivial if it has only one element; otherwise, it is nontrivial.
We will use the notations
_
a ∨ b = {a, b},
^
a ∧ b = {a, b},
and call ∨ the join, and ∧ the meet. They are both binary operations that
are idempotent (a ∨ a = a and a ∧ a = a), commutative (a ∨ b = b ∨ a and
a ∧ b = b ∧ a), associative ((a ∨ b) ∨ c = a ∨ (b ∨ c) and (a ∧ b) ∧ c = a ∧ (b ∧ c)),
and absorptive (a ∨ (a ∧ b) = a and a ∧ (a ∨ b) = a). These properties of the
operations are also called the idempotent identities, commutative identities,
associative identities, and absorption identities, respectively. (Identities, in
general, are introduced in Section 2.3.) As always in algebra, associativity
makes it possible to write a1 ∨ a2 ∨ · · · ∨ an without using parentheses (and
the same for ∧).
1.2. Lattices and semilattices 9
1 = {1, 2, 3}
{1, 2} {1, 3} {2, 3}

1 = {1, 2}
Part {1, 2}
Part {1} 0 Part {1, 2, 3} 0
{1, 2, 3, 4} = 1
{1, 2, 3}
{2, 3, 4}
{1, 2}, {3, 4} {1, 3, 4} {1, 4}, {2, 3} {1, 3}, {2, 4} {1, 2, 4}
{1, 2} {1, 3} {1, 4} {2, 3} {2, 4} {3, 4}
Part {1, 2, 3, 4}
0
Figure 1.5: Part A for |A| ≤ 4
For instance, for A, B ∈ Pow X, we have A ∨ B = A ∪ B and A ∧ B = A ∩ B.

So Pow X is a lattice.
For α, β ∈ Part A, if we regard α and β as equivalence relations, then the
meet formula is trivial: α ∧ β = α ∩ β, but the formula for joins is a bit more
complicated:
x ≡ y (mod α ∨ β) iff there is a sequence x = z0 , z1 , . . . , zn = y of elements
of A such that zi ≡ zi+1 (mod α) or zi ≡ zi+1 (mod β) for all 0 ≤ i < n.
So Part A is a lattice; it is called the partition lattice on A.
For an ordered set P , the order Dn P is a lattice: A ∨ B = A ∪ B and
A ∧ B = A ∩ B for A, B ∈ Dn P .
To treat lattices as algebras, define an algebra (L, ∨, ∧) a lattice iff L
is a nonempty set, ∨ and ∧ are binary operations on L, both ∨ and ∧ are
idempotent, commutative, and associative, and they satisfy the two absorp-
tion identities. A lattice as an algebra and a lattice as an ordered set are
“equivalent” concepts: Let the order L = (L, ≤) be a lattice. Then the algebra
10 1. Basic Concepts
La = (L, ∨, ∧) is a lattice. Conversely, let the algebra L = (L, ∨, ∧) be a

lattice. Define a ≤ b iff a ∨ b = b. Then Lp = (L, ≤) is an ordered set, and
the ordered set Lp is a lattice. For an ordered set L that is a lattice, we have
Lap = L; for an algebra L that is a lattice, we have Lpa = L.
Note that for lattices as algebras, the Duality Principle takes on the
following very simple form.
Duality Principle for Lattices. Let Φ be a statement about lattices expressed

in terms of ∨ and ∧. The dual of Φ is the statement we get from Φ by
interchanging ∨ and ∧. If Φ is true for all lattices, then the dual of Φ is also
true for all lattices.
If the operations are understood, we will say that L (rather than (L, ∨, ∧))
is a lattice. The dual of the lattice L will be denoted by Lδ ; the ordered
set Lδ is also a lattice. In this book, we deal almost exclusively with finite
lattices. Some concepts, however, are more natural to introduce W in a more
V
general context. An ordered set (L, ≤) is a complete lattice if X and X
exist for all X ⊆ L. All finite lattices are complete, of course.
1.2.2 Semilattices and closure systems

A semilattice (S, ◦) is an algebra: a nonempty set S with an idempotent,
commutative, and associative binary operation ◦. A join-semilattice (S, ∨, ≤)
is a structure, where (S, ∨) is a semilattice, (S,W≤) is an ordered set, and a ≤ b
iff a∨b = b. In the ordered set (S, ≤), we have {a, b} = a∨b. As conventional,
we write (S, ∨) for (S, ∨, ≤) or just S if the operation is understood.
Similarly, a meet-semilattice (S, ∧, ≤) is a structure, where (S, ∧) is a semi-
lattice, (S, ≤) isVan ordered set, and a ≤ b iff a ∧ b = a. In the ordered set
(S, ≤), we have {a, b} = a ∧ b. As conventional, we write (S, ∧) for (S, ∧, ≤)
or just S if the operation is understood.
If (L, ∨, ∧) is a lattice, then (L, ∨) is a join-semilattice and (L, ∧) is a
meet-semilattice; moreover, the orderings agree. The converse also holds.
Let L be a lattice and let C be a nonempty subset of L with the property
that for every x ∈ L, there is a smallest element x of C with x ≤ x. We call C
a closure system in L, and x the closure of x in C.
Obviously, C, as an ordered subset of L, is a lattice: For x, y ∈ C, the meet
in C is the same as the meet in L, and the join is
x ∨C y = x ∨L y.
V
Let L be a complete
V lattice and
V let C be -closed subset of L, that is,
if X ⊆ C, then X ∈ C. (Since ∅ = 1, such a subset is nonempty and
contains the 1 of L.) Then C is a closure system in L, and for every x ∈ L,
^
x = ( y ∈ C | x ≤ y ).
1.3. Some algebraic concepts 11
1.3. Some algebraic concepts

1.3.1 Homomorphisms
The lattices L1 = (L1 , ∨, ∧) and L2 = (L2 , ∨, ∧) are isomorphic as algebras
(in symbols, L1 ∼
= L2 ), and the map φ : L1 → L2 is an isomorphism iff φ is
one-to-one and onto and
(1) φ(a ∨ b) = φa ∨ φb,

(2) φ(a ∧ b) = φa ∧ φb
for a, b ∈ L1 .
A map, in general, and a homomorphism, in particular, is called injective
if it is one-to-one, surjective if it is onto, and bijective if it is one-to-one and
onto.
An isomorphism of a lattice with itself is called an automorphism. The
automorphisms of a lattice L form a group Aut L under composition. A lat-
tice L is rigid if the identity map is the only automorphism of L, that is, if
Aut L is the one-element group.
It is easy to see that two lattices are isomorphic as ordered sets iff they
are isomorphic as algebras.
Let us define a homomorphism of the join-semilattice (S1 , ∨) into the
join-semilattice (S2 , ∨) as a map φ : S1 → S2 satisfying (1); similarly, for
meet-semilattices, we require (2). A lattice homomorphism (or simply, ho-
momorphism) φ of the lattice L1 into the lattice L2 is a map of L1 into L2
satisfying both (1) and (2). A homomorphism of a lattice into itself is called
an endomorphism. A one-to-one homomorphism is also called an embedding.
Note that meet-homomorphisms, join-homomorphisms, and (lattice) homo-
morphisms are all isotone.
Figure 1.6 shows three maps of the four-element lattice B2 into the three-
element chain C3 . The first map is isotone but it is neither a meet- nor a
join-homomorphism. The second map is a join-homomorphism but is not a
meet-homomorphism, thus not a homomorphism. The third map is a (lattice)
homomorphism.
Various versions of homomorphisms and embeddings will be used. For in-
stance, for lattices and join-semilattices, there are also {∨, 0}-homomorphism,
Figure 1.6: Morphism

and so on, with obvious meanings. An onto homomorphism φ is also called

surjective, whereas a one-to-one homomorphism is called injective; it is the
same as an embedding. For bounded lattices, we often use bounded homo-
morphisms and bounded embeddings, that is, {0, 1}-homomorphisms and
{0, 1}-embeddings. (In the literature, bounded homomorphisms sometimes
have a different definition; this is unlikely to cause any confusion.)
It should always be clear from the context what kind of homomorphism we
are considering. If we say, “let φ be a homomorphism of K into L,” where K
and L are lattices, then φ is a lattice homomorphism, unless otherwise stated.
1.3.2 Sublattices
A sublattice (K, ∨, ∧) of the lattice (L, ∨, ∧) is defined on a nonempty subset K
of L with the property that a, b ∈ K implies that a ∨ b, a ∧ b ∈ K (where
the operations ∨, ∧ are formed in (L, ∨, ∧)), and the ∨ and the ∧ of (K, ∨, ∧)
are restrictions to K of the ∨ and the ∧ of (L, ∨, ∧), respectively. Instead
of “(K, ∨, ∧) is a sublattice of (L, ∨, ∧),” we will simply say that “K is a
sublattice of L”—in symbols, K ≤ L. Of course, a sublattice of a lattice is
again a lattice. If K is a sublattice of L, then we call L an extension of K—in
symbols, L ≥ K.
For every H ⊆ L, H = ̸ ∅, there is a smallest sublattice sub(H) ⊆ L
containing H called the sublattice of L generated by H. We say that H is a
generating set of sub(H).
For a bounded lattice L, the sublattice K is bounded (also called a bounded
sublattice) if the 0 and 1 of L are in K. Similarly, we can define a {0}-sublattice,
bounded extension, and so on.
The subset K of the lattice L is called convex iff a, b ∈ K, c ∈ L, and
a ≤ c ≤ b imply that c ∈ K. We can add the adjective “convex” to sublattices,
extensions, and embeddings. A sublattice K of the lattice L is convex if it is a
convex subset of L. Let L be an extension of K; then L is a convex extension
if K is a convex sublattice. An embedding is convex if the image is a convex
sublattice.
For a, b ∈ L, a ≤ b, the interval
I = [a, b] = { x | a ≤ x ≤ b }
is an important example of a convex sublattice. We will use the notation 1 I

for the largest element of I, that is, b, and 0I for the smallest element of I,
that is, a.
An interval [a, b] is trivial if a = b. The smallest nontrivial intervals are
called prime; that is, [a, b] is prime iff a ≺ b. For planar lattices, the term
prime interval is used interchangeably with edge. In Chapters 27 and 29, we
use only edges. Another important example of a convex sublattice is an ideal.
A nonempty subset I of L is an ideal iff it is a down set with the property:
(Id) a, b ∈ I implies that a ∨ b ∈ I.
An ideal I of L is proper if I = ̸ L. Since the intersection of any number of

ideals is an ideal, unless empty, we can define id(H), the ideal generated by a
subset H of the lattice L, provided that H ̸= ∅. If H = {a}, we write id(a)
for id({a}), and call it a principal ideal. Obviously, id(a) = { x | x ≤ a } = ↓ a.
The set Id L of all ideals of L is an ordered set under set inclusion, and as
an ordered set it is a lattice. In fact, for I, J ∈ Id L, the lattice operations in
Id L are I ∨ J = id(I ∪ J) and I ∧ J = I ∩ J. So we obtain the formula for the
ideal join:
x ∈ I ∨ J iff x ≤ i ∨ j for some i ∈ I, j ∈ J.
We call Id L the ideal lattice of L. Now observe the formulas: id(a) ∨ id(b) =
id(a ∨ b), id(a) ∧ id(b) = id(a ∧ b). Since a ̸= b implies that id(a) ̸= id(b), these
yield:
The map a 7→ id(a) embeds L into Id L.
Since the definition of an ideal uses only ∨ and ≤, it applies to any join-
semilattice S. The ordered set Id S is a join-semilattice and the same join
formula holds as the one for lattices. Since the intersection of two ideals could
be empty, Id S is not a lattice, in general. However, for a {∨, 0}-semilattice (a
join-semilattice with zero), Id S is a lattice.
For lattices (join-semilattices) S and T , let ε : S → T be an embedding.
We call ε an ideal-embedding if εS is an ideal of T . Then, of course, for any
ideal I of S, we have that εI is an ideal of T . Ideal-embeddings play a major
role in Chapter 19.
By dualizing, we get the concepts of a filter , fil(H), the filter generated by
a subset H of the lattice L, provided that H ̸= ∅, principal filter fil(a), and
so on.
1.3.3 Congruences
An equivalence relation α on a lattice L is called a congruence relation, or
congruence, of L iff a ≡ b (mod α) and c ≡ d (mod α) imply that
(SP∧ ) a∧c≡b∧d (mod α),

(SP∨ ) a∨c≡b∨d (mod α)
(Substitution Properties). Trivial examples are the relations 0 and 1 (introduced

in Section 1.1.4). As in Section 1.1.4, for a ∈ L, we write a/α for the congruence
class (congruence block ) containing a; observe that a/α is a convex sublattice.
If L is a lattice, K ≤ L, and α a congruence on L, then α⌉K, the restriction
of α to K, is a congruence of K. Formally, for x, y ∈ K,
x ≡ y (mod α⌉K) iff x ≡ y (mod α) in L.

We call α discrete on K if α⌉K = 0.

Sometimes it is tedious to compute that a binary relation is a congruence
relation. Lemma 1.1, referred to as the Technical Lemma in the literature,
often facilitates such computations (see my joint paper with E. T. Schmidt
[170] and also the paper F. Maeda [222]).
Lemma 1.1 (Technical Lemma). A reflexive binary relation α on a lattice L
is a congruence relation iff the following three properties are satisfied for
x, y, z, t ∈ L:
(i) x ≡ y (mod α) iff x ∧ y ≡ x ∨ y (mod α).
(ii) x ≤ y ≤ z, x ≡ y (mod α), and y ≡ z (mod α) imply that x ≡ z
(mod α).
(iii) x ≤ y and x ≡ y (mod α) imply that x ∧ t ≡ y ∧ t (mod α) and
x ∨ t ≡ y ∨ t (mod α).
For finite lattices there is a stronger form (see my paper [111]).
Lemma 1.2 (Technical Lemma for Finite Lattices). Let L be a finite lattice.
Let α be an equivalence relation on L with intervals as equivalence classes.
Then α is a congruence relation iff the following condition and its dual hold
for L.
(C∨ ) If x ≺ y, z ∈ L and x ≡ y (mod α), then x ≡ y ∨ z (mod α).
Let Con L denote the set of all congruence relations on L ordered by set
inclusion (remember that we can view α ∈ Con L as a subset of L2 ).
We use the Technical Lemma to prove the following result.
Theorem 1.3. Con L is a lattice. For α, β ∈ Con L,
α ∧ β = α ∩ β.
The join, α ∨ β, can be described as follows.
x ≡ y (mod α ∨ β) iff there is a sequence
x ∧ y = z0 ≤ z1 ≤ · · · ≤ z n = x ∨ y
of elements of L such that zi ≡ zi+1 (mod α) or zi ≡ zi+1 (mod β) for every i

with 0 ≤ i < n.
Remark. For the binary relations γ and δ on a set A, we define the binary
relation γ ◦ δ, the product of γ and δ, as follows: for a, b ∈ A, the relation
a (γ ◦ δ) b holds iff a γ x and x δ b for some x ∈ A. The relation α ∨ β is
formed by repeated products. Theorem 1.3 strengthens this statement.
The integer n in Theorem 1.3 can be restricted for some congruence joins.
We call the congruences α and β permutable if α ∨ β = α ◦ β. A lattice L is
congruence permutable if any pair of congruences of L are permutable. The
chain Cn is congruence permutable iff n ≤ 2.
Con L is called the congruence lattice of L. Observe that Con L is a
sublattice of Part L; that is, the join and meet of congruence relations as
congruence relations and as equivalence relations (partitions) coincide.
If L is nontrivial, then Con L contains the two-element sublattice {0, 1}.
If Con L = {0, 1}, we call the lattice L simple. All the nontrivial lattices of
Figure 1.5 are simple. Of the many lattices of Figure 4.1, only M3 is simple.
Given a, b ∈ L, there is a smallest congruence con(a, b)—called a principal
congruence—under which a ≡ b. The formula
_
(3) α= ( con(a, b) | a ≡ b (mod α) )
is trivial but important. For H ⊆ L, W

we form the smallest congruence under
which H is in one class as con(H) = ( con(a, b) | a, b ∈ H ).
Homomorphisms and congruence relations express two sides of the same
phenomenon. Let L be a lattice and let α be a congruence relation on L.
Let L/α = { a/α | a ∈ L }. Define ∧ and ∨ on L/α by a/α ∧ b/α = (a ∧ b)/α
and a/α ∨ b/α = (a ∨ b)/α. The lattice axioms are easily verified. The lattice
L/α is the quotient lattice of L modulo α.
Lemma 1.4. The map
φα : x 7→ x/α for x ∈ L,
is a homomorphism of L onto L/α.
The lattice K is a homomorphic image of the lattice L iff there is a ho-

momorphism of L onto K. Theorem 1.5 (illustrated in Figure 1.7) states
that any quotient lattice is a homomorphic image. To state it, we need one
more concept: Let φ : L → L1 be a homomorphism of the lattice L into the
lattice L1 , and define the binary relation α on L by x α y iff φx = φy; the
relation α is a congruence relation of L, called the kernel of φ, in notation,
ker(φ) = α.
Theorem 1.5 (Homomorphism Theorem). Let L be a lattice. Any homomor-

phic image of L is isomorphic to a suitable quotient lattice of L. In fact, if
φ : L → L1 is a homomorphism of L onto L1 and α is the kernel of φ, then
L/α ∼ = L1 ; an isomorphism (see Figure 1.7 ) is given by β : x/α 7→ φx for
x ∈ L.
We also know the congruence lattice of a homomorphic image.

ϕ
L L1
x onto
7→
ϕx
x/α 7→
α
x/
L/α ψ:
Figure 1.7: The Homomorphism Theorem
Theorem 1.6 (Second Isomorphism Theorem). Let L be a lattice and let α

be a congruence relation of L. For any congruence β of L such that β ≥ α,
define the relation β/α on L/α by
x/α ≡ y/α (mod β/α) iff x≡y (mod β).
Then β/α is a congruence of L/α. Conversely, every congruence γ of L/α can

be (uniquely) represented in the form γ = β/α for some congruence β ≥ α of
L. In particular, the congruence lattice of L/α is isomorphic with the interval
[α, 1] of the congruence lattice of L.
Let L be a bounded lattice. A congruence α of L separates 0 if 0/α = {0},
that is, x ≡ 0 (mod α) implies that x = 0. Similarly, a congruence α of L
separates 1 if 1/α = {1}, that is, x ≡ 1 (mod α) implies that x = 1. We call
the lattice L nonseparating if there is no congruence α ̸= 0 separating both 0
and 1 (see Figure 1.8).
Figure 1.8: Illustrating a separating lattice
Similarly, a homomorphism φ of the lattices L1 and L2 with zero is 0-

separating if φ0 = 0, but φx ̸= 0 for x ̸= 0. We also use 1-separating and
{0, 1}-separating.
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“You said it, Dad! Gee, I’ve just longed to camp out in that country,
for once!” sighed Sid. “How about you, Les?”
“’Fraid I can’t,” returned his chum. “Gorry, but I’d love to, though!” he
added, wistfully.
“But you shall, my boy!” came back the Colonel, positively. “Your
mother and I have talked it over. She has enough to live on with you
away, and it will be a practical opening in mining for you. I know
some big people down there in Prescott, and I know what I am
talking about!” he insisted.
Scotty leaped at Sid with glad enthusiasm. “Whee—yow!” he yelled.
“Am I really going?—Thanks, Colonel, ever so much!” he gasped
out, wringing his hand. “What do we take for outfit, sir?”
“The little five-by-six-foot paraffined muslin wall tent for you two. Just
a light tarp and my Army bed roll for me”—grinned the Colonel.
“Otherwise your Montana outfits will do, just as they stand——”
“What—in that hot country, Dad?” inquired Sid, incredulously.
“She’s cold enough, at night, son,” laughed the Colonel. “Those stag
shirts and the canvas fleece-lined coats will come in mighty handy.
Sid, you’ll take the .30 Government carbine, and Scotty the Doctor’s
.405, while I’ll pack the old meat gun, the .35 Model ’95. Big John’s
attending to the horse outfit.”
“Cracky!—Won’t it be some pickles to hunt with the old iron-man
again, though! They say he did wonders in France,” cried Sid, all
happy excitement over the prospects of going West again.
“Sure did!” chuckled the Colonel. “There was a good story going
around his regiment that they tell on Big John, boys. It seems they
were in the middle of a charge, when someone yelled out—‘Hey—
Big John!—shake off your bayonet—there’s three Boches dangling
on it!’”
“Reminds me of a dare-devil I had in my battery,” grinned Sid. “That
fellow, a big, red-haired Maine man, was afraid of nothing! During
our Argonne advance we had a battery assignment with one gun to
go right under a tree. The Boches had left a bomb there dangling
from a branch by a rope, so that if you took it down it would surely go
off. Up comes Mike, as we all stood looking at it, figuring out how to
get rid of the thing. ‘Lave me at ut!’ says he, brushing the rest aside,
and before I could yell out a word he had ripped it loose—every one
scattering right and left—and then he hurled it,—and the thing went
off in mid-air and liked to have blown down our tree!”
“Great times you boys must have had!” sighed the Colonel, “but
fighting was not so damn devilish in my day. Glad it’s all over, and we
can get back to the clean joys of hunting again! We’ll get our hats in
Albuquerque—wait till you see ’em! A big Mex. sombrero, with a
sugar-loaf crown and a brim a yard wide—unless things have
changed from my old Apache days. And they don’t change, much,
down there. New Mexico’s still half Spanish.”
The boys realized that when, two weeks later, their transcontinental
bade good-by to Colorado at Spanish Peaks and dropped down the
old Santa Fe trail into New Mexico. Mesas, Indian pueblos still
inhabited, and little Mexican ’dobe villages greeted them on every
hand, keeping the boys continually crossing to opposite windows of
their Pullman to stare out. This was not the old U. S. at all! It just
couldn’t be! As the train climbed the grade toward Arizona, the
country grew wilder and more desolate. Navaho and Zuni Indians
came down to the stations to trade baskets and pottery; the pueblo
of Laguna rose close at hand; the high rock of Acoma, whose pueblo
has defied the conqueror for centuries, was to be seen, dim and
misty, down a bare valley. They saw a great natural bridge carved by
water out of the solid cliff, and then, high above, the train passed
those remarkable carved and pinnacled buttes called Navaho
Church, as the tracks dipped down-grade again, to follow the
winding valley of the Puercos into Arizona. Bare and desolate and
empty and dry was that stream bed, with frightful bad lands rising
across the river to the rim of a high plateau, fringed with scraggy
timber.
Shortly after dinner of that last day, the train slowed down to stop at
a little water tank station. Hinchman’s Ranch could be reached, forty-
five miles north from here. The boys searched avidly the little flat,
back of the station, with eager eyes. It seemed a mile or so wide and
was backed by rock-ribbed bad lands that ascended to the plateau.
Whirling clouds of red dust, each the storm center of a cowboy on a
cayuse, smoked through the sparse greasewood that dotted the
plain, banging out a welcome with fanning revolvers. Alongside the
track they spied Big John, mounted on a restive white wild mustang
that had evidently only recently been “gentled,” for he seemed
inclined to hop right over their locomotive. With him were two
saddled ponies, evidently for them, and a big roan horse for the
Colonel. Barking at the train was the largest and boniest hound the
boys had ever seen.
“That must be Ruler, Les—and there’s Big John with the horses—
Gee—roo! I want to yell!—Can’t we get this window open?” cried Sid
excitedly.
“C’mon, boys, grab your rifles and let’s vamoose,” called the Colonel,
hustling out of the smoking compartment with the stump of a black
cigar smoldering under his white mustache. “Here, Sambo, fall on
this duffel, boy.”
They tumbled out of the vestibule and the Colonel, after a hearty
handshake with Big John, hurried forward to see about their crate of
dogs in the baggage car.
“Hi, Sergeant Sid!—Gosh-all, but you do look nat’ral!” yelled Big
John from the white horse, as Sid rushed across the cinder platform
of the station. “Down, Ruler, down!—you ol’ pisen houn’ dawg!” he
roared.—“An’ dam’f thar ain’t that ornery little shavetail Looie, Scotty!
Put ’er here, you li’l rooster!—Put ’er here!” chortled Big John,
leaning far out of his saddle as the white horse braced against his
weight on the stirrup.
The boys fell all over one another shaking Big John’s huge paw.
Except for a frightful shrapnel scar that seamed his face, he had not
changed much since Montana days. The same big hawk nose, the
same piercing black eyes and long, twirling mustache, the same
intense black hair, under—yes,—the same old Stetson that he had
worn in the Rockies! Evidently the giant Montanan scorned the
“greaser” hat of the Southwest.
“Them black eyes and black hair of yourn, Sid, make you look like a
reg’lar greaser under that dome;—an’, gosh, ef he ain’t raisin’ a
mustache,” guffawed Big John. “Scotty, you look like a red candle
what’s hed a extinguisher set on to it,” observed the irrepressible
cowman. “Otherwise the Colonel ain’t made no mistakes,” he added,
sizing up their outfit critically.
Just then that gentleman himself came down the platform, followed
by two of the ranch teamsters carrying a huge dog crate.
“Here, John, take a look at these pups!” called the Colonel, as the
crate was set down and he fumbled for his keys. Unlocking its door,
Pepper, Bourbon and Lee climbed out and shook themselves all
over. At sight of them Ruler bared fangs and flew at them. He didn’t
know his own offspring! A furious dog-fight ensued. They booted the
dogs apart, and a growly peace was enforced;—in the midst of which
there was a rapid clatter of hoofs and the two cowboys the boys had
seen from the car window came loping in, to be introduced by Big
John.
“This here’s Red Jake, an’ t’other’s Mesa Joe, Colonel,” explained
Big John, introducing them. “Up at Hinchman’s they just natchelly
lives hearty on fried t’rantulas an’ centipedes, reg’lar; but they ain’t
nohow averse to eatin’ a baked Apache if they kin ketch one. The
Colonel here, fellows, is one of the old original Geronimo hunters,—
an’ these is his cubs,” concluded Big John, introducing the boys with
a final wave of his hand.
Red Jake and Joe grinned, but said nothing, as they shook hands all
around.
“Wait till we gets you out behind the bunk house, John!” muttered the
red-haired one behind his hand, as they looked the Colonel over
respectfully, glad to meet an old Indian fighter. Both were typical
Arizonans, leathery and lean and sunburned, with hard, gray eyes all
puckered from the constant desert glare.
“Well, Sid, climb this here twister and we’ll get up the bad lands to
the rim,” said Big John, as the ranch teamsters finished piling their
duffel into the wagon. “All ready, sir?”—this to the Colonel—“we gotta
make Navaho Wells by sundown.”
Sid found that his pony was trained to start as soon as his foot
touched the stirrup. His pinto bolted off with him, with the rest of the
outfit strung after in hot pursuit. Presently the two Arizonans passed
him like the wind, their horses thundering by in a cloud of dust. All
Sid had ever dreamed about riding was nothing to this! He yelled
and waved his hat, whereat the “twister” rose and bucked and
sunfished, requiring an iron knee grip and a yank on his Mexican
curb to bring him to earth again.
With Ruler and the pups leaping around the horses’ heads, it was a
furious race for a while, but then came the steep ascent through bare
and hideous clayey ravines. Arrived at the top, the party stopped to
rest the horses and there was a chance to look around. This was a
mighty red and purple land, thought Sid, as his eyes rested, now on
the snowy cones of the San Francisco peaks, a hundred miles to the
west, now on the endless jumble of flat mesas to the north of him. It
was a land of great horizontal ridges, yellow and red and blue and
black; sloping up, sloping down, always in immensely long, gentle
slants. And between them there were rocky talus beds strewn with
pebbles and bowlders. Of vegetation there was almost none.
Later the sage and greasewood became more abundant, and then,
forty miles to the north, a ridge of pink layer-cake buttes jutted up
into the clear air, with a faint tinge of green at their bases, along what
was evidently a river bed. Here would be Hinchman’s Ranch. Sid
reached for the cavalry canteen on his saddle hook, and turning, saw
Scotty doing the same thing.
“Here’s how, Pal!” he said; “this is sure going to be one thirsty
country, Les!”
CHAPTER II
ACROSS THE PAINTED DESERT
“SEE them blue an’ white striped buttes yander, Sid?” asked John,
pointing across the stony desert with his quirt. “That’s limestone, in
these parts, an’ it ginerally means a tank ef thar’s any water at all.
Navaho Wells is in there, and we’ll camp for the night.”
“Just what I wanted—to have my first night in the desert out under
the stars!” exclaimed Colonel Colvin, happily. “We stop here for the
night, eh, John?”
“Shore; no more water for twenty miles, sir. Them boys ain’t growed
their saddle corns yet, neither, an’ they’ll be plumb glad to get down.
I know how ’tis! Thar’s a nice flat up on the buttes, Colonel. Dust off
the t’rantulas and horned toads an’ rattlers off it, an’ a man’ll sleep
thar peaceful as a new borned babe.”
Sid nodded approvingly. He was glad they were sleeping out, too.
There couldn’t be too much of it for him! He said nothing about his
aching knees, but his gait told the older men for him. He heeded no
bodily aches, now, however, for a new and delicious happiness was
filling his breast and a load of worry was vanishing fast. His father,
he could see, was fast picking up health and strength; had been ever
since they had started on this trip. Thirty years ago he had ridden
these same hills, with hostile Apaches ambushed in these very
buttes. Sid could imagine those blue-clad, yellow-scarfed
cavalrymen with their friendly Indian scouts and the plainsmen
rangers, all just like a Remington picture, painted with this place for a
stage. In those days his father was one of the young lieutenants of
the command. Now he could see the life-giving power of memory at
work, for the strength of those rugged days seemed to be reëntering
the Colonel’s body and spirit. In two more weeks he would be heavy
and lean and iron-hard.
They headed the horses up a slope of the buttes. Its little flat
commanded a magnificent prospect. Away to the west stretched line
on line of stratified ridges, with the flat top of the Hopi mesa far on
the horizon. To the east lay a silver-green flat of sage brush,
bounded by jagged red peaks. Great woolly clouds rolled in rose and
lavender masses over the bare rock saw-tooth ridges that filled in
under the horizon. Water was there none, but of arid plant life there
was abundance.
“Here!” said the Colonel, looking silently across the desert, while
memories of old Indian days crowded his mind, “it was right over
there beyond those buttes to the east, that we of the Fifth Cavalry
came down from Fort Defiance on our southward trail after Chief
Chuntz and his Apaches, boys. A bad business; but it had to be
done, I suppose. I’ll tell you of that cave fight, some day. This place
is good enough for us, John.”
Mesa Joe and Red Jake turned out the horses while Big John loped
out into the sage to wait for the ranch wagon and get provisions and
the sleeping gear from it. The boys set about cutting a quantity of
sage bushes, from which they stripped a huge pile of fragrant
browse. Colonel Colvin untied his cantle roll, and out of it took a six-
by-nine foot light tarp, which was all the shelter he ever used. Setting
it up with two stakes and its rear corners guyed to the rocky ledge
back of the camp site, they had a sun shelter under which browse
was spread out. The canteens were hung in a row in the shade, and
out of the saddle bags of his McClellan army saddle the Colonel
produced emergency rations that had been packed there in the Den,
back home, before shipping the saddle out. There was bacon and
corn meal, sugar and coffee, and a can of condensed cream.
Then the cowman came in and started a small fire of greasewood
while Colonel Colvin produced an aluminum army mess tin with
cover and folding handle, about nine by seven inches and perhaps
an inch and a half deep.
“Best little desert baker you ever saw, boys,” he laughed. “Many a
corn cake I’ve shaken up in her!” He made a thick batter of flour,
corn meal and baking powder, and poured the pan about half full.
Balancing it on two stones over a bed of coals, he heaped a pile of
live coals on the cover. In about fifteen minutes he brushed them off
and peered inside.
“Brown as your hand! She’d go better with an egg beaten into the
batter. Here’s for another one.”
The boys were too tired and sore to do much beside watch the cake-
making. When six of them were done, Big John came riding back
from the ranch wagon that had gone into camp out on the flat. He
had a bag of oats, a ham, and a sweating canvas bag of water hung
to his saddle.
“Shore, fill up the crowd with hog an’ hominy, Colonel,” he grinned.
“Ain’t nothing better’n ham and corn cakes been invented since
Pharaoh missed the ford, I’m settin’ here to tell ye!”
He got after the ham with his bowie knife, and soon a huge slice was
sizzling in the Colonel’s mess kit. The boys went up on the rocks and
watched the sunset, unwilling to miss a single moment of their first
evening in the desert. A wild and beautiful land was this; color,—red
and rose and purple and yellow,—with gleaming glories of the sunset
tinting the cloud edges. Deep blue shadows crept out under the
flanks of the mesas. All was still and silent; a peace passing
understanding brooded over the whole world.
“Gosh, but that’s wonderful!” exclaimed Scotty, fervently, as the sun
plunged over the western rim of the world, striking turret and
pinnacle and bastion alike brick-red in scarlet edgings of fire. “I tell
you, Sid, these moments are what we live for in the open! Will we
ever forget this scene?”
“Makes me feel calm, and serene, and—happy!” replied Sid, softly.
“Happiness is what everybody is striving after—oh, so hard!—and
few or none ever have any. This is the secret of it, to me. A simple,
healthful life in the open, and plenty of the big, beautiful outdoors to
look at and wonder over,” concluded the youth, surprised at his own
eloquence.
“You said it, Sid!” came the Colonel’s deep voice behind them. “My
happiest hours have all been out here, where a man can see a big
enough chunk of the earth to realize his own insignificant place in the
scheme of things. Back east we tend too much to magnify our own
importance, and I always feel cramped and worried, and get
pestered by trifles. No chance for that out here—in the presence of
this!”
He waved his arm to the west. Under a roseate afterglow the grand
distances of the desert were bathed in a flood of purples and
lavenders, with tints of deep orange on the mesa flanks to the west,
while soft, tender shadows of misty blue filled the rugged valleys.
They sat in silence, drinking it in, for such wine was good for the
soul. The light of a distant watch fire on Walpi shone through the
dusk, a tiny point of light fifty miles away. The Hopi Indians, at this
time, were performing their mystic rites of the sunset, and a subtle
comradeship with them reached out across the desert in the flicker of
those rays——
“Chuck pile!—Come and get it!” rang out the mighty horn of Big
John’s voice, breaking in on their reverie. The Colonel arose with a
sigh of blissful content. “Seems like old times again, Sid! Let’s eat
hearty!”
They climbed down to the little flat, where a thin wisp of gray-blue
smoke rose straight up in the still air from the remnants of the cook
fire. The boys fell on the ham and corn cakes and coffee ravenously,
batting off the four dogs, who were most oppressively sociable,
trying to gobble morsels of food right out of their masters’ mouths.
The stars came out while they were eating. Then Big John and the
Arizonans fell over on their backs and lit indolent cigarettes; the
Colonel and the boys sought their lookout rocks, to feed on the
desert, shrouded in its impenetrable gloom under a glory of western
stars.
After a time the sharp night chill drove them under the shelter.
Huddled forms out in the sage told of the cowmen fast asleep where
they lay. Rolling in their blankets, the boys voted to call it a day. Sid
lay awake, listening to the rustlings of a pack rat which had come
foraging into camp, and enjoying the wild howl of the coyotes barking
in shrill chorus from the mesas all about them. It was all wild, lonely
and beautiful—too beautiful for anyone but outers and very honest
men, he decided, as he dozed off to sleep, with the sweet tang of
sage in his nostrils.
Next morning before dawn the whole party was awake, the boys
shivering and glad enough to warm their hands before the fire.
Bacon, flapjacks and coffee were in progress, and, downing them,
the horses were unpicketed and fed and the whole cavalcade started
for Hinchman’s. The sharp, bracing air was good for horses and men
alike. They were full of oats and bacon and high spirits. Sid raced
along with Scotty beside him, giving their ponies full rein to run off
the first enthusiasm of a new day. Big John brought up the rear,
singing a cow song at the top of his lungs, the meter chiming in with
the jolt of his horse.
“Whoo—pee,—de—I—yaho! Git along lit—tle dogie,
For ’tis your misfortune an’ none of—my own!
Whoo—pee,—de—I—yaho! Git along lit—tle dogie,
For I know that Wy—O—ming will be your new home,”
he sang, in a monstrous shout, bawling out the I’s and O’s in a blare
like a foghorn. The boys giggled with joy as verse after verse of the
cowman’s riding song roared out.
“They sing that song to soothe the cattle when riding around the herd
at night,” laughed Sid. “It sure carries well! The cows are perfectly
contented so long as they hear a human voice. Otherwise they are
apt to get nervous about wolves, and stampede.”
“What’s a ‘dogie,’ Sid?” asked Scotty, posting as his pony changed
gait to a trot.
“Oh, that’s a lean little yearling that they used to drive north to
Wyoming, for Government rations for the poor Indians. Listen——”
“Oh, you’ll be beef for Un-cle Sam’s Injuns,
It’s ‘Beef,—heap Beef!’ we he-ar them cry,
Git along, git along, git along lit-tle dogies,
For you’ll be beef steers by and by,”
sang Big John’s concluding verse, Red Jake chiming in on the
chorus,—
“Whoop-ee, de—I—yaho!” etc.
Sunrise over the desert! A magnificent spectacle, a stunning
spectacle, a gorgeous, overwhelming, awe-inspiring spectacle! The
boys fell head over heels in love with the whole thing, and then as if
to give it a touch of adventure, Pepper let out a squeak, with a funny
break in it like a boy’s voice changing, and streaked across the sage.
After him tore Lee and Bourbon, belly down, legs flying like long
broom handles.
“Hi! Hi! Yip—yip!—Coyote!” yelled Red Jake, wheeling his broncho
to flash off after the dogs. “Git him, boys!”
Ruler brayed a musical volley of hound notes, taking after the pups
in long bounds that closed up on them fast. A gray wolfish streak
was doing some fancy steps, twisting and turning through the
greasewood bushes. Sid galloped, Scotty galloped; after them
thundered Big John and the Colonel. The wind whistled around Sid’s
ears as his pinto let out speed.
“Run him down, fellers—watch out for prairie dog holes!” snorted Big
John, swerving the wild, white horse to the left to cut across the
coyote’s trail. The two Arizonans had fanned out in a wide bend; Sid
and Scotty jounced along together, pawing at their revolvers which
were tightly jammed in the saddle holsters; the horses streaked
along with a rapid clatter of hoof beats on the vast level floor of the
desert, which was the stage setting for their coyote run.
Sid yelled with glee. What a lot of room there was in this country!
Bare mountains and mesas ringed the horizon, but for miles the flat,
gray sage and green greasewood dotted the red sand. The dogs
looked like little black specks, leaping and twisting through the low
bushes. The whole plain was flat as a floor, and the horses under
them reached out with flying hoofs in the unrestrained joy of racing.
Then a jack rabbit jumped from behind a sage bush, and the three
pups dropped their hot coyote trail and started after him.
“Wa—hoo! Stop them, boys!” roared the Colonel from his huge roan.
“Break ’em of that!”
He kept on after the coyote and Ruler. Sid tugged out his revolver
and fanned the air ahead of the jack rabbit. His bullets threw up
spats of white dust, and Pepper and Bourbon, who were yipping and
squealing in hot pursuit, nearly turned somersaults as a bullet threw
a splash of sand right before their faces. The dogs leaped back,
falling all over each other, and then the swift ponies wheeled around
in front of them. Scotty leaned far out of his saddle with swinging
quirt.
“Back, Pep! Out of that, Bourbon! Nix on rabbit!—Skip!—
VAMOOSE!” he barked, lashing at them with his quirt. Sid thundered
up on Pinto and they headed the pups and drove them back,
whimpering and cringing, to where they had left the coyote track.
The men were now at least a mile away across the level basin,
stringing along with Big John’s white horse in the lead and Ruler far
ahead of them all. The coyote was evidently headed for some craggy
red sawteeth where he could make his escape from the horses
uphill.
The boys called off the pups and headed across the flat, hoping that
the men would succeed in turning the coyote. Then little puffs of
white smoke came from the Arizonans. They could not hear the rifle
shots, but they saw the coyote turn, bewildered, heading down their
way in what looked like an easy lope. He saw them start their ponies
into a gallop and again turned like a flash, evidently intending to
cross the sage between the two parties. Pepper rose on his hind
legs, got a sight of the coyote, and started in long bounds over the
sage, with Lee and Bourbon at his heels.
“Now!” gritted Sid. “Head him off, Scotty!” They raced across the
coyote’s line. He was coming like the wind. Sid hauled Pinto up
abruptly on his haunches and aimed his long-barreled Officer’s
Model carefully. A spurt of dust sprang up just in front of the coyote.
Sid held the round white bead, well down in its notch, just ahead of
the flying, twisting animal, swung two yards ahead and fired. The
coyote slid to his haunches, snapping savagely at a wound in his
side, and then Pepper, Lee and Bourbon fell on him in a riot of howls
and barks.
Sid whooped with joy as they rode down. This was fine medicine for
those houn’-dawg pups! It was impossible to shoot; the whirling
mass of black, tan and gray was too swift and intricate to risk a shot
into it. Came a rapid clatter of paws and a great, deep-voiced bray,
as Ruler charged down the slope and pitched headlong into the fray.
Out of it rose the coyote, borne aloft by the great bony jaws of Ruler
about his throat. There was a savage shake, a worrying and growling
from the pups, and then Red Jake clattered up, leaped off his pony,
booted the dogs aside and finished the gasping coyote with a single
revolver shot as it lay on its side.
“That’s the stuff!” yelled Colonel Colvin, galloping up on the roan.
“Mind the dogs—they’ll be at each other next—they’re wild with
fight!” He had scarcely spoken before Pepper flew jealously at Ruler
with bared fangs, while Bourbon turned and pitched into Lee where
he was worrying gleefully at the carcass. The boys dismounted with
howls of laughter and grabbed the belligerents by their collars.
“Some pups, Dad! Hang on to him, Scotty!” laughed Sid, slinging
Bourbon into the sage and aiming a kick at Lee. “First trophy of the
desert, fellers!”
“Nice li’l pasear,” remarked Red Jake, wiping the sweat from under
his sombrero. “You-all want the hide off this-yere?” he asked, looking
to the Colonel for orders.
“You bet! How far is it yet to the ranch, Jake?”
The Arizonan puckered up his eyes as he scanned the far horizon
where the colored buttes back of Hinchman’s loomed up. “Oh, ’bout
eleven miles, I reckon,” he decided.
Sid and Scotty stared unbelievingly. Why, those red mountains
couldn’t be over five miles off! Their knees ached from the
unaccustomed saddle strains, but distances were deceiving in the
desert and there was an hour more of riding yet.
As they drew near the mountains, the long ’dobe walls of
Hinchman’s suddenly developed out of its misty background of
mountain, mesquite and cottonwood. It looked more like a fort than
any ranch the boys had ever seen before. Built during Apache times,
its long outer walls were bare save for a few small black windows up
near the eaves of the red tile roof. All around it was a bare, level
space of desert, with not a single grease bush for cover. Even now
the Navahos or the Apaches might tear loose again over some real
or imaginary grievance, and Hinchman’s was an outpost in their
country.
The sharp clip-clop of their ponies’ hoofs rang on the stone flagging
as they rode under the ’dobe arch into the big patio within the walls
of Hinchman’s. A couple of Indians took their horses as the boys
dismounted and looked curiously around them. Here was a sort of
square court, with a well surrounded by peach trees forming the
center of the stone driving space. An inner wall, with Spanish tiled
roof sloping inward all around, so as to turn the rainfall into the court
drain cistern and also be protected from rifle fire, formed a side to
the living rooms and stables that surrounded the patio. The windows
in these were larger, but also more than man high, and each room
had a door, mostly open, showing glimpses of the dark, cool depths
within. In one of them stood a huge, white-haired giant waving his
arms joyfully.
“Howdy, Colvin!—Howdy! Get right down! Sho’ is glad to see y’u!”
roared the giant, running out to take the roan’s bridle reins.
“How!—Hinchy,—you old war-in-eye! Gad, but you look good to me!”
chortled the Colonel, wringing Hinchman’s hand. He leaped from his
horse, and the two old Army comrades hugged each other in a
ponderous bear dance about the patio. After an exchange of soul-
satisfying punches the boys were introduced. They decided they
were going to like this man. Black-eyed and long-nosed, he was all
of six feet four in his boots; his smile was constant and kindly, and
there was a merry twinkle in his eye that matched the Colonel’s own.
“Shore you look peaked, old-timer!” exclaimed Hinchman, searching
the Colonel over with solicitous eyes. “Look like you’d been dragged
through a knot-hole,—Jeementley-ding if you don’t!” he cried,
aggrieved sympathy in his tones. “Big John told me they’d worked
you to death down in Washington, but I never ’spected you’d look
like this.”
“Oh, I’ll be all right, pronto,” grinned Colonel Colvin. “There wasn’t
any end to it, while it lasted, but it’s all over now,—thank God!
Enough of me—how’s everything with you, old settler? Still patriarch
of all the Indians of this section?” he quizzed.
“Still am!” rumbled Hinchman, emphatically. “I’m old ‘White Father
Hinch’ to all the Navaho north of us. They come to me with all their
troubles or send in runners about it. One got in last night with a
tough one for me to straighten out. It’s a medicine panther, Colvin,
that’s been stealing old Neyani’s sheep. The Indians are all plumb
scared of him; heap big medicine! They swear he’s black—can you
beat that?”
“Black!” echoed Colonel Colvin, incredulously, while the boys
listened in with flapping ears. “Freak coloration, eh? The Far East
has black leopards, you know, occurring clear down into Sumatra.
It’s possible, Hinchy. Where did the cougar get the black on his ugly
face? No one knows—nor why there are both black and spotted
leopards, either. But I don’t see where you should worry any, Hinchy
—just say the word and we’ll go up there and shoot him for you.
We’ve got dogs, you know.”
“Precisely just what you can’t do, Colvin!” exclaimed Hinchman,
energetically. “It would be the worst kind of a sacrilege in the
Navaho’s eyes. You see, Dsilyi, the Navaho demigod, he had four
panthers, a white one to the north, a tawny one to the west, a blue
one to the south, and a black one to the east. The Indians just know
that this is Dsilyi’s black panther—there’s no use arguing with them!
Therefore, either old Neyani or his son, Niltci, has been up to some
deviltry and the panther is being sent as a punishment. Not a redskin
of the lot will shoot him on a bet, nor even dare track him. You don’t
know how superstitious they are, Colvin! Sooner than build a fire with
a single stick from a hogan in which someone has died, a Navaho
would freeze to death. Sooner than touch a hair of Dsilyi’s medicine
panther, old Neyani and his whole family would let him take all their
sheep and starve to death. Right nice mix-up fo’ me to unravel, eh?”
“You’re dead right!” agreed the Colonel emphatically. “Say, the worst
uprising the Army ever had to deal with came from just such a freak
animal as this. You remember the Arapaho row in ’79, Hinchy?”
“You bet! I sure hope this isn’t goin’ to be anything like that! a white
buffalo, wasn’t it? And now, I’ve got a black cougar and a mess of
Indian superstitions on my hands!”
CHAPTER III
THE VALLEY OF THE CLIFF DWELLERS
THE older men went inside to Major Hinchman’s big living room
where, over some Mexican stogies, they discussed Neyani and his
Black Panther and gossiped over old Army days. Sid and Scotty
went out to help Big John with the horses and hounds and then
explored the ranch patio. It was all as Spanish as old Mexico. Heavy
and age-worn oak furniture—the real Mission—stone metates for
grinding corn, great red ollas or porous jars for cooling water by
evaporation, striped serapes and Navaho blankets, Apache and
Pima baskets; saddles, raitas and ornamental embossed Mexican
leather gear—the horse was King here! The place reeked of those
old strenuous border days of the Southwest, and the ranch seemed
to have imbibed equally of the customs and usages of the early
Spanish and Indian possessors of the country. In turn, the boys
peeped in the various doorways; the farriery with a smoking forge
and laboring bellows; the bunk house with an interminable game of
greasy cards going on; the saddlery, where a weazened old sinner of
a Sonoran bent over his leather work; and the great kitchen, where
dried beef and hams hung from the smoky rafters, and long braids of
corn, peppers, desert onions and dried berries festooned the walls.
There were bins of pinyon nuts, flour, metate-ground Indian meal,
sugar, coffee and red beans—the ranch could stand a year’s siege if
you asked Lum Looke, the Chinese cook who presided!
After a time Major Hinchman sought them out at the stables in the
patio, where Ruler and his progeny had been made comfortable in
an empty stall.
“Say, boys,” he grinned at them with a quizzically apologetic smile,
“I’m mighty sorry—but thar ain’t a derned thing to eat in the ranch!
Nope, not a doggone thing!” he insisted whimsically. “You’ll have to
rustle your own grub. Now, Jake, thar, he was tellin’ me of a couple
of deer over the river in those cottonwoods,” he confided, in an
elaborate stage whisper. “Suppose you boys get you’ rifles an’ rustle
us a little venison? You!—Jake!” he roared, seeing the delighted
smiles on Sid’s and Scotty’s faces.
Jake came straddling out of the bunk house, the sunlight sheening
on his glossy black fur chaps as he crossed the patio.
“Jake, you take these boys across the river and fetch us a deer,” he
roared, turning to go back to the Colonel to continue their plans for
the trip to come.
A high-riding sun bathed the desert in floods of light and color as
they rode out of the patio. The pink layer-cake mountains across the
river rose high and near, now. Streaks of yellow and blue, in
horizontal lines, crossed the uniform red of their bare and jagged
conformation. From a bluff near Hinchman’s they could survey a
wide bend of the river (which was little more than a wide, fordable
brook) and here was green grass land, with cattle dotted over it.
Back of it was the corresponding bluff of the opposite bank, fringed
with mesquite, oaks, cottonwoods, juniper and pinyons.
“Over the river!” whooped Jake, settling back on his horse to let it
slide down the clay bluff. A thundering clatter of hoofs came up
behind them as the boys prepared to follow. It was Big John, racing
along on the white horse.
“Ain’t goin’ to leave me out, Jake, when it comes to the Colonel’s
cubs!” he snorted, easing his mount down the slope. “You don’t know
these pesky boys, Red. When I hed em, up Montana way, the minute
they was out of my sight the dern pinheads would start somethin’!
Now you take Scotty, here—he’s another red-head like you, Jake,—
an’ I’ll sort of ooze along with Sid. Thataway we’ll keep the both of
them out of trouble,—savvy?”
“Shore!—We’ll pass a family of Apache Injuns, boys, on our way up
to the notch in them buttes,” said Jake as the ponies splashed into
the ford. “I’m not denyin’ Major Hinchman’s got the right idee about
the Injuns, at that. He lets a few families of them stay on his ranch all
the time, livin’ the way they is used ter, tendin’ a small herd of cow-
critters in return for a beef steer now an’ then. Up yander is an ole
San Carlos Apache chief, his squaw, an’ their two childer,—a young
buck which same rides fer us, and a gal. ‘Snakes-in-his-leggins,’ we
calls the ole Injun; but he’s a pow’rful dignified ole cuss at that.”
They rode up the opposite bluff and along its brink for perhaps a
mile, the boys agog with curiosity to see Apache Indians in their
native state, so to speak. The thick growth of saw grass, clumps of
yucca, agave, and sage increased as they rode along, while nearly
every glade held a sparse growth of green deciduous trees. And
then, on a point of the bluff jutting out toward the river, they came
upon the Apache home. It was a mere sun shelter of poles and
juniper, but the squaw and her daughter were at work on a grass hut
near by, made of tall looped poles forming a system of arches and
tied with yucca fiber at all crossings. The girl was binding on a thatch
of bear grass in bundles. By the time the rains came it would be fairly
waterproof.
Under the juniper shelter was the simplest of furniture. A few red and
black blankets hung up on the leafy walls to be out of the dirt; a red
pottery jar slicked over with pinyon gum varnish held fresh water;
there were woven baskets in geometrical black and white figures
holding pinyon nuts; strings of red peppers and onions, and braided
spikes of blue and red corn ears hung from the rafters. Dried meat
and fish swung under the eaves, while the old buck himself sat in the
shade, straightening cane arrows with a grooved stone which he had
heated in his fire. He grunted with imperturbable dignity as they rode
up.
“Nothing to do till to-morrow, eh, Sid?” grinned Scotty as they reined
in.
“It looks ideal to me!” responded Sid, enthusiastically, the wild blood
surging up in him sympathetically at the fine simplicity of the old
Indian’s life. “He’s making those arrows because they are far
cheaper than cartridges, and just as effective for him. I suppose they
sell those baskets—look at that one like a tall vase; isn’t it a beauty?”
The old squaw looked up from her work and smiled at Sid’s eager,
pointing finger. Back of her, down on the river flat, the young buck
had just ridden up, bare-backed on a pied pony. He had nothing on
him but a breech clout, buckskin beaded moccasins of brilliant blue
and white, and a red bandanna about his forehead. He grinned
silently at the boys as his pony stopped.
“Gee, I’m goin’ to be an Indian!” laughed Sid. “I’ll build a whicki-up of
my own and live here forever! I’m an adopted Blackfoot, anyhow.”
“Why don’t you be an ethnologist, Sid?” urged Scotty, inspired by his
chum’s enthusiasm.
“Gee-roo, I’d be more than that!” came back Sid. “Instead of just
studying their songs and customs, I’d want to do something practical
toward letting the Indian live in his own way. It’s the only thing that
will preserve the race contented and happy.”
“How, Snakes!—You happy?” chuckled Jake, calling out to the old
buck at Sid’s words.
The Apache lifted his great head, and a coppery grin broke on his
eagle features. “Plenty happy!” his deep bass voice replied. “Major
Hinchm’n heap good to red man!”
“Yet this ole redskin and yore pappy and Major Hinchman, Sid, was
on the war path after each other, red hot, only forty years ago! Waal;
times hev changed! We must be oozin’ along, now, or there won’t be
no deer on the saddle, boys.”
“You see how ’tis,” said Jake with obvious pride in his master’s
system as they rode off, “them Injuns is happy, clean through.
’Cause why? They’ve got their freedom, an’ can live as they likes. Ef
every ranch in Arizona would adopt a few, we’d have no need for
reservations, whar they’re always discontented. It don’t take much to
feed an Injun an’ keep him happy. That young buck’s as good a
herdsman as we’ve got. The squaw makes baskits, an’ the ole feller
does a bit of huntin’, mostly sage hens and jacks. They’re wuth their
keep; yit we kin sorter look after ’em if they gits into any trouble.
That’s what Hinchman’s preachin’, everywhar he goes.—Whoa,
boys! We pickets the horses here, fellers, an’ gits up this coulée
afoot after them deer,” he broke off, throwing a leg over his mount.

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Full Ebook of The Congruences of A Finite Lattice A Proof by Picture Approach 3Rd Edition George Gratzer Online PDF All Chapter

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The Congruences of a Finite Lattice A

Proof by Picture Approach 3rd Edition

Hands On STEAM Physical Science Gr 1 5 1st Edition

Hands On STEAM Life Science Gr 1 5 1st Edition George

Hands On STEAM Earth Space Science Gr 1 5 1st Edition

Hands On STEAM Science Big Book Gr 1 5 1st Edition

The Mordell Conjecture: A Complete Proof from

George Allen A Football Life Michael Richman Foreword

Managing Suicidal Risk : A Collaborative Approach 3rd

Operations Research: A Model-Based Approach 3rd Edition

ISBN 978-3-031-29062-6 ISBN 978-3-031-29063-3 (eBook)

Mathematics Subject Classification (2020): 06B10, 06D05, 06C05, 06C10

Glossary of Notation xix

Picture Gallery xxiii

I A Brief Introduction to Lattices 1

4 Planar Semimodular Lattices 45

II Some Special Techniques 67

17 Magic Wands 213

V Congruence Lattices of Two Related Lattices 235

20 Two Convex Sublattices 265

21 Tensor Extensions 275

VI The Ordered Set of Principal Congruences 295

23 Minimal RTs 307

24 Principal Congruence Representable Sets 339

25 Isotone Maps 353

VII Congruence Extensions and Prime Intervals 359

27 The Swing Lemma 365

28 Fork Congruences 381

VIII The Six Congruence Properties of SPS lattices 389

Glossary of Notation xix

Picture Gallery xxiii

I A Brief Introduction to Lattices 1

4 Planar Semimodular Lattices 45

II Some Special Techniques 67

8 Sectionally Complemented RT 101

17 Magic Wands 213

17.6 Verification for surjective maps 229

V Congruence Lattices of Two Related Lattices 235

20 Two Convex Sublattices 265

21 Tensor Extensions 275

VI The Ordered Set of Principal Congruences 295

23 Minimal RTs 307

24 Principal Congruence Representable Sets 339

25 Isotone Maps 353

VII Congruence Extensions and Prime Intervals 359

27 The Swing Lemma 365

28 Fork Congruences 381

VIII The Six Congruence Properties of SPS lattices 389

Symbol Explanation Page

Symbol Explanation Page

Symbol Explanation Page

Symbol Explanation Page

A book such as this is largely autobiographical; it references about a third of

Toronto, Ontario George Grätzer

Topic A. Congruence lattices of finite lattices

A2. The Congruence Lattice Problem (CLP): Can congruence lattices of

A1. A finite distributive lattice D of more than one element is determined

The two types of RTs

finite lattice K has a finite, sectionally complemented, congruence-preserving

Topic B. The ordered set of principal congruences

Topic C. The congruence structure of finite lattices

Topic D. Congruence properties of slim, planar, semimodular (SPS)

Outline and notation