RUINS OF HOUSES OF THE SEDENTARY INDIANS OF YUCATAN
AND CENTRAL AMERICA.
At the epoch of their discovery, Yucatan, Chiapas, and Guatemala
were probably more thickly peopled than any other portion of North
America of equal area; and their inhabitants were more advanced than
the remaining aborigines. Their pueblos were planted along the
rivers and streams, often quite near each other, and presented the
same picture of occupation and of village life which might have been
seen at the same time in the valley of the Rio Grande, of the Rio
Chaco, and probably of the San Juan, and, at a still earlier period,
of the Scioto. They consisted of a single great house, or of a
cluster of houses near each other, forming one pueblo or village. In
some cases, four or more structures were grouped together upon the
same elevated platform; and where there were several of these
platforms, each surmounted with one or more edifices, one of them
was devoted to religious, and a portion of another to social and
public uses. But there is no reason for supposing, from any ruins
yet found, or from what is known of the people historically, that
any one pueblo contained, at most, ten thousand inhabitants. No one
tribe, or confederacy of tribes, had risen to supremacy within
either of these areas by the consolidation of surrounding tribes.
They were found, on the contrary, in the same state of subdivision
and independence which invariably accompanies the gentile
organization. Confederacies in all probability existed among such
contiguous pueblos as spoke the same dialect, as the Cibolans were
probably confederated, and as the Aztecs, Tezcucans, and Tlacopans
are known to have been. Such confederacies, however, could not have
reached beyond a common language of the tribes confederated.
The great houses of stone of the Village Indians within the areas
named, and particularly in Yucatan and Central America, have done
more than all other considerations to give to them their present
position in the estimation of mankind. They are the highest
constructive works of the Indian tribes. It may also be again
suggested that, from the beginning, a false interpretation has been
put upon this architecture, from a failure to understand its object
and uses, or the condition and plan of domestic life of the people
who occupied these structures. The design and object for which these
edifices were constructed still await an intelligent explanation.
The highest type of architecture which then existed among the
aborigines in any part of America was found in the regions named;
particularly in Yucatan, Chiapas, and Honduras. Speaking of Yucatan,
Herrera remarks that "the language is everywhere the same," the Maya
being the language of its principal tribes, but "the whole country,"
he continues, "is divided into eighteen districts." [Footnote:
History of America, l. c., iv, 161.]
If this reference is to a classification by tribes, it shows that
the Mayas had fallen, by the process of segmentation, into this
number of independent groups; the pueblos in each district being
united under one government for mutual defense. It seems probable,
however, that the group was smaller than a tribe. It is difficult in
some cases to determine, from Herrera's language, whether he refers
to native or Spanish divisions. In like manner, speaking of Chiapas,
he remarks, that "this province is divided into four nations of
different languages, which are the Chiapanecans, the Toques, the
Zelsales, and the Quelenes, all of which differ in some particulars....
There are in it twenty-five towns, the chief of them called Tecpatlan,
i.e., (among the Toques).... The nation of Zelsales has thirteen
towns.... the Quelnes have twenty-five towns." [Footnote: ib., iv,
189.]
Sixty-three pueblos in three of the four tribes who occupied the
small territory of Chiapas is a very large number, except on the
supposition that each pueblo consisted usually of a single great
house, like those in New Mexico, which is probable; but even then it
seems excessive. It tends, however, to show the mode of occupation
and settlement of the Village Indians in general. They planted their
pueblos on the water-courses, where such existed, each tribe or
subdivision of a tribe gathering in a cluster of houses, four or
five in number, or in a single house; and, as may he inferred from
the descriptions of Las Casas, so near together on the same rivulet
that had not the native forest obstructed the view they would have
been in sight of each other for miles along its banks. The scattered
ruins of these pueblos in Yucatan at the present time, often
consisting of a single large structure, confirms this view.
The tropical region of Yucatan and Central America, then as now, was
undoubtedly covered with forests, except the limited clearings
around the pueblos, and, apart from these pueblos, substantially
uninhabited. Field agriculture was of course unknown, as they had
neither domestic animals nor plows; but the Indians cultivated maize,
beans, squashes, pepper, cotton, cacao, and tobacco in garden beds,
and exercised some care over certain native fruits; cultivation
tending to localize them in villages. Herrera remarks of the Village
Indians of Honduras that "they sow thrice a year, and they were wont
to grub up great woods with hatchets made of flint." [Footnote:
History of America, iv., 133.]
Without metallic implements to subdue the forest, or even with
copper axes, such as were found among the Aztecs, a very small
portion only of the country would have been brought under cultivation,
and that confined mainly to the margins of the streams.
Las Casas, bishop of Chiapas, who was in Yucatan and Chiapas about
1539, after remarking of the people of the former country that they
were "better civilized in morals and in what belongs to the good
order of societies than the rest of the Indians," proceeds as,
follows: "The pretence of subjecting the Indians to the government
of Spain is only made to carry on the design of subjecting them to
the dominion of private men, who make them all their slaves".
[Footnote: An Account of the First Voyages, etc., in America, Lond.
ed., Trans., p. 52.]
And, again, he quotes from a letter of the bishop of St. Martha to
the King of Spain, to this effect: "To redress the grievances of
this province, it ought to be delivered from the tyranny of those
who ravage it, and committed to the care of persons of integrity,
who will treat the inhabitants with more kindness and humanity; for
if it be left to the mercy of the governors, who commit all sorts of
outrages with impunity, the province will be destroyed in a very
short time." [Footnote: ib., p. 61.]
There are two material questions which require priority of
consideration: First, whether or not the houses now in ruins in
Yucatan and Central America were occupied at the time of the Spanish
conquest; and, second, whether or not the present Indians of the
country are the descendants of the people who constructed them.
There is no basis whatever for the negative of either proposition;
but it is assumed by those who regard the so-called palace at
Palenque and the Governor's House at Uxmal as the ancient residences
of Indian potentates that great cities which once surrounded them
have perished, and, further, that these ruins have an antiquity
reaching far back of the Spanish conquest.
Mr. Stephens adopts the conclusion "that at the time of the conquest,
and afterwards, the Indians were living in and occupied these very
cities." [Footnote: Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, ii, 348, 375.]
He also regarded the present Indians of the country as the
descendants of those in possession at the time of the conquest. He
might have added that as the Maya was the language of the aborigines
of Yucatan at the epoch of the discovery, and is now the language of
the greater part of the natives who have not lost their original
speech, there was no ground for either supposition. Herrera remarks
of the inhabitants of Yucatan, that the "people were then found
living together very politely in towns, kept very clean ... and the
reason of their living so close together was because of the wars
which exposed them to the danger of being taken, sold, and sacrificed;
but the wars of the Spaniards made them disperse." [Footnote:
History of America, iv, 168.] This last statement is very significant.
Mr. Stephens, whose works and whose observations are in the main so
valuable, is responsible to no small extent for the delusive
inferences which have been drawn from the architecture of Yucatan,
Honduras, and Chiapas. If he had repressed his imagination and
confined himself to what he found, namely, certain Indian pueblos
built of dressed stone, and in good architecture, which are
sufficiently remarkable just as they are, in ruins, and had omitted
altogether such terms as "palaces" and great cities, his readers
would have escaped the deceptive conclusions with respect to the
actual condition of society among the aborigines which his
terminology and mode of treatment were certain to suggest.
It is sufficiently ascertained that within a few years after the
conquest of Mexico, Yucatan and Central America were overrun by
military adventurers whose rapacity and violence drove the harmless
and timid Village Indians from their pueblos into the forests; thus
destroying in a few years a higher culture than the Spaniards were
able to substitute in its place. Nothing can be plainer, I think,
than this additional fact, that all there ever was of Palenque, Uxmal,
Copan, and other Indian pueblos in these areas, building for
building and stone for stone, is there now in ruins.
There are reasons for believing, from the more advanced condition of
their house architecture, that Yucatan was inhabited by Village
Indians from an earlier, and for a much longer, period than the
valley of Mexico. The traditions of the Yzaes of Chichenisa,
possibly Chichen Itza, and of the Cocomes of Mayapan, related by
Herrera, [Footnote: History of America, iv, 162, 163, 165.] claim a
more ancient occupation of Yucatan than the Aztec traditions claim
for the occupation of the valley of Mexico. The type of village life
among the American aborigines was adapted to a warm climate, and
presented in this area its highest exemplification.
The notices of the great houses in Yucatan are brief and general in
the Spanish histories. Speaking of its eighteen districts, Herrera
remarks that "in all of them were so many, and such stately stone
buildings, that it was amazing, and the greatest wonder is, that
having no use of any metal, they were able to raise such structures,
which seem to have been temples, for their houses were always of
timber and thatched." [Footnote: ib., iv, 162.]
This last statement is not only at variance with a previous one
quoted above, but is another of the numerous misconceptions which
impair so greatly the value of the Spanish histories. The people
undoubtedly resided in these houses, which were adapted to such a
use only, and were also in the nature of fortresses, thus proving
the insecurity in which they lived. Some portion of the tribe may
have resided in inferior and common habitations in the vicinity of
these pueblos, and under their protection; but the great houses of
stone were built for residences and not for temples, and were the
homes of the body of the people. There were many of these pueblos,
nearly all of them composed of one or two large structures,
sprinkled over the face of the country in eligible situations after
the manner of Village Indian life. The same adaptation to communism
in living in large households is found impressed upon all the houses
now in ruins in these areas. They are joint-tenement houses of the
American type, and very similar to those still found in New Mexico
and on the San Juan. At the epoch of the Spanish conquest, they were
occupied pueblos, and were deserted by the Indians to escape the
rapacity of Spanish military adventurers by whom they were oppressed
and abused beyond Indian endurance. Instances are mentioned by
Herrera where large numbers destroyed themselves to escape the
exactions of Spanish masters, whom they were unable to resist.
[Footnote: History of America, III, 346.]
The numerous pueblos in ruins scattered through the forests of
Yucatan and southward are so many monuments of Spanish misrule,
oppression, and rapacity.
The most extensive group of ruins in Yucatan is that at Uxmal. Its
several structures are known as the "Governor's House"; the
"House of the Nuns," which consists of four disconnected buildings,
facing the four sides of a court; the "House of the Pigeons,"
consisting of two quadrangles; the "House of the Turtles"; the
"House of the Old Woman"; and the "House of the Dwarf", with some
trace of smaller buildings of inconsiderable size, and one or two
pyramidal elevations unoccupied by structures. Of these, the
"Governor's House" may have been the Tecan, or Official House of the
Tribe, from the unusual size of the central rooms The "House of
the Dwarf" was probably designed for the observance of religious
rites. The remaining structures were evidently the residence
portions of the pueblo.
Among the Aztecs, three kinds of houses were distinguished: 1. Calli,
the ordinary dwelling house, of which the "House of the Nuns" is an
example. 2. Ticplantlacalk, the "Stone House," which contained
council halls, etc., of which the "Governor's House" is an example. 3.
Teocalli, "House of God," such as the "House of the Dwarf." The
estufas in New Mexican pueblos took the place of the last two in
Mexico and Yucatan.
Ground plans of the principal structures will be given for
comparison with those in New Mexico. The pyramidal elevations on
which they stand are situated quite near each other, and form one
Indian pueblo. The houses are constructed of stone laid in courses,
and dressed to a uniform surface, with the upper half of the
exterior walls decorated with grotesque ornaments cut on the faces
of the stone. Foster states that "these structures are composed of a
soft coralline limestone of comparatively recent geological formation,
probably of the Tertiary period." [Footnote: Prehistoric Races of
the United States, p 398]
The so-called idols at Copan are the largest stones worked by the
Central Americans. They are about eleven feet high by three feet
wide and three feet deep, each face being covered with sculptures
and hieroglyphics. In a field near the ruins, and near each other,
are nine of these elaborately ornamented statues. By the side of
each is a so called altar, about six feet square and four feet high,
made of separate stone. These Idols and Altars have been supposed to
have some relation to their religious system, with human sacrifices
in the background. From their situation and character it may be
conjectured that we have here the Copan cemetery, and that these
idols are the grave-posts, and these altars are the graves of Copan
chiefs. The type of both may still be seen in Nebraska in the
grave-posts and grave-mounds by their side, of Iowas and Otoes, and
formerly in all parts of the United States east of the Mississippi.
If Mr. Stephens had opened one of these altars he would, if this
conjecture is well taken, have found within or under it an Indian
grave, and perhaps a skeleton, with the personal articles usually
entombed beside the dead. It was customary among the Northern
Indians for the chosen friend of the decedent, with whom he formed
this peculiar tie, to erect his grave-post, representing the chief
exploits of the departed upon one side, with ideographs and his own
upon the opposite side. "The stone," Mr. Stephens observes,
"of which all these altars and statues are made, is a soft grit-stone."
[Footnote: Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, 1-153.] Norman had
previously described the material used as a "fine concrete limestone."
[Footnote: Rambles in Yucatan, p 126.]
Elsewhere, with respect to the nature of the tools for cutting this
stone, he remarks that "flint was undoubtedly used." [Footnote: ib.,
p 184] Stephens makes a similar statement. The exact size of the
stones used is not given, but they were not large. Norman remarks of
Chichen Itza that "the stones are cut in parallelopipeds of about
twelve inches in length and six in breadth, the interstices filled
up with the same materials of which the terraces are composed."
[Footnote: Rambles in Yucatan p 127] He also speaks of "huge blocks
of hewn stone used in the doorways." [Footnote: ib. p. 128]
A soft coralline limestone could be easily worked with flint
implements when first taken from the quarry, and would harden after
exposure to the air. The size and nature of the stones used is some
evidence of limited advancement in solid stone architecture.
These structures, as reproduced in engravings by Stephens and
Catherwood, may well excite surprise and admiration for the taste,
skill, and industry they display, and the degree of progress they
reveal. When rightly understood, they will enable us to estimate the
extent of the progress actually made, which was truly remarkable for
a people still in barbarism, and no further advanced than the Middle
Status.
[Illustration: Side elevation of pyramidal platform of Governor's
House]
We have seen that the style of architecture in New Mexico brought
the Indians to the house tops as the common place of living. At
first suggested for security, it became in time a settled habit of
life. The same want was met in Yucatan and Chiapas by a new
expedient namely a pyramidal platform or elevation of earth twenty,
thirty and forty feet high upon the level summits of which their
great houses were erected. These platforms were made still higher
for small buildings. A natural elevation being when practicable
selected the top was leveled or raised by artificial means, the
sides made rectangular and sloping and faced on the four sides with
a dry stone wall, the ascent being made by a flight of stone steps.
It was not uncommon to find two such platforms and sometimes three,
one above the other, as shown in the figure. These platforms, called
terraces, were the gathering and the lounging places, of the
inhabitants.
The edifices in the regions named are almost invariably but one
story high, and but two rooms deep, the walls being carried up
vertically to an equal height on the sides and ends, and terminating
in a flat roof. The doorways opened upon the platform area or
terrace when the building was single, and where it was carried
around the four aides of an inclosed court they opened usually upon
the court. As their elevation above the level of the surrounding
area invested them with the character of fortresses, they were
defended on the line or edge of the terrace-walls, or, rather, at
the head of the flight of steps by means of which the summit-level
was reached. Neither adobe brick, nor rubble masonry, nor timber
roofs could withstand the tropical climate, with its pouring rains
during a portion of the year. Stone walls and a vaulted ceiling were
indispensable to a permanent structure. There were, doubtless,
pueblos of timber-framed houses with thatched roofs here and there
in Yucatan, Chiapas, and Honduras, as there were further south
toward the Isthmus; but the prevailing material used was stone, as
the number of small pueblos in ruins still attest. Upon these
elevated platforms they enjoyed the same security as the Village
Indians of New Mexico upon their roof-tops and within the walls of
their houses. They were also raised above the flight of the
mosquitoes and flies, the scourge of this hot region. Considering
the surrounding conditions, single-storied houses upon raised
platforms was a natural suggestion, harmonizing with a style of
architecture, the communal character of which was predetermined by
their social condition. For the details of this architecture
reference must be made to published works, which are easily
accessible, its general features and the principles from which they
sprang being the only subjects within the scope of this inquiry.
The front elevation of the Governor's House at Uxmal, shown in the
engraving, and which was taken from Stephens' work, will answer as a
sample of the whole. It stands upon the upper of three platforms, of
which the lowest is five hundred and seventy-five feet long, fifteen
feet broad to the base of the middle platform, and three feet high.
The second is five hundred and forty-five feet long, two hundred and
fifty feet broad to the base of the upper platform, and twenty feet
high. The third is three hundred and sixty feet long, thirty feet
broad in front of the edifice, and nineteen feet high. The upper one
is formed upon the back half of the middle platform, of which last
Mr. Stephens observes that "this great terrace was not entirely
artificial. The substratum was a natural rock, and showed that
advantage had been taken of a natural elevation as far as it went,
and by this means some portion of the immense labor of constructing
the terrace had been saved." [Footnote: Incidents of Travel in
Yucatan, i, 128.]
The three terraces with their sloping walls are shown in the
engraving, the house standing upon an elevation forty-two feet above
the surrounding area. The ascent from terrace to terrace was made by
flights of stone steps, which are not distinctly shown. When newly
constructed and inhabited, this structure, from its commanding
situation, its great size, and conspicuous terraces, must have
presented a striking appearance. It is doubtful whether any of the
Aryan tribes, when in the Middle Status of barbarism, have produced
houses superior to those in Yucatan.
The house is symmetrical in structure, three hundred and twenty-two
feet long, thirty-nine feet deep, and about twenty-five feet high.
It has eleven doorways, besides two small openings in front, and
contains twenty-two apartments, two of which are each sixty feet long.
The rear wall is solid, and in the central part is nine feet thick.
A parallel wall through the center divides the interior into two
rows of apartments, of which those in front are eleven feet six
inches deep and twenty-three feet high to the top of the arch, and
those back of them are thirteen feet deep and twenty-two feet high.
Both inside and out the walls are of dressed stone laid in courses.
No drawings of the rooms in the Governor's House are furnished in
Mr. Stephens' work. The back rooms are dark, excepting the light
received through the front doorway.
"The House of the Nuns," says Mr. Stephens, "is quadrangular, with a
court yard in the center. It stands on the highest of three terraces.
The lowest is three feet high and twenty feet wide; the second,
twelve feet high and forty-five feet wide; and the third, four feet
high and five feet wide, extending the whole length of the front of
the building. The front [building] is two hundred and seventy-nine
feet long, and above the cornice, from one end to the other, is
ornamented with sculpture. In the centre is a gateway ten feet eight
inches wide, spanned by the triangular arch, and leading to the
courtyard. On each side of this gateway are four doorways with
wooden lintels opening to apartments averaging twenty four feet long,
ten feet wide, seventeen feet high to the top of the arch, but
having no connection with each other. The building that forms the
right or eastern side of the quadrangle measures one hundred and
fifty-eight feet long; that on the left is one hundred and
seventy-three feet long, and the range opposite, or at the end of
the quadrangle measures two hundred and sixty-four feet. These three
ranges have no doorways outside but the exterior of each is a dead
wall, and above the cornice all are ornamented with the same rich
and elaborate sculptures." [Footnote: Incidents of travel in Yucatan,
i, 299.]
[Illustration: Fig. 53.--Ground plan of the House of the Nuns.]
Altogether, these four structures contain seventy-six apartments,
which vary in size from twenty to thirty feet long, and from ten to
twelve feet wide. There are twenty single apartments, and twenty
five pairs of apartments, half of which, as in the Governor's House,
are dark, except as they are lighted from the doorways connecting
with the rooms in front. In the fifth structure, not described,
there are six pairs of similar apartments. In the building on the
right there are six rooms connecting with each other, one of which,
the frost room, is shown in Fig. 54. This number of connecting rooms
is so unusual in Yucatan architecture as to attract attention. Each
of the four edifices would accommodate from six hundred to one
thousand persons, after the fashion of Village Indians.
In this view of the interior of a room in the House of the Nuns, Fig.
54, which was taken from Stephens' work, is shown the form of the
triangular ceiling common in all the edifices in Yucatan and Chiapas.
It is a triangular arch above the line of the exterior cornice,
without a keystone, and with the faces of the stones beveled, and
forming a perfect vault over each apartment. But it has this
peculiarity, that a space a foot or more wide in the center is
carried up vertically about two feet, and covered with a cap of stone,
so that the side walls which form the vaulted ceiling do not come
together so as to rest against each other. The mechanical principle
is the same as in the New Mexican arch, but is here applied in a
more extended and more difficult scale. It is the most remarkable
feature in this architecture, mechanically considered. When we come
to know that this vaulted ceiling was constructed over a core of
solid masonry within the chamber, afterwards removed--which was the
fact--it will be seen that these Indian masons and architects were
still feeling their way experimentally to a scientific knowledge of
the art of arts. A projecting cornice or median entablature is seen
above the doorway on the exterior face of the wall, which balances
somewhat the interior inward projection of the ceiling as it rises,
and, since the wall is carried up flush with the cornice, the
down-weight of the super-incumbent mass sustained the masonry. The
room shown is thirty-three feet long, thirteen wide, and
twenty-three feet high to the cap-stone, and the room communicating
with it is of the same width, and nine feet long. The apartments
back of these are of corresponding size. [Footnote: Incidents of
Travel, etc., i, 308.]
There were originally lintels of hard sapote wood over the doorways,
upon the decay of which a portion of the masonry has fallen. Those
over the doorways through the partition walls are found in place.
The proof of the comparatively modern date of these structures is
conclusive from these facts alone.
It will be observed that there are six single apartments in the
building on the right of the "House of Nuns" which have no
connection with the remaining rooms of the building, and that the
others are in pairs, a back room connecting with the one in front,
and neither with any others. It seems to show very plainly, in the
plan of the house itself, that it was designed to be occupied by
distinct groups composed of related families, each group a large
household by itself. If the communal principle in living existed in
fact among them, its expression in the interior arrangement of the
house, and in this form, might have been expected. This striking and
significant feature runs through all the structures, in these areas,
of which ground-plans have been obtained.
The triangular ceiling, in effect is an attempt to extend the lintel
in sections across the vault of a chamber in the place of joists, and,
so far as the writer is aware, the only attempt ever made by any
barbarous people to form a ceiling of stone over ordinary residence
rooms. In a wall and ceiling formed in this manner, and carried up
several feet above the apex of the triangular arch, there would be
no lateral thrust outward of the masonry.
It should be stated that there are neither fire-place, chimneys, nor
windows in any of these houses; neither have any been found, so far
as the writer is aware, in any ancient structure in Yucatan or
Central America. Fires were not needed for warmth; but since they
were for cooking, it shows very plainly that no cooking was done
within these houses. A presumption at once arises that their inmates
prepared their food in the open court, or on the middle terrace, by
household groups, making a common stock of their provisions, and
dividing from the earthen cauldron, like the Iroquois. The
communistic character of these houses is shown by their great size,
and by the separation of the rooms, generally in pairs, having no
connection with the remainder of the house. Each pair of rooms would
accommodate several married pairs with their children; and so would
each single apartment, according to the mode of life of the Village
Indians. Moreover, communism in living appears to have been a law of
man's condition both in the Lower and in the Middle Status of
barbarism. Among the Iroquois, one regular meal each day was all
their mode of life permitted; hunger being allayed by hominy kept
constantly prepared, or such other food as their domestic resources
allowed. It is not probable that the Aborigines of Yucatan were able
to superadd either a regular breakfast or a supper. These belong to
the more highly developed house-keeping of the monogamian family in
civilization.
Another custom, usual in the Lower Status of barbarism, seems to
have been continued in the Middle Status; namely, of the men eating
first and by themselves, and the women and children afterwards.
Without a knowledge of tables or of chairs, the dinner was of
necessity a solitary affair between the person and his earthen bowl
or platter. The time, however, for the dinner was the same to all
the men, and afterwards to the women and children. Herrera, in his
summary of the habits of the people of Yucatan, drops the remark
incidentally, that at their festivals the women "did eat apart from
the men." This is precisely what would have been expected had
nothing been said on the subject. [Footnote: History of America, iv,
175.]
There are some proofs bearing directly upon the question of the
ancient practice of communism in these Uxmal houses. They are found
in the present usages of the Maya Indians of Yucatan, the
descendants of the builders of these houses, which they may
reasonably be supposed to have derived from their ancestors. At
Nohcacab, a short distance east of the ruins of Uxmal, there was a
settlement of Maya Indians, whose communism in living was
accidentally discovered by Mr. Stephens, when among them to employ
laborers. He remarks as follows: "Their community consists of a
hundred labradores or working men; their lands are held in common,
and the products are shared by all. Their food is prepared at one hut,
and every family sends for its portion; which explains a singular
spectacle we had seen on our arrival [in 1841], a procession of
women and children, each carrying an earthen bowl containing a
quantity of smoking hot broth, all coming down the same road, and
dispersing among different huts.... From our ignorance of the
language, and the number of other and more pressing matters claiming
our attention, we could not learn all the details of their internal
economy but it seemed to approximate that improved state of
association which is sometimes heard of among us; and as thus has
existed for an unknown length of time, and can no longer be
considered experimental, Owen and Fourier might perhaps take lessons
from them with advantage.... I never before regretted so much my
ignorance of the Maya language." [Footnote: Incidents of Travel, etc.,
ii, 14.]
A hundred working men indicate a total of five hundred persons who
were then depending for their daily food upon a single fire, and a
single cooking-house, the provisions being supplied from common
stores, and divided from the kettle. It is not unlikely a truthful
picture of the mode of life in the House of the Nuns, and in the
Governor's House at the period of European discovery. Each group
practising communism, for convenience and for economy, may have
included all the inmates of a single house, or its occupants may
have subdivided into lesser groups; but the presumption is in favor
of the larger. Evidence has elsewhere been adduced of the existence
of the organization into gentes among the Mayas, with descent in the
male line, from which it may be inferred that the occupation of
these houses was on the basis of gentile kinship among the families
in each, the fathers and their children belonging to the same gens,
and the wives and mothers to other gentes. All the facts seem to
indicate that communism in living was practiced among the Village
Indians in general upon a scale then unknown in other parts of the
world, because they alone represented the culture and mode of life
of the Middle Status of barbarism. The dinner of Montezuma, before
considered, is an illustration.
[Illustration: Fig. 55.--Ground Plan of Zayi.]
Near Uxmal are the interesting ruins of Zayi, which present a new
feature in Yucatan house architecture. Upon a low eminence are three
independent structures, the second within and above the first or
lowest, and the third within and above the second, presenting the
appearance, in the distance, of a single quadrangular edifice in
three receding stories. But each stands on a separate terrace, and
is built against the one within, which rises above it, except the
inner one, a single edifice occupying the summit. The outer
quadrangle stands on the lowest terrace. The measurements of the
several buildings are indicated on the plan. Together they contain
eighty-seven apartments, assuming the parts in ruins to have
corresponded with the parts preserved. The rooms, as usual, are
either single or in pairs. An external staircase upon the front and
rear sides interrupts the buildings on these sides from the lower
terrace to the upper. The dots in the apertures indicate columns,
which are found in this and several other structures. In case of
attack, the outer quadrangle was not defensible; but its inhabitants
could retire to the second terrace above, and defend their fortress
at the head of the staircases, which were the only avenues of
approach except by scaling the outer quadrangle, a very improbable
undertaking.
[Illustration: Fig. 56.--Cross-section through one apartment.]
Attention has been called to this pueblo, which would accommodate
two thousand or more persons, for a special reason. It seems to
furnish conclusive proof of the manner in which these great edifices
were erected in order to construct the peculiar triangular stone
ceiling, which is the striking characteristic of this architecture.
To understand the problem, the annexed cross-section of a single
room will afford some aid by showing the relations of the walls to
the chamber and its ceiling. The chamber, with its vaulted ceiling,
was constructed over a solid core of masonry, laid simultaneously
with the walls, which was removed after the latter had seasoned and
settled. It tends to show that with small stones of the size used,
about a foot long and six inches thick, the triangular ceiling as it
projected toward the center in rising, required the interior support
of a core to insure the possibility of construction by their methods.
Once put together over such a core and carried up several feet above
the top of the arch, the down weight of the superincumbent mass
would articulate and hold the masonry together. It shows further
that the essential feature of the arch is wanting in this contrivance.
The proof of this assertion is found in the actual presence of the
unremoved core in one of these edifices in all of its apartments.
Mr. Stephens found every room of the back building on the second
terrace filled with masonry from bottom to top, left precisely as it
was when the building was finished. He remarks that "the north half
of the second range has a curious and unaccountable feature. It is
called the Casa Cerrada, or 'closed house,' having ten doorways, all
of which are blocked up on the inside with stone and mortar.... In
front of several were piles of stones which they [his workmen] had
worked out from the doorways, and under the lintels were holes
through which we were able to crawl inside; and here we found
ourselves in apartments finished with walls and ceilings like all
the others, but filled up, except so far as they had been emptied by
the Indians, with solid masses of mortar and stone. There were ten
of these apartments in all, two hundred and twenty feet long and ten
feet deep, which thus being filled up made the whole building a
solid mass; and the strangest feature was that the filling up of the
apartments must have been simultaneous with the erection of the
buildings; for, as the filling in rose above the tops of the doorways,
the men who performed it never could have entered to their work
through the doors. It must have been done as the walls were built,
and the ceiling must have closed over a solid mass." [Incidents of
Travel, etc., ii, 22.]
It does not seem to have occurred to Mr. Stephens that the masonry
within each room was a core, without which a vaulted chamber in this
form could not have been constructed with their knowledge of the art
of building. It shows the rudeness of their mechanical resources as
well as the real condition of the art among them, but at the same
time increases our appreciation of their originality, ingenuity, and
industry. They were working their way upward experimentally in
architecture, as all other peoples have done, having richly earned
the right to point with pride to these structures as extraordinary
memorials of the progress they had made.
An important conclusion follows, namely, that this "closed house"
was the last, in the order of time, erected in this pueblo, and had
not been emptied of its core and brought into use when the Spanish
irruption forced the people to abandon this pueblo. It would fix the
period of its construction at or after A. D. 1520, thus settling the
question of its modern date and removing one of the delusions
concerning the antiquity of the ruins in Yucatan and Central America.
This structure is as much decayed as any other in Yucatan. There are
many other structures even better preserved than this.
A brief reference to Palenque will conclude this notice, but without
dealing with the facts as fully as they deserve. There are four or
five pyramidal elevations at this pueblo quite similar in plan and
general situation with those at Uxmal. One is much the largest, and
the structures upon it are called the "Palace." It has generally
been regarded as the paragon of American Indian architecture. As a
palace implies a potentate for its occupation, a character who never
existed and could not exist under their institutions, it has been a
means of self-deception with respect to the condition of the
Aborigines which ought to be permanently discarded. Several distinct
buildings are here grouped upon one elevated terrace, and are more
or less connected. Altogether they are two hundred and twenty-eight
feet long, front and rear, and one hundred and eighty feet deep,
occupying not only the four sides of a quadrangle, but the greater
part of what originally was, in all probability, an open court. The
use of the interior court for additional structures shows a
decadence of architecture and of ethnic life in the people, because
it implies an unwillingness to raise a new pyramidal site to gain
accommodations for an increased number of people. Thus to
appropriate the original court so essential for light and air as
well as room, and which is such a striking feature in the general
plan of the architecture of the Village Indians, was a departure
from the principles of this architecture. Nearly all the edifices in
Yucatan and Central America agree in one particular, namely, in
being constructed with three parallel walls with partition walls at
intervals, giving two rows of apartments under one roof, usually, if
not invariably, flat. Where several are grouped together on the same
platform, as at Palenque, they are severally under independent roofs,
and the spaces between, called courts, are simply open lanes or
passageways between the structures. An inspection of the ground plan
of the Palenque ruins in the folio volume of Dupaix, or in the work
of Mr. Stephens, will be apt to mislead unless this feature of the
architecture is kept in mind. There are in reality seven or eight
distinct edifices crowded together upon the summit level of the
platform. Mr. Stephens speaks of it as one structure. "The building,"
he remarks, "was constructed of stone, and the whole front was
covered with stucco and painted.... The doorways have no doors, nor
are there the remains of any.... The tops of the doorways were all
broken. They had evidently been square, and over every one were
large niches in the wall on each side, in which the lintels had been
laid. These lintels had all fallen, and the stones above formed
broken natural arches." [Footnote: Central America, &c., ii, 310-312.]
The interior walls in two rooms shown by engravings were plastered
over. Architecturally, Palenque is inferior to the House of the Nuns;
but it is more ornamental. It also has one peculiar feature not
generally found in the Yucatan structures, namely, a corridor about
nine feet wide, supposed to have run around the greater part of the
exterior on the four sides. The exterior walls of these corridors
rest on a series of piers, and the central or next parallel wall is
unbroken, except by one doorway on each of three sides and two in
the fourth, thus forming a narrow promenade. One of the interior
buildings consists of two such corridors, but wider, on opposite
sides of a central longitudinal wall. All the rooms in the several
edifices are large. In one of the open spaces is a tower about
thirty feet square, rising three stories. The Palenque structures
are quite remarkable, standing upon an artificial eminence about
forty feet high, and large enough to accommodate three thousand
people living in the fashion of Village Indians.
The plan of these houses, as well as of those in Yucatan, seems to
show that they were designed to be occupied by groups of persons
composed of a number of families, whose private boundaries were
fixed by solid partition walls. They are exactly adapted to this
mode of occupation, and this special adaptation, so plainly
impressed upon all this architecture, leads irresistibly to the
conclusion that they were occupied on the communal principle, and
were, consequently, neither more nor less than joint-tenement houses,
of a model which may be called, distinctively, that of the American
aborigines. None of these edifices are as large as those on the Rio
Chaco, nor does either of them possess equal accommodations with the
Pueblo Bonito, which possessed six hundred and forty rooms.
[Footnote: Lieutenant Simpson's Report, Senate Ex. Doc., 1st Sess.,
31st Congress, 1850, p. 81.]
But in this warm climate, and with the raised terraces used as
gathering places, more persons could manage to live in equal spaces.
Each structure, or group of structures, thus elevated, was a fortress.
They prove the insecurity in which the people lived; for the labor
involved in constructing these platform elevations, in part, at least,
artificial, would never have been undertaken without a powerful
motive. One of the chief blessings of civilization is the security
which a higher organization of society gives to the people, under
the protection of which they are able as cultivators to occupy
broad areas of land. In the Middle Status of barbarism they were
compelled to live generally in villages, which were fortified in
various ways; and each village, we must suppose, was an independent,
self-governing community, except as several kindred in descent, and
speaking the same dialect or dialects of the same language,
confederated for mutual protection. An impression has been
propagated that Palenque and other pueblos in these regions were
surrounded by dense populations living in cheaply constructed
tenements. Having assigned the structures found, and which
undoubtedly were all that ever existed, to Indian kings or potentates,
the question might well be asked, if such palaces were provided for
the rulers of the land, what has become of the residences of the
people? Mr. Stephens has given direct countenance to this
preposterous suggestion. [Footnote: Central America, &c., ii, 235.]
In his valuable works he has shown a disposition to feed the flames
of fancy with respect to these ruins. After describing the "palace,"
so called, at Palenque, and remarking that "the whole extent of
ground covered by those [ruins] as yet known, as appears by the plan,
is not larger than our Park or Battery" [in New York], he proceeds:
"It is proper to add, however, that considering the space now
occupied by the ruins as the site of palaces, temples, and public
buildings, and supposing the houses of the inhabitants to have
been, like those of the Egyptians and the present race of Indians,
of frail and perishable materials as at Memphis and Thebes, to
have disappeared altogether, the city may have covered an immense
extent." [Footnote: Incidents of Travel, Central America, Chiapas
and Yucatan, ii, p. 355 ff.] This is a clear case of suggestio falsi
by Mr. Stephens, who is usually so careful and reliable and, even
here, so guarded in his language. He had fallen into the mistake of
regarding these remains as a city in ruins, instead of a small
Indian pueblo in ruins. But he had furnished a general ground plan
of all the ruins found of the Palenque pueblo, which made it plain
that four or five structures upon pyramidal platforms at some
distance from each other, with the whole space over which they
were scattered about equal to the Battery, made a poor show for
a city. The most credulous reader would readily perceive that it
was a misnomer to call them the ruins of a city; wherefore the
suggestions of Mr. Stephens, that "considering the space now
occupied by the ruins as the site of palaces, temples, and public
buildings, and supposing the houses of the inhabitants made ... of
frail and perishable materials to have disappeared ... the city
may have covered an immense extent." That Mr. Stephens himself
considered or supposed either to be true may have been the case,
but it seems hardly supposable, and in either event he is
responsible for the false coloring thus put upon those ruins,
and the deceptive inferences drawn from them.
These structures are highly creditable to the intelligence of their
builders, and can be made to reveal the manner of their use and the
actual progress they had made in the arts of life; but they never
can be rationally explained while such wild views are entertained
concerning them. Until the actual character and signification of
these ruins are made known, such opinions may be expected to prevail
concerning them. They spring from the assumed existence of a state
of society far enough advanced to develop potentates and privileged
classes, with power to enforce labor from the people for personal
objects. There is no evidence whatever in support of such an
assumption. It is quite probable that small numbers belonging to
every pueblo lived a portion of the year in the forests in temporary
habitations, engaged in cultivation, or in hunting and fishing; but
enough is known from the brief accounts of the early explorers to
show us that the body of the inhabitants of Yucatan and Central
America were gathered in pueblos or villages. Moreover, they were
animated by the same spirit as the Cibolans in what related to
personal independence. Rather than live in subjection to Spanish
taskmasters, the very Indians who erected these houses with so much
labor, as Coronado states of the Cibolans, "Set in order all their
goods and substance, their women and children, and fled to the hills,
leaving their towns, as it were, abandoned," [Footnote: Herrera,
History of America, iii, 346, cf. 348.] preferring a return to a
lower stage of barbarism rather than a loss of personal freedom. In
1524 Cortex sent an officer "to reduce the people of Chiapas, who
had revolted, which that commander effectually performed, for, when
they could resist no longer, these desperate wretches cast
themselves with their wives and children headlong from precipices,
so that not above two thousand of them remained, whose offspring
inhabit that province at this time." The inhabitants of Palenque may
have been included in this description. [Footnote: ib., iv, 169.]
The profiles of the Palenque Indians, copied by Stephens from
representations in plaster in different parts of the several
structures, show that they were flat-heads, like the Chinook Indians
of the Columbia River; their foreheads having been flattened by
artificial compression. Herrera, speaking generally of the
inhabitants of Yucatan, remarks, "that they flattened their heads
and foreheads." [Footnote: ib., iv, 169.] Whether it was a general
practice does not appear, aside from the Palenque monuments, and the
off-hand statement of Herrera.
Another important question still remains, namely, whether or not the
Indians of Yucatan and Central America had reached the first stage
of scientific architecture, the use of the post and lintel of stone
as a principle of construction in stone masonry. The Egyptians used
the post and lintel, whence their architecture has been
characterized as the horizontal. The Greeks did not get beyond this,
although they brought in the three orders of architecture. The round
and the pointed arch, used as principles of construction, with all
they gave to architecture, were beyond even the Greeks. Speaking of
the Governor's House, Mr. Stephens remarks, that "the doors are all
gone, and the wooden lintels over them have fallen." [Footnote:
Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, i, 175.]
"In some of the inner apartments, the lintels were still in place
over the doorways, and some were lying on the floor, sound and solid,
which latter condition was no doubt owing to their being more
sheltered than those over the outer doorway." [Footnote: ib., p. 178.]
The same is true of the House of the Nuns, and of a number of other
structures figured and described in Mr. Stephens' works. But lintels
of stone are found in some houses. Thus, of one of the buildings at
Kabah, he says: "The lintels over the doors are of stone." [Footnote:
ib., i, 398.]
In this case there was a stone column in the middle of the doorway,
and the lintel was in two sections. Norman, speaking of the ruins at
Chichen Itza, remarks that the "doorways are nearly a square of
about seven feet, somewhat resembling the Egyptian; the sides of
which are formed of large blocks of hewn stone. In some instances
the lintels are of the same material." [Footnote: Rambles in Yucatan,
p. 128.]
They used sapote wood usually for lintels, a wood remarkable for its
solidity and durability. It may safely be said that the lintel of
wood was the rule in Yucatan, and not the exception. While they
understood the use of the stone lintel, which alone was capable of
affording a durable structure, its common and ordinary use was
beyond their ability. The use of stone of the size required,
overmatched their ability in stone masonry, as a rule. It cannot,
therefore, be said that the post and lintel of stone became a
principle of construction in their architecture. As the Mayas, who
constructed these edifices, were in the Middle Status of barbarism,
it was not to have been expected that their architecture would reach
the scientific stage.
American aboriginal history and ethnology have been perverted, and
even caricatured in various ways, and, among others, by a false
terminology, which of itself is able to vitiate the truth. When we
have learned to substitute Indian confederacy for Indian kingdom;
Teuchtli, or head war-chief, sachem, and chief, for king, prince,
and lord; Indian villages in the place of "great cities"; communal
houses for "palaces," and democratic for monarchic institutions;
together with a number of similar substitutions of appropriate for
deceptive and improper terms, the Indian of the past and present
will be presented understandingly, and placed in his true position
in the scale of human advancement. While the Aryan family has lost
neatly all traces of its experiences anterior to the closing period
of barbarism, the Indian family, in its different branches, offered
for our investigation not only the state of savagery, but also that
of both the opening and of the middle period of barbarism in full
and ample development. The American aborigines had enjoyed a
continuous and undisturbed progress upon a great continent, through
two ethnical periods, and the latter part of a previous period, on a
remarkable scale. If the opportunity had been wisely improved, a
rational knowledge of the experience of our own ancestors, while in
the same status, might have been gained through a study of these
progressive conditions. Beside this, before a science of ethnology
applied to the American aborigines can come into existence, the
misconceptions, and erroneous interpretations which now encumber the
original memorials must be removed. Unless this can in some way be
effectually accomplished, this science can never be established
among us.
Our ethnography was initiated for us by European investigators, and
corrupted in its foundation from a misconception of the facts. The
few Americans who have taken up the subject have generally followed
in the same track, and intensified the original errors of
interpretation until romance has swept the field. Whether it is
possible to commence anew, and retrieve what has been lost, I cannot
pretend to determine. It is worth the effort.
Finally, with respect to the condition and structures of the Village
Indians of Yucatan and Central America, the following conclusions
maybe stated as reasonable from the facts presented:
[Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote relocated to chapter end.]
First: That the Family among them was too weak an organization to
face alone the struggle of life, and therefore sheltered itself in
large households, composed probably of related families.
Second: That they were probably organized in gentes, and, as a
consequence, were broken up into independent tribes, with
confederacies here and there for mutual protection; and that their
institutions were essentially democratic.
Third: That from the plan and interior arrangement of these houses
the practice of communism in living in households may be inferred.
Fourth: That the people were Village Indians in the Middle Status of
barbarism; living in a single joint-tenement house or in several
such houses grouped together, and forming one pueblo.
Fifth: That hospitality and communism in living were laws of their
condition, which found expression in the form of the houses, which
were adapted to communism in living in large households.
Sixth: That all there ever was of Uxmal, Palenque, Copan, and other
pueblos in these areas, building for building, and stone for stone,
are there now in ruins.
Seventh: That nothing herein stated is inconsistent with the
supposition that some of these structures were devoted to religious
uses.
Finally: That a common principle runs through all this architecture,
from the Columbia River and the Saint Lawrence, to the Isthmus of
Panama, namely, that of adaptation to communism in living.
When we attempt to understand the "Palace at Palenque" or the
Governor's House at Uxmal, as the residences of Indian potentates,
they are wholly unintelligible; but as communal joint-tenement houses,
embodying the social, the defensive, and the communal principles, we
can understand how they could have been created, and so elaborately
and laboriously finished. It is evident that they were the work of
the people, constructed for their own enjoyment and protection.
Enforced labor never created them. On the contrary, it is the charm
of all these edifices, roomy, and tasteful and remarkable as they are,
that they were raised by the Indians for their own use, with willing
hands, and occupied by them on terms of entire equality. Liberty,
equality, and fraternity are emphatically the three great principles
of the gens, and this architecture responds to these sentiments. And
it is highly creditable to the Indian mind that while in the Middle
Status of barbarism they had developed the capacity to plan, and the
industry to rear, structures of such architectural design and
imposing magnitude.
I have now submitted all I intended to present with respect to the
house architecture of the American aborigines. It covers but a small
part of a great subject. As a key to the interpretation of this
architecture, two principles, the practice of hospitality and the
practice of communism in living, have been employed. They seem to
afford a satisfactory explanation of its peculiar features in
entire harmony with Indian institutions. Should the general reader
be able to acquiesce in this interpretation, it will lead to a
reconstruction of our aboriginal history, now so imperatively
demanded.
[Relocated Footnote: Whether the Indian tribes of any part of North
America had learned to quarry stone to use for building purposes, is
still a question. In New Mexico there is no evidence that they
quarried stone. They picked up and used such stones as were found in
broken masses at the base of cliffs, or as were found on the surface
and could be easily removed from their bed. In Central America, if
anywhere they must have quarried stone, in the strict sense of this
term, but as yet there is no decisive evidence of the fact. It will
be necessary to find the quarries from which the stones were taken,
with such evidence of their having been worked as these quarries may
exhibit. The stones used in the edifices in Yucatan and Central
America are represented as a "soft coralline limestone," and, in
some cases, as in that of the Copan Idols, so called, of a "soft
grit stone." It requires the application of more than ordinary
intelligence and skill to quarry stone, even of this character. The
native tribes had no metals except native copper gold and silver,
and these were without the harness requisite for a lever or chisel;
and they had no explosives to use in blasting. Other agencies may
have been used. We find the stone lintel for the doorway beyond
their ability for ordinary use, and that for the want of it, they
were unable to erect permanent structures in stone. The art of
quarrying stone is gained by mankind before civilization is gained,
but it must commence in rude form before more effective means are
discovered through experience. If any of the American Indian tribes
had advanced to this knowledge, and possessed the skill and ability
to quarry stone, it is important that the fact should be established,
and that they should have credit for the progress in knowledge
implied by this skill and ability. Dressed stone from the walls at
Uxmal, Palenque, and elsewhere in Yucatan and Central America should
be proved by applying the square to find whether a level surface and
a true angle were formed upon them. It should also be ascertained
whether the walls are truly vertical, and also whether they had
learned to make a mortar of quicklime and sand. Before our
adventurous writers use in connection with our native tribes and
their works such terms as "civilization, great cities, palaces, and
temples," and apply such imposing titles as "king, prince, and lord"
to Indian chiefs, they should be prepared to show that some at least
of their tribes had learned the use of wells and how to dig them,
and how to quarry stone, to prepare a mortar of lime and sand; to
form a right angle and a level face upon a stone, and lay up
vertical walls. These necessary acquisitions precede the first
beginnings of civilization.]
INDEX.
A.
Abert, J. W., cited
Aboriginal history perverted
Acosta, J. de, cited
Adair, J., cited
Adobe houses, ruins of
mortar
Aleuts, communal dwellings
hospitality of the
Altars, Mound-Builders'
Amidas, P.
Ancient society, uniformity in the plan of
Anonymous Conqueror
Arroyo pueblo
Arickarees
Athenian tribes, coalescence of
Atolli
Aztec Confederacy
Aztecs, cremation among the
eating customs of the
extravagant accounts concerning the
governmental institutions of the
houses of the
social system of the
B.
Bachofen, Professor
Bancroft, H. H.
cited
Bandelier, A. F., cited
Barlow, Arthur
Bartram, John, cited
Brasseur de Bourbourg, C. E.
C.
Calpulli
Caribs, communal dwellings of the
houses of the
Carver, J., cited
Casa Cerrada or closed house
Castanyada, S. de N., cited
Catlin, G., cited
Champlain, S. de, cited
Chiapas, village of
Chickasas, gentes and phratries
Chilluckittequaw, hospitality of the
Chimneys, absence of
unknown in Yucatan and Central America
Chinooks, houses of the
Chocta, gentes and phratries
Chopunish, house of the
Cibola, Seven Cities of
site of the
Clahclellahs, houses of the
Clan, the Scottish
Clarke, J. S.
Clatsops, houses of the
Clavigero, F. S. cited
Columbus, Christopher
Communal dwellings
of tribes in Lower Status of barbarism
of tribes in savagery
of Village Indians of New Mexico
Communism among ancient Mexicans
in living
in relation to dwellings
Confederacies, origin of
Confederacy confined to a common language
Iroquois. See Iroquois Confederacy.
of the Aztecs
Creek
Dakota
Moki
Ottawa
the nearest analogue of nation
Copan grave posts
idols
Coronado, F. V., cited
Core used in the architecture of Yucatan
Cortez, F.
cited
Coues, E., cited
Creek Confederacy
Creek Indians, communal dwellings of the
Crees
Cremation among Mound-Builders
practice of, among the Aztecs
Mayas
Tlascalans
Crossman, Captain, cited
Culture periods
Curia, the Roman
Cutler, J. G.
D.
Dakota League
lodge described
Dakotans, communism of the
Dall, W. H., cited
Dankers, Jasper, cited
Delawares, communism of the
eating customs of the
hospitality of the
Descent in female line in archaic period
De Soto, Hernando, cited
Diaz, Bernal, cited
Dwellings, communal. See Communial dwellings.
E.
Earth works, object of the
size of the
Embankments as base of houses
Emory, General W. H., cited
Eskimos
Ethnic or culture periods
Exaggerations in the accounts of the ancient Mexicans.
F.
Feudalism, absence of in America
Food, joint ownership in
Foster, J. W.
Frontenac, L. de B.
Funeral practice, organization at.
G.
Galbraith, F. G.
Garcilasso de la Vega
Gardens, artificial
Gens, archaic form
as it exists among American aborigines
founded upon kin
intermarriage in, prohibited
Iroquois
rights, privileges, and obligations
number of persons in
rights, privileges, and obligations of
stages of development
the Greek
the Latin
the Sanskrit
Gentes and tribes formed by natural growth
Chickasas
Chocta
Dakotan
Iroquois, number of
list of
Maya
Mohegan
named after animals
Ojibwa
Omaha
similar in different tribes
Tlingit
transfer of, between phratries
Gentile organization
society distinguished from political
Gorman, S., cited
Government, growth of the idea of
plan of among American aborigines
stages in the development of
Governor's House
Granganimeo
Grave posts of chiefs
Greenbalgh
cited
Grenville, R.
Grijalva, J., cited
Guerra, C., cited
Gyneocracy among the Iroquois.
H.
Halls unknown in Indian architecture
Hayden, F. V.
Heckewelder, J. cited
Heffernan
Herrera, A. de, cited
Hiawatha
High-Bank pueblo described
Hindus, communal customs among the
Hospitality general among Indians of America
law of
of the Aleuts
Delawares
Indians of California
Mexico, Central and South America
Ohio
South America
Carolina
the Columbia
Northwest
Iroquois
Mandans
Mayas
Nez Perces
North Carolina Indians
Onondagas
Pimas
Southern Indians
tribes of the Missouri
Upper Mississippi
Village Indians of New Mexico
House architecture modified by climate
Household, number of persons in
House life of the Indians
of the Dwarf
Nuns at Uxmal
Old Woman
Pigeon
Turtle
Houses of Central America
capacity of the
of Indian tribes north of New Mexico
the Aztecs
California Indians
Caribs
Chinooks
Chopunish
Clahclellahs
Clatsops
Indians of Columbia Valley
Houses of the Kutchin
Makah Indians
Mandans and Minnetarees
Maricopas and Mohaves
Nyack Indians
Pueblo Taos
Uxmal
Village Indians
Virginia Indians
ruins of, in Yucatan and Central America
safe against Indian assault
Howitt, A. W., on Australian customs.
I.
Idols at Copan
Indian society unlike European
Indians, house life of the
of Mexico and Central America, communal dwellings of the
tenure of lands
New Mexico, communal dwellings of the
land customs of the
Northwest coast, communal dwellings of the
Peru, communism of the
Southern, communal dwellings of the
eating customs of the
Inheritance, customs of
Iroquois, communal dwellings of the
communion among
confederacy
cohesive principles of
democratic
founded on kinship
general features of the
origin of the
seat of the central tribes
Council, annual meeting of the
decisions of the
objects of the
eating customs of the
gens
rights, privileges, and obligations
gentes, number of the
list of the
hospitality of the
houses of the, described
lands of the
Long-House
migration of the
mother rights
number of, in existence
number of the
phratries
phratry, functions and uses
objects of the
sachemships of the
table of the
sachems, names bestowed upon
tribal epithets
government
war chiefs
Ives, J. C., cited.
J.
Jackson, W. H.
cited
Jaramillo, Juan, cited
Joliet, L.
Jones, S., cited
Jose, J.
Jus gentilicium.
K.
Kern
Kinship, rights and duties of, among the Aztecs
rights, duties, and obligations of
Kin the basis of gentes
Kootenays
Kutchin, houses of the.
L.
Lands, division of
of the Iroquois
ownership of, in common
severalty
of Village Indians, rights in
tenure of, among ancient Mexicans
Languages, stock, number of
great number of, among American aborigines
verbal, incapable of permanence
Lapham, J. A.
Las Casas, B. de, cited
Latin and Sabine gentes, coalescence of
Lewis and Clark, cited
Lintels of Pueblos of Mexico
wood and stone
Lolsel
Long-House of the Iroquois described
Onondaga described
symbol of the Iroquois Confederacy
M.
Maine
Maize indigenous to America
Makah Indians, houses of the
Mandan drying scaffolds
houses, interior of the
ladders
Mandans, communal dwellings of the
eating customs of the
hospitality of the
houses of the
Marcos, Friar
Male labor, first appearance of
Maricopas, houses of the
Marquette, J. cited
Marsh, O. C.
Maximilian, Prince
Mayas, communism in living
of the
cremation among
gentes of the
hospitality of the
of Yucatan
Meals, customs relating to
separation of the sexes at
Mexican houses, size of the
usually two stories high
land ownership, conclusions concerning
Mexicans, ancient inheritance among.
Mexican tribes, migration of the
Mexico, pueblo of
council-house
largest in America
Migration of the Iroquois
Migrations occur through physical causes
Miller, D. J. cited
Minnetarees, houses of the
Mishonginivi, pueblo of, described
Mitchell, H. L.
Mohaves, houses of the
Mohegan gentes and phratries
Moki confederacy
house, interior
Pueblos
Montezuma
a war chief
house of
Montezuma's dinner
palace
Mortar, use of among American Indians
Mound-Builders
arts and industries of the
circular enclosures of the
cremation among the
derived from Village Indians of New Mexico
earth-works, uses of
houses of the
in Middle Status of barbarism
migrations of the
migrations of, affected by climate
modification of house architecture
probable number of
probably derived from New Mexico
social organization of the
structure of, in Ohio
Mound, Grave Creek
Mounds at Mound City
Murphy, H. C.
N.
Nation, a coalition of tribes
National Assembly, functions of
Ncerchokioo
Nez Perces, hospitality of the
Norman, B. M., cited
Nyack Indians, houses of the.
O.
Ojibwa gentes
lodge, description of
Omaha gentes
Onondaga, Long-House of the, described
Onondagas, hospitality of the
Onondaga village described
Organization, social and governmental
Otoes
Ottawa confederacy
Ownership of lands in severalty.
P.
Palenque architecture
so-called palace of the
Parker William, a Seneca chief
Peru, tenure of lands in
Phrata of the Albanians
Phratric organization at funerals
Phratries, Chickasas
Chocta
composed of kindred gentes
Mohegan
of the Iroquois
Thinklit
Phratry, existence of the, in Mexico and Central America
in the military organization
Iroquois, functions and uses
objects of
marriage in the
older than the confederacy
the
Pimas, hospitality of the
Plant life in the Rocky Mountains
Pomeiock, village of, described
Powell, J. W.
Powers, Stephen, cited
Powhattan Village, communal dwellings of the
Prescott, W. H.
Pueblo of Chettro Kettle, size of the
Mexico
Pueblos, number of persons in
of North American, number of inhabitants
Yucatan and Central America, population of
size of
Q.
Quatmozin
Quelenes.
R.
Raleigh, Sir Walter
Religious beliefs
seclusion
Rights in lands among the Indians of Taos
Robertson, cited
Round towers
Ruins, east of the Rio Grande
in McElmo Canyon
the San Juan district
near base of Ute Mountain
in Mexico
of houses in New Mexico
the pueblo of Bonito
Hungo Pavie
Alto
Chettro Kettle
Penyasca Blanca
Pintado
Una Vida
Wejegi
Zayi
Arroyo
on the Animas River
outline plan
of
S.
Sachems of the Iroquois, names bestowed upon
Sachemships of the Iroquois Confederacy
table of
Sahagun, B. cited
Sandhill crane
San Juan district, ancient occupation of the
geographic relations of the
Valley, altitude of
Santo Domingo, pueblo of
Sauks, communal dwellings of the
Schulz, Carl
Secotan, village of, described
Seneca-Iroquois. See Iroquois.
Senel
Sept, the Irish
Shawnees, removal of the
Shoshones, hospitality of the
Sibley tent, aboriginal origin of the
Simpson, J. H.
cited
Sitgreave, L.
Shuyter, Peter, cited
Smet, P. J. de
Smith, John, cited
Social and governmental organization
Society, organization of
Sokulks, commercial dwellings of the
Spanish accounts of Aztec society
histories, how they should be regarded
Squire, E. G., cited
Squire and Davis, cited
Steck, M.
Stephens, J. L., cited
Stevenson, J.
Stevenson, Mrs. J., description of Zunyi, by
Stones of Pueblo dwellings
Swan, C.
Swan, J. G., cited
Symbol of the Iroquois Confederacy
Syndyasmian family.
T.
Taos, houses of
Indians, organization of
pueblo of described
Teepan, or official house of the tribe
Tenbroeck, cited
Teuchtli
Tlingit, gentes and phrates
Tiotohatton, size of
village of, described
Tlascalans, cremation among
the four lineages of the
Toques
Towers, round
Tribal government of the Iroquois
stages of
Tribe composed of gentes
functions and attributes of
the
Tribe, the characteristics of
Tribes and gentes continually forming
formed by natural growth
evolved from each other
in savagery, continual dwellings of
Tribute and tribute lands.
U.
Uxmal, Governor's House at
described
House of the Nuns at
ground plan
room described
structures of
V.
Vega, Garcillasso de la, cited
Village Indians, houses of the
of New Mexico, arts of
religious beliefs of
Voyage to New York in 1679-1680 by Dankers and Sluyter.
W.
Walker, F. A., on the Iroquois
Ward, J., cited
Whittlesry, C.
Wocoken, island of
Wolpi, pueblo of
Wright, A.
Wyth, J., cited.
Y.
Yucatan and Central American agriculture
architecture
confederacies
general condition of the aborigines
household life in
Indians, condition and structures of
languages of
population of
villages designed as fortresses
ruins of houses in
village life
Yzaes
Maya Indians of
Z.
Zaya, apartment in
architecture
ground plans of
ruins of
Zelsales
Zempoala described
Zunyi, pueblo of