HI - | o NEH- KO, GAH“ G1S- DAH* YEN- DUK |l] OTHER COUNCIL FIRES WERE HERE BEFORE OURS Me BR I DE tpp^ 9B9E Mii THIS US MY BOOK 'V HI ill 111 1C Y J /gggsigg M|pSi l/Y^A 1 wfmpipi mkhhybw QAa A.^ V /AvWY.CY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Getty Research Institute https://archive.org/details/houseshouselifeoOOmorg_O UR ' ■> 0 \ / I < ZU Nl WATER CARRIER DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR U. S GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION J. W. POWELL in Charge CONTRIBUTIONS NORTH AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY VOLUME IV WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1SS1 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR U. S. GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION J. \Y. POWELL in Charge HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES BY LEWIS IT. MORGAN W A SHIN G T O N GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1881 (iii) V PREFACE. The following work substantially formed the Fifth Part of the origi- nal manuscript of “Ancient Society,” under the title “Growth of the Idea of House Architecture.” As the manuscript exceeded the limits of a single volume, this portion (Part V) was removed ; and having then no intention to publish it separately, the greater part of it found its way into print in detached articles. A summary was given to Johnson’s New Universal Cyclopedia in the article on the “Architecture of the American Aborig- ines.” The chapter on the “ Houses of the Aztecs” formed the basis of the article entitled “ Montezuma’s Dinner,” published in the North American Review, in April, 1876. Another chapter, that on the “Houses of the Mound Builders,” was published in the same Review in July, 1876. Finally, the present year, at the request of the executive committee of the “Archaeological Institute of America,” at Cambridge, I prepared from the same materials an article entitled “A Study of the Houses and House Life of the Indian Tribes,” with a scheme for the exploration of the ruins in New Mexico, Arizona, the San Juan region, Yucatan, and Central America. With some additions and reductions the facts are now presented in their original form ; and as they will now have a wider distribution than the articles named have had, they wdll be new to most of my readers. The facts and suggestions made will also have the advantage of being presented in their proper connection. Thus additional strength is given to the argu- ment as a whole. All the forms of this architecture sprang from a common mind, and exhibit, as a consequence, different stages of development of the same conceptions, operating upon similar necessities. They also represent these several conditions of Indian life with reasonable completeness. Their v V] PBEFACE. houses will be seen to form one system of works, from the Long House of the Iroquois to the Joint Tenement houses of adobe and of stone in New Mexico, Yucatan, Chiapas, and Guatemala, with such diversities as the dif- ferent degrees of advancement of these several tribes would naturally pro- duce. Studied as one system, springing from a common experience, and similar wants, and under institutions of the same general character, they are seen to indicate a plan of life at once novel, original, and distinctive. The principal fact, which all these structures alike show, from the smallest to the greatest, is that the family through these stages of progress was too weak an organization to face alone the struggle of life, and sought a shelter for itself in large households composed of several families. The house for a single family was exceptional throughout aboriginal America, while the house large enough to accommodate several families was the rule. Moreover, they were occupied as joint tenement houses. There was also a tendency to form these households on the principle of gentile kin, the mothers with their children being of the same gens or clan. If we enter upon the great problem of Indian life with a determination to make it intelligible, their house life and domestic institutions must fur- nish the key to its explanation. These pages are designed as a commence- ment of that work. It is a fruitful, and, at present, but partially explored field AVe have been singularly inattentive to the plan of domestic life revealed by the houses of the aboriginal period. Time and the influences of civilization have told heavily upon their mode of life until it has become so far modified, and in many cases entirely overthrown, that it must be. taken up as a new investigation upon the general facts which remain. At the epoch of European discovery it was in full vitality in North and South America; but the opportunities of studying its principles and its results were neglected. As a scheme of life under established institutions, it was a remarkable display of the condition of mankind in two well marked ethnical periods; namely, the Older Period and the Middle Period of barbarism ; the first being represented by the Iroquois and the second by the Aztecs, or ancient Mexicans. In no part of the earth were these two conditions of human progress so well represented as by the American Indian tribes. A knowledge of the culture and of the state of the arts of PKEFACE. Vll life in these periods is indispensable to a definite conception of the stages of human progress. From the laws which govern this progress, from the uniformity of their operation, and from the necessary limitations of the prin- ciple of intelligence, we may conclude that our own remote ancestors passed through a similar experience and possessed very similar institutions. In studying the condition of the Indian tribes in these periods we may recover some portion of the lost history of our own race. This consideration lends incentive to the investigation. The first chapter is a condensation of four in “Ancient Society,” namely, those on the gens, phratry, tribe, and confederacy of tribes. As they formed a necessary part of that work, they become equally necessary to this. A knowledge of these organizations is indispensable to an under- standing of the house life of the aborigines. These organizations form the basis of American ethnology. Although the discussion falls short of a com- plete explanation of their character and of their prevalence, it will give the reader a general idea of the organization of society among them. We are too apt to look upon the condition of savage and of barbarous tribes as standing on the same plane with respect to advancement. They should be carefully distinguished as dissimilar conditions of progress. Moreover, savagery shows stages of culture and of progress, and the same is true of barbarism. It will greatly facilitate the study of the facts re- lating to these two conditions, through which mankind have passed in their progress to civilization, to discriminate between ethnical periods, or stages .of culture both in savagery and in barbarism. The progress of mankind from their primitive condition to civilization has been marked and eventful. Each great stage of progress is connected, more or less directly, with some important invention or discovery which materially influenced human prog- ress, and inaugurated an improved condition. For these reasons the period of savagery has been divided into three subperiods, and that of barba- rism also into three ; the latter of which are chiefly important in their rela- tion to the condition of the Indian tribes. The Older Period of barbarism, which commences with the introduction of the art of pottery, and the Middle Period, which commences with the use of adobe brick in the construction of houses, and with the cultivation of maize and plants by irrigation, mark PREFACE. viii two very different and very dissimilar conditions of life. The larger por- tion of the Indian tribes fall within one or the other of these periods. A small portion were in the Older Period of savagery, and none had reached the Later Period of barbarism, which immediately precedes civilization. In treating of the condition of the several tribes they will be assigned to the particular period to which they severally belong under this classification. I regret to add that I have not been able, from failing health, to give to this manuscript the continuous thought which a work of any kind should receive from its author. But I could not resist the invitation of my friend Major J. W. Powell, the Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, to put these chapters together as well as I might be able, that they might be published by that Bureau. As it will undoubtedly be my last work, 1 part with it under some solicitude for the reason named; but submit it cheerfully to the indulgence of my readers. I am greatly indebted to my friend Mr. J. C. Pilling, of the same Bureau, for his friendly labor and care in correcting the proof sheets, and for supervising the illustrations. Such favors are very imperfectly repaid by an author’s thanks. The late William W. Ely, M. D., LL.D., was, for a period of more than twenty-five years, my cherished friend and literary adviser, and to him I am indebted for many valuable suggestions, and for constant encourage- ment in my labors. The dedication of this volume to his memory is but a partial expression of my admiration of his beautiful character, and of my appreciation of his friendship. LEWIS H. MORGAN. Rochester, N. Y., June , 1881 . TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. SOCIAL AND GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION. The Gens: organized upon kin; rights, privileges, and obligations of its members — The Phratry: its character and functions— The Tribe : its composition and attributes — The Confederacy of Tribes : its nature, character, and functions. CHAPTER II. THE LAW OF HOSPITALITY AND ITS GENERAL PRACTICE. Indian tribes in three dissimilar conditions — Savage tribes — Partially horticultural tribes — Village Indians — Usages and customs affecting their house life — The law of hospitality practiced by the Iroquois ; by the Algoukin tribes of lower Virginia ; by the Delawares and Munsees ; by the tribf s of the Missouri, of the Valley of the Columbia; by the Dakota tribes of the Mississippi ; by the Algonkin tribes of Wisconsin; by the Cherokees, Choctaws, and Greeks ; by the Village Indians of New Mexico, of Mexico, of Central America ; by the tribes of Venezuela ; by the Peruvians — Univer- sality of the usage — It implies communism in living in large households. CHAPTER III. COMMUNISM IN LIVING. A law of their condition — Large households among Indian tribes — Communism in living in the house- hold — Long Houses of the Iroquois — Several families in a house — Communism in household — Long Houses of Virginia Indians — Clustered cabins of the Creeks — Communism iu (lie cluster — Hunting bands on the plains — The capture a common stock — Fishing bauds on the Columbia — The capture a common stock — Large households in tribes of the Columbia — Commuuism in Ike household — Mandau houses — Contained several families — Houses of the Sauks the same— Village Indians of New Mexico — Mayas of Yucatan — Their present communism in living — Large households of Indians of Cuba, of Venezuela, of Carthagena, of Peru. CHAPTER IV. USAGES AND CUSTOMS WITH RESPECT TO LAND AND FOOD. Tribal domain owned by the tribe in common — Possessory right in individuals and families to such land as they cultivated— Government compensation for Indian lands paid to tribe ; for improvements to individuals — Apartments of a house and possessory rights to lands went to gentile heirs — Tenure of land among sedentary Village Indians at Taos, Jemez, and Zufii — Among Aztecs or Ancient Mexi- cans, as presented by Mr. Bandelier ; in Peru — The usage of having but one prepared meal each day, a dinner — Rule among Northern tribes— A breakfast as well as a dinner claimed for the Mexicans— Separation at meals, the men eating first, and by themselves, and the women and children after- wards. IX X TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. HOUSES OF INDIAN TRIBES NORTH OF NEW MEXICO. Houses of Indian tribes must be considered as parts of a common system of construction — A common principle runs through all its forms; that of adaptation to communism in living within the house- hold — It explains this architecture — Communal houses of tribes in savagery; in California; in the valley of the Yukon ; in the valley of the Columbia— Communal house of tribes in the lower status of barbarism — Ojibwa lodge — Dakota skin tent — Long houses of Virginia Indians; of Nyach tribe on*Long Island; of Seneca-Iroquois ; of Onondaga-Iroquois — Dirt. Lodge of Mandans and Minne- tarees — Thatched houses of Maricopas and Mohaves of the Colorado ; of the Pimas of the Gila — What a comparisou shows. CHAPTER VI. HOUSES OF THE SEDENTARY INDIANS OF NEW MEXICO. Improved character of houses — The defensive principle incorporated in their plan of the Houses— Their joint tenemeut character — Two or more stories high — Improved apparel, pottery, and fabrics — Pueblo of Santo Domingo ; of adobe bricks — Built in terraced town — Ground story closed — Terraces reached by ladders — Booms entered through trap-doors in ceilings — Pueblo of Zuni— Ceiling — Water- jars and hand-mill — Mold pueblo — Boom in same — Ceiling like that at Zuni — Pueblo of Taos — Estufas for holding councils— Size of adobes — Of doorways — Window-openings and trap-doorways — Present governmental organization — Boom in pueblo — Fire-places and chimneys of modern intro- duction — Present ownership and inheritance of property— Village Indians have declined since their discovery — Sun worship — The Montezuma religion — Seclusion from religious motives. CHAPTER VII. HOUSES IN RUINS OF THE SEDENTARY INDIANS OF THE SAN JUAN RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. Pueblos in stone — The best structures in New Mexico — Buins in the valley of the Chaco — Exploration of Lieut. J. H. Simpson in 1849; of William H. Jackson in 1877 — Map of valley — Ground plans — Pueblo Pintado and Weje-gi — Constructed of tabular pieces of sandstone — Estufas and their uses — Pueblos Una Vida and Hungo Pavie — Eestoration of Ilungo Pavie — Pueblo of Chettro-Kettle — Boom in same — Form of ceiling — Pueblo Bonito — Boom in same — Eestoration of Pueblo— Pueblo del Arroyo — Pueblo Penasca Blanca — Seven large pueblos and two smaller ones — Pueblo Alto with- out the valley on table land on the north side— Probably the “ Seven Cities of Cibola’’ of Coronado’s Expedition — Seasons for supposition — The pueblos constructed gradually — Bemarkable appear- ance of the valley when inhabited. CHAPTER VIII. HOUSES IN RUINS OF THE SEDENTARY INDIANS OF THE SAN JUAN RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES — (Con- tinued. ) Buins of stone pueblo on Animas Biver — Ground plan — Each room faced with stone, showing natural face's — Constructed like those in Chaco — Adobe mortar — Its composition and efficiency — Lime unknown in New Mexico — Gypsum mortar probably used in New Mexico and Central America — Cedar poles used as lintels — Cedar beams used as joists — Estufas ; neither tire-places nor chimneys — The House a fortress — Second stone pueblo — Six other pueblos in ruins near — The Montezuma Valley — Niue pueblos in ruins in a cluster — Diagram— Buins of stone pueblo near Ute Mountain — Outline of plan — Bound tower of stone with three, concentric walls — Incorporated in pueblo — Another round tower — With two concentric walls— Stands isolated — Other ruins — San Juan district as an original centre of this Indian culture — Mound-Builders probable emigrants from this region— Historical tribes of Mexico emigrants from same — Indian migrations — Made under control of physical causes. TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER IX HOUSES OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS. Area of tlieir occupation — Their condition that of Village Indians — Probably immigrants from New Mexico — Character of their earthworks — Embankments enclosing squares — Probable sites of their houses — Adapted, as elevated platforms, 1o Long Houses — High bank works — Capacity of embank- ments — Conjectural restoration of this pueblo — Other embankments— Their probable uses — Artificial clay beds under grave-mounds — Probably used for cremation of chiefs — Probable numbers of the Mound-Builders — Failure of attempt to transplant this type of village life to the Ohio Valley — Their withdrawal probably voluntary. CHAPTER X. HOUSES OF THE AZTECS OR ANCIENT MEXICANS. First accounts of Pueblo of Mexico — Their extravagance — Later American exaggerations — Kings and emperors made out of sachems aud war-chiefs — Ancient society awakens curiosity and wonder — Aztec government a confederacy of three Indian tribes — Pueblo of Mexico in an artificial lake — Joint-tenement houses — Several families in each house — Houses in Cuba and Central America — Aztec houses not fully explained — Similar to those in New Mexico — Communism in living probable — Cortez in Pueblo of Mexico — His quarters — Explanation of Diaz — Of Herrera — Of Bandelier — House occupied by Montezuma — A communal house— Montezuma’s dinuer — According to Diaz— To Cortez — To Herrera — To H. II. Bancroft — Excessive exaggerations — Dinner in common by a com- munal household — Bandelier’s “Social Organization and Mode of Government of the Ancient Mexicans.” CHAPTER XI. RUINS OF HOUSES OF THE SEDENTARY INDIANS OF YUCATAN AND CENTRAL AMERICA. Pueblos in Yucatan and Central America — Their situation — Their house architecture — Highest type of aboriginal architecture — Pueblos were occupied when discovered — Uxmal houses erected on pyra- midal elevations — Governor’s house — Character of its architecture — House of the Nuns — Triangular ceiling of stone — Absence of chimneys — No cooking done within the house — Their communal plan evidently joint-tenement houses — Present communism of Mayas — Presumptively inherited from their ancestors — Ruins of Zayi — The closed house — Apartments constructed over a core of masonry — Palenqne — Mr. Stephens’ misconception of these ruins — Whether the post and lintel of stone were used as principles of construction 1 ?— Plan of all these houses communal — Also fortresses — Palenqne Indians flat-heads — American ethnography — General conclusions. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. Frontispiece. — Z uni Water Carrier. Fig. 1. Earth Lodges of the Sacramento Valley to face page 10(5 Fig. 2. Galliuomero Thatched Lodge to face page 106 Fig. 3. Muidu Lodge in the high Sierra - to face page 108 Fig. 4. Ydlmts Tule Lodges to face page 108 Fig. 5. Kutchin Lodge 109 Fig. 6. Ground-plan of Necrchokioo 110 Fig. 7. Frame of Ojibwa Wig-e-wam 113 Fig. 8. Dakota Wiika-yo, or Skin Tent 114 Fig. 9. Village of Pomeiock 115 Fig. 10. Village of Secotan to face page 116 Fig. 11. Interior of House of Virginia Indians 117 Fig. 12. Ho-d6-no-sote of the Seneea-Iroquois 119 Fig. 13. Ground-plan of Seneea-Iroquois Long-House 120 Fig. 14. Bartram’s ground-plan and cross-section of Onondaga Long-House 123 Fig. 15. Palisaded Onondaga Village to face page 124 Fig. 16. Mandan Villago Plot 126 Fig. 17. Ground-plan of Mandan House 126 Fig. 18. Cross-section of Mandan House 127 Fig. 19. Mandan House 128 Fig. 20. Mandan Drying-Scaffold. 129 Fig. 21. Mandan Ladder 129 Fig. 22. Pueblo of Santo Domingo to face page 136 Fig. 23. Pueblo of Zuni to face page 138 , Fig. 24. Room in Zuni House to face page 140 Fig. 25. Pueblo of Wolpi to face page 142 Fig. 26. Room in Moki House 143 Fig. 27. North Pueblo ot Taos to face page 144 Fig. 28. Room in Pueblo of Taos y. to face page 148 Fig. 29. Map of a porlion of Chaco Canon to face page 156 Fig. 30. Ground-plans ol Pueblos Pintada and Wejegi to face page 158 Fig. 31. Ground-plans of Pueblos of Una Vida and Hungo Pavie to face page 160 Fig. 32. Restoration of Pueblo Hungo Pavie to face page 161 Fig. 33. Ground-plan of Pueblo Chettro Kettle to face page 162 Fig. 34. Interior of a Room in Pueblo Chettro Kettle to face page 162 Fig. 35. Ground-plan of Pueblo Bonito to face page 163 I ig. 36. Room in Pueblo Bonito — .... .... ......... ................... ... to face page 164 Fig. 37. Restoration of Pueblo Bonito to face page 164 Fig. 38. Ground-plan of Pueblo del Arroyo to face page 164 Fig. 39. Ground-plan of Pueblo Penasca Blanca to face page 166 Fig. 40. Ground-plan of the Pueblo on Animas River 173 Fig. 41. Stone from Doorway IbO LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XIV Pi>gC. Fig. 41a. A finished block of Sandstone (for comparison with Fig. 41) 180 Fig. 42. Section of Cedar Lintel 181 Fig. 43. Outline of Stone Pueblo on Animas River 185 Fig. 44. Pueblos at, commencement of McElino Canon... 189 Fig. 45. Outline plan of Stone Pueblo near base of Ute Mountain 190 Fig. 40. Ground-plan of High Bank Pueblo to face page 208 Fig. 47. Restoration of High Bank Pueblo to face page 210 Fig. 48. Ground-plan and sections of house, High Bank Pueblo to face page 211 Fig. 49. Mound with artificial clay basin 216 Fig. 50. Side elevation of Pyramidal Platform of Governor’s House 258 Fig. 51. Governor’s House at Uxmal to face page 260 Fig. 52. Ground-plan of Governor’s House, Uxmal to face page 260 Fig. 53. Ground-plan of the House of the Nuns 261 Fig. 54. Section of room in House of the Nuns to face page 262 Fig. 55. Ground-plan of Zayi 265 Fig. 56. Cross- sect ion through one apartment to face page 266 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERI- CAN ABORIGINES. BY LEWIS H. MORGAN. CHAPTER I. SOCIAL AND GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION. In a previous work* I have considered the organization of the Ameri- can aborigines in gentes, phratries, and tribes, with the functions of each in their social system. From the importance of this organization to a right understanding of their social and governmental life, a recapitulation of the principal features of each member of the organic series is necessary in this connection. The gentile organization opens to us one of the oldest and most widely- prevalent institutions of mankind. It furnished the nearly universal plan of government of ancient society, Asiatic, European, African, American, and Australian. It was the instrumentality by means of which society was organized and held together. Commencing in savagery, and continuing through the three subperiods of barbarism, it remained until the establish- ment of political society, which did not occur until after civilization had commenced. The Grecian gens, phratry, and tribe, the Roman gens, curia , and tribe find their analogues in the gens, phratry, and tribe of the Ameri- can aborigines. In like manner the Irish sept, the Scottish clan , the phrara of the Albanians, and the Sanskrit (janas, without extending the comparison further, are the same as the American Indian gens, which has usually been * “Ancient Society ; or, Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Bar- barism to Civilization.” Henry Holt & Co. 1877, 2 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. called a clan. As far as our knowledge extends, this organization runs through the entire ancient world upon all the continents, audit was brought down to the historical period by such tribes as attained to civilization. Nor is this all. Gentile society wherever found is the same in structural organi- zation and in principles of action ; but changing from lower to higher forms with the progressive advancement of the people. These changes give the history of development of the same original conceptions. THE GENS. Gens, ytro?, and ganas in Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit have alike the primary signification of kin. They contain the same element as gigno , yiyvojua? } and gammed, in the same languages, signifying to beget; thus implying in each an immediate common descent of the members of a gens. A gens, therefore, is a body of consanguinei descended from the same com- mon ancestor, distinguished by a gentile name, and bound together by affini- ties of blood. It includes a moiety only of such descendants. Where descent is in the female line, as it was universally in the archaic period, the gens is composed of a supposed female ancestor and her children, to- gether with the children of her female descendants, through females, in per- petuity; and where descent is in the male line — into which it was changed after the appearance of property in masses — of a supposed male ancestor and his children, together with the children of his male descendants, through males, in perpetuity. The family name among ourselves is a survival of the gentile name, with descent in the male line, and passing in the same manner. The modern family, as expressed by its name, is an unorganized gens, with the bond of kin broken, and its members as widely dispersed as the family name is found. Among the nations named, the gens indicated a social organization of a remarkable character, which had prevailed from an antiquity so remote that its origin was lost in the obscurity of far distant ages. It was also the unit of organization of a social and governmental system, the fundamental basis of ancient society. This organization was not confined to the Latin, MORGAN.] THE GENS FOUNDED UPON KIN. 3 Grecian, and Sanskrit speaking tribes, with whom it became such a conspic- uous institution. It has been found in other branches of the Aryan family of nations, in the Semitic, Uralian, and Turanian families, among the tribes of Africa and Australia, and of the American aborigines. The gens has passed through successive stages of development in its. transition from its archaic to its final form with the progress of mankind. These changes were limited in the main to two : firstly, changing descent from the female line, which was the archaic rule, as among the Iroquois, to the male line, which was the final rule, as among the Grecian and Roman gentes ; and, secondly, ' changing the inheritance of the property of a deceased member of the gens from his gentiles, who took it in the archaic period, first to his agnatic kindred, and finally to his children. These changes, slight as they may seem, indicate very great changes of condition as well as a large degree of progressive development. The gentile organization, originating in the period of savagery, endur- ing through the three subperiods of barbarism, finally gave way, among the more advanced tribes, when they attained civilization — the requirements of which it was unable to meet. Among the Greeks and Romans political society supervened upon gentile society, but not until civilization had com- menced. The township (and its equivalent, the city ward), with its fixed property, and the inhabitants it contained, organized as a body politic, became the unit and the basis of a new and radically different system of government. After political society was instituted this ancient and time- honored organization, with the phratry and tribe developed from it, gradu- ally yielded up their existence. It was under gentile institutions that barbarism was won by some of the tribes of mankind while in savagery, and that civilization was won by the descendants of some of the same tribes while in barbarism. Gentile institutions carried a portion of mankind from savagery to civilization. This organization may be successfully studied both in its living and in its historical forms in a large number of tribes and races. In such an in- vestigation it is preferable to commence with the gens in its archaic form. I shall commence, therefore, with the gens as it now exists among the American aborigines, where it is found in its archaic form, and among whom 4 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. its theoretical constitution and practical workings can be investigated more successfully than in the historical gentes of the Greeks and Romans. In fact, to understand fully the gentes of the latter nations a knowledge of the functions and of the rights, privileges, and obligations of the members of the American Indian gens is imperatively necessary. In American ethnography tribe and clan have been used in the place of gens as equivalent terms from not perceiving the universality of the latter. In previous works, and following my predecessors, I have so used them. A comparison of the Indian clan with the gens of the Greeks and Romans reveals at once their identity in structure and functions. It also extends to the phratry and tribe. If the identity of these several organiza- tions can be shown, of which there can be no doubt, there is a manifest propriety in returning to the Latin and Grecian terminologies, which are full and precise as well as historical. The plan of government of the American aborigines commenced with the gens and ended with the confederacy, the latter being the highest point to which their governmental institutions attained. It gave for the organic series : first, the gens, a body of consanguinei having a common gentile name ; second, the phratry, an assemblage of related gentes united in a higher association for certain common objects ; third, the tribe, an assem- blage of gentes, usually organized in phratries, all the members of which spoke the same dialect ; and fourth, a confederacy of tribes, the members of which respectively spoke dialects of the same stock language. It resulted in a gentile society ( societas ) as distinguished from a political society or state ( civitas ). The difference between the two is wide and fun- damental. There was neither a political society, nor a citizen, nor a state, nor any civilization in America when it was discovered. One entire ethnical period intervened between the highest American Indian tribes and the beginning of civilization, as that term is properly understood. The gens, though a very ancient social organization founded upon kin, does not include all the descendants of a common ancestor. It was for the reason that when the gens came in marriage between single pairs was unknown, and descent through males could not be traced with certainty. Kindred were linked together chiefly through the bond of their maternity. MORGAN.) DESCENT IN FEMALE LINE IN ARCHAIC PERIOD. 5 In the ancient gens descent was limited to the female line It embraced all such persons as traced their descent from a supposed common female ancestor, through females, the evidence of the fact being the possession of a common gentile name. It would include this ancestor and her children, the children of her daughters, and the children of her female descendants, through females, in perpetuity, while the children of her sons and the children of her male descendants, through males, would belong to other gentes, namely, those of their respective mothers. Such was the gens in its archaic form, when the paternity of children was not certainly ascer- tainable, and when their maternity afforded the only certain criterion of descents. This state of descents which can be traced back to the Middle Status of savagery, as among the Australians, remained among the American aborigines through the Upper Status of savagery, and into and through the Lower Status of barbarism, with occasional exceptions. In the Middle Status of barbarism the Indian tribes began to change descent from the female line to the male, as the syndyasmian family of the period began to assume monogamian characteristics. In the Upper Status of barbarism descent had become changed to the male line among the Grecian tribes, with the exception of the Lycians, and among the Italian tribes, with.the exception of the Etruscans. Between the two extremes, represented by the two rules of descent, three entire ethnical periods intervene, covering many thou- sands of years. As intermarriage in the gens was prohibited, it withdrew its members from the evils of consanguine marriages, and thus tended to increase the vigor of the stock. The gens came into being upon three principal con- ceptions, namely, the bond of kin, a pure lineage through descent in the female line, and non-intermarriage in the gens. When the idea of a gens was developed, it would naturally have taken the form of gentes in pairs, because the children of the males were excluded, and because it was equally necessary to organize both classes of descendants. With two gentes started into being simultaneously the whole result would have been attained, since the males and females of one gens would marry the females and males of the other, and the children, following the gentes of their respective mothers, would be 6 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. divided between them. Resting on the bond of kin as its cohesive prin- ciple, the gens afforded to each individual member that personal protection which no other existing power could give'. After enumerating the rights, privileges, and obligations of its members, it will be necessary to follow the gens in its organic relations to a phratry tribe and confederacy, in order to find the uses to which it was applied, the privileges which it conferred, and the principles which it fostered. The gentes of the Iroquois will be taken as the standard exemplification of this institution in the Ganowanian family. They had carried their scheme of government from the gens to the confederacy, making it complete in each of its parts, and an excellent illustration of the capabilities of the gentile organization in its archaic form. When discovered the Iroquois were in the Lower Status of barbarism, and well advanced in the arts of life pertaining to this condition. They manufactured nets, twine, and rope from filaments of bark; wove belts and burden straps, with warp and woof from the same materials ; they manu- factured earthen vessels and pipes from clay mixed with silicious materials and hardened by fire, some of which were ornamented with rude medallions; they cultivated maize, beans, squashes, and tobacco in garden beds, and made unleavened bread from pounded maize, which they boiled in earthen vessels;* they tanned skins into leather, with which they manufactured kilts, leggins, and moccasins; they used the bow and arrow and war-club as their principal weapons ; used flint-stone and bone implements, wore skin gar- ments, and were expert hunters and fishermen. They constructed long joint tenement houses, large enough to accommodate five, ten, and twenty families, and each household practiced communism in living, but they were unacquainted with the use of stone or adobe-brick in house architecture, and with the use of the native metals. In mental capacity and in general advancement they were the representative branch of the Indian family north of New Mexico. General F. A. Walker has sketched their military career in two paragraphs : “ The career of the Iroquois was simply terrific. They were the scourge of God upon the aborigines of the continent.”! These loaves or cakes were about six inches in diameter and an inch thick, t North American Bevicw, April No., 1873, p. 370, Note. MORGAN.] GENTES USUALLY NAMED AFTER ANIMALS. 7 From lapse of time the Iroquois tribes have come to differ slightly in the number and in the names of their respective gentes, the largest number being eight, as follows : Senecas. Cayugas. Onondaqas. Oneidas. Mohawks. Tuscaroras. 1 Wolf. Wolf. Wolf. ' Wolf. Wolf. Gray Wolf. 2 Bear. Bear. Bear. Bear. Bear. Bear. 3 Turtle. Turtle. Turtle Turtle. Turtle. Great Turtle. 4 Beaver. Beaver. Beaver. Beaver. 5 Deer. Deer. Deer. Yellow Wolf. 6 . — Snipe. Snipe. Snipe. Snipe. 7 Heron. Eel. Eel. Eel. 8 .:.. Hawk. Hawk. Ball. Little Turtle. These changes show that certain gentes in some of the tribes have become extinct through the vicissitudes of time, and that others have been formed by the segmentation of over-full gentes. With a knowledge of the rights, privileges, and obligations of the members of a gens, its capabilities as the unit of a social and governmental system will be more fully understood, as well as the manner in which it entered into the higher organizations of the phratry, tribe, and confederacy. The gens is individualized by the following rights, privileges, and obli- gations conferred and imposed upon its members, and which made up the jus gentiliciwm : I. The right of electing its sachem and chiefs. II. The right of deposing its sachem and chiefs. III. The obligation not to marry in the gens. IV. Mutual rights of inheritance of the property of deceased members. Y. Reciprocal obligations of help, defense, and redress of injuries VI. The right of bestowing names upon its members. VII. The right of adopting strangers into the gens. VIII. Common religious rites. IX. A common burial place. X. A council of the gens. These functions and attributes gave vitality as well as individuality to the organization, and protected the personal rights of its members. 8 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. Such were the rights, privileges, and obligations of the members of an Iroquois gens; and such were those of the members of the gentes of the Indian tribes generally, as far as the investigation has been carried. For a detailed exposition of these characteristics the reader is referred to Ancient Society , pp. 72-85. All the members of an Iroquois gens were personally free, and they were bound to defend each other’s freedom ; they were equal in privileges and in personal rights, the sachem and chiefs claiming no superiority ; and they were a brotherhood bound together by the ties of kin. Liberty, equality, and fraternity, though never formulated, were cardinal principles of the gens. These facts are material, because the gens was the unit of a social and governmental system, the foundation upon which Indian society was organized. A structure composed of such units would of necessity bear the impress of their character, for as the unit so the compound. It serves to explain that sense of independence and personal dignity univer- sally an attribute of Indian character. Thus substantial and important in the social system was the gens as it anciently existed among the American aborigines, and as it still exists in full vitality in many Indian tribes. It was the basis of the phratry, of the tribe, and of the confederacy of tribes. At the epoch of European discovery the American Indian tribes gen- erally were organized in gentes, with descent in the female line. In some tribes, as among the Dakotas, the gentes had fallen out; in others, as among the Ojibwas, the Omahas, and the Mayas of Yucatan, descent had been changed from the female to the male line Throughout aboriginal America the gens took its name from some animal or inanimate object and never from a person. In this early condition of society the individuality of persons was lost in the gens. It is at least presumable that the gentes of the Grecian and Latin tribes were so named at some anterior period ; but when they first came under historical notice they were named after persons. In some of the tribes, as the Moki Ahllage Indians of Arizona, the members of the gens claimed their descent from the animal whose name they bore — their remote ancestors having been transformed by the Great Spirit from the animal into the human form. The Crane gens of MORGAN.) NUMBER OF PERSONS IN A GENS. 9 the Ojibwas have a similar legend. In some tribes the members of a gens will not eat the animal whose name they bear, in which they are doubtless influenced by this consideration. With respect to the number of persons in a gens, it varied with the number of the gentes, and with the prosperity or decadence of the tribe. Three thousand Senecas divided equally among eight gentes would give an average of three hundred and seventy-five persons to a gens. Fifteen thousand Ojibwas divided equally among twenty-three gentes would give six hundred and fifty persons to a gens. The Cherokees would average more than a thousand to a gens In the present condition of the principal Indian tribes the number of persons in each gens would range from one hundred to a thousand. One of the oldest and most widely' prevalent institutions of mankind, the gentes have been closely identified with human progress upon which they have exercised a powerful influence. They have been found in tribes in the Status of savagery, in the Lower, in the Middle, and in the Upper Status of barbarism on different continents, and in full vitality in the Gre- cian and Latin tribes after civilization had commenced. Every family of mankind, except the Polynesian, seems to have come under the gentile organization, and to have been indebted to it for preservation and for the means of progress. It finds its only parallel in length of duration in sys- tems of consanguinity, which, springing up at a still earlier period, have remained to the present time, although the marriage usages in which they originated have long since disappeared. From its early institution, and from its maintenance through such immense stretches of time, the peculiar adaptation of the gentile organiza- tion to mankind, while in a savage and in a barbarous state, must be regarded as abundantly demonstrated. O J THE PHRATRY. The phratry (

. Mud Turtle. 7. Great Turtle. 8. Yellow Eel. III. Turkey Phratry. Gentes .-—9. Turkey. 10. Crane. 11. Chicken. It is thus seen that the original Wolf gens divided into four gentes, the Turtle into four, and the Turkey into three. Each new gens took a new name, the original retaining its own, which became by seniority that of the phratry. It is rare among the American Indian tribes to find such plain evidence of the segmentation of gentes in their external organization, followed by the formation into phratries of their respective subdivisions. MORGAN.] THE TRIBE— THIRD STAGE OF ORGANIZATION. 17 It shows also that the phratry is founded upon the kinship of the gentes. As a rule, the name of the original gens out of which others had formed is not known ; but in each of these cases it remains as the name of the phratry. Since the latter, like the Grecian, was a social and religious rather than a governmental organization, it is externally less conspicuous than a gens or tribe, which were essential to the government of society. The name of but one of the twelve Athenian phratries has come down to us in history. Those of the Iroquois had no name but that of a brotherhood. The phratry also appears among the Thlinkits of the Northwest coast upon the surface of their organization into gentes. They have two phra- tries, as follows : I. Wolf Phratry. Gentes. — 1. Bear. 2. Eagle. 3. Dolphin. 4. Shark. 5. Alca. II. Raven Phratry. Gentes. — 3. Frog. 7. Goose. 8. Sea-lion. 9. Owl. 10. Salmon. Intermarriage in the phratry is prohibited, which shows of itself that the gentes of each phratry were derived from an original gens. The mem- bers of any gens in the Wolf phratry could marry into any gens of the opposite phratry, and vice versa. From the foregoing facts the existence of the phratry is established in several linguistic stocks of the American aborigines. Its presence in the tribes named raises a presumption of its general prevalence in the Gano- w&nian family. Among the Village Indians, where the numbers in a gens and tribe were greater, it would necessarily have been more important, and consequently more fully developed. As an institution it was still in its archaic form, but it possessed the essential elements of the Grecian and the Roman. THE TRIBE. It is difficult to describe an Indian tribe by the affirmative elements of its composition. Nevertheless it is clearly marked, and is the ultimate organ- ization of the great body of the American aborigines. The large number of independent tribes into which they had fallen by the natural process of 2 J8 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. segmentation is the striking characteristic of their condition. Each tribe was individualized by a name, by a separate dialect, by a supreme govern- ment, and by the possession of a territory which it occupied and defended as its own. The tribes were as numerous as the dialects, for separation did not become complete until dialectical variation had commenced. Indian tribes, therefore, are natural growths through the separation of the same people in the area of their occupation, followed by divergence of speech, segmentation, and independence. The exclusive possession of a dialect and of a territory has led to the application of the term nation to many Indian tribes, notwithstanding the fewness of the people in each. Tribe and nation , however, are not strict equivalents. A nation does not arise, under gentile institutions, until the tribes united under the same government have coalesced into one people, as the four Athenian tribes coalesced in Attica, three Dorian tribes at Sparta, and three Latin and Sabine tribes at Rome. Federation requires indepen- dent tribes in separate territorial areas ; but coalescence unites them by a higher process in the same area, although the tendency to local separation by gentes and by tribes would continue The confederacy is the nearest analogue of the nation, but not strictly equivalent. Where the gentile organization exists, the organic series gives all the terms which are needed for a correct description. An Indian tribe is composed of several gentes, developed from two or more, all the members of which are intermingled by marriage, and all of whom speak the same dialect. To a stranger the tribe is visible, and not the gens. The instances are extremely rare, among the American abo- rigines, in which the tribe embraced peoples speaking different dialects. When such cases are found it has resulted from the union of a weaker with a stronger tribe speaking a closely related dialect, as the union of the Mis- souris with the Otoes after the overthrow of the former. The fact that the great body of the aborigines were found in independent tribes illustrates the slow and difficult growth of the idea of government under gentile insti- tutions. A small portion only had attained to the ultimate stage known among them, that of a confederacy of tribes speaking dialects of the same MORGAN. | TEIBES AND GENTES CONTINUALLY FORMING. 19 stock language. A coalescence of tribes into a nation had not occurred in any case in any part of America. A constant tendency to disintegration, which has proved such a hinder- ance to progress among savage and barbarous tribes, existed in the elements of the gentile organization. It was aggravated by a further tendency to divergence of speech, which was inseparable from their social state and the large areas of their occupation. An oral language, although remarkably persistent in its vocables, and still more persistent in its grammatical forms, is incapable of permanence. Separation of the people in area was followed in time by variation in speech; and this, in turn, led to separation in inter- ests and ultimate independence. It was not the work of a brief period, but of centuries of time, aggregating finally into thousands of years; and the multiplication of the languages and dialects of the different families of North and South America probably required for their formation the time measured by three ethnical periods. New tribes, as well as new gentes, were constantly forming by natural growth, and the process was sensibly accelerated by the great expanse of the American continent. The method was simple. In the first place there would occur a gradual outflow of people from some overstocked geograph- ical center, which possessed superior advantages in the means of subsist- ence. Continued from year to year, a considerable population would thus be developed at a distance from the original seat of the tribe. In course of time the emigrants would become distinct in interests, strangers in feel- ing, and, last of all, divergent in speech. Separation and independence would follow, although their territories were contiguous. A new tribe was thus created. This is a concise statement of the manner in which the tribes of the American aborigines were formed, but the statement must be taken as general. Repeating itself from age to age in newly acquired as well as in old areas, it must be regarded as a natural as well as inevitable result of the gentile organization, united with the necessities of their condition. When increased numbers pressed upon the means of subsistence, the surplus removed to a new seat, where they established themselves with facility, because the government was perfect in every gens, and in any number of 20 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. gentes united in a band. Among the Village Indians the same thing repeated itself in a slightly different manner. When a village became overcrowded with numbers, a colony went up or down on the same stream and commenced a new village. Repeated at intervals of time, several such villages would appear, each independent of the other and a self-governing body, but united in a league or confederacy for mutual protection. Dia- lectic variation would finally spring up, and thus complete their growth into tribes The manner in which tribes are evolved from each other can be shown directly by examples. The fact of separation can be derived in part from tradition, in part from the possession by each of a number of the same gentes, and deduced in part from the relations of their dialects. Tribes formed by the subdivisions of an original tribe would possess a number of gentes in common, and speak dialects of the same language. After several centuries of separation they would still have a number of the same gentes. Thus the Ilurons, now Wyandots, have six gentes of the same name with six of the gentes of the Seneca-Iroquois, after at least four hundred years of separation. The Potawattamies have eight gentes of the same name with eight among the Ojibwas, while the former have six, and the latter fourteen, which are different, showing that new gentes have been formed in each tribe by segmentation since their separation. A still older offshoot from the Ojibwas, or from the common parent tribe of both, the Miamis, have but three gentes in common with the former, namely, the Wolf, the Loon, and the Eagle. The minute social history of the tribes of the Gano- wanian family is locked up in the life and growth of the gentes. If investi- gation is ever turned strongly in this direction, the gentes themselves would become reliable guides, in respect to the order of separation from each other of the tribes of the same stock. This process of subdivision lias been operating among the American aborigines for thousands of years, until several hundred tribes have been developed from about seventy stocks as existing in as many families of language. O o MORGAN.] CHARACTERISTICS OF A TRIBE. 21 Their experience, probably, was blit a repetition of that of the tribes of Asia, Europe, and Africa when they were in corresponding conditions. From the preceding observations it is apparent that an American Indian tribe is a very simple as well as humble organization. It required but a few hundred, and, at most, a few thousand people to form a tribe and place it in a respectable position in the G an o warn an family. It remains to present the functions and attributes of an Indian tribe, which are contained in the following propositions: I. The possession of a territory and a name. II. The exclusive possession of a dialect. III. The right to invest sachems and chiefs elected by the gentes. IV. The right to depose these sachems and chiefs. V. The possession of a religious faith and worship. VI. A supreme government consisting of a council of chiefs. VII. A head-chief of the tribe in some instances. For a discussion of these characteristics of a tribe, reference is made to Ancient Society, pp. 1 1 3-1 1 8. The growth of the idea of government commenced with the organiza- tion into gentes in savagery. It reveals three great stages of progressive development between its commencement and the institution of political society after civilization had been attained. The first stage was the govern- ment of a tribe by a council of chiefs elected by the gentes. Ft may be called a government of one power; namely, the council. It prevailed gener- ally among tribes in the Lower Status of barbarism. 'Die second stage was a government co-ordinated between a council of chiefs and a general mill- tary commander, one representing the civil and the other the military func- tions. This second form began to manifest itself in the Lower Status of barbarism after confederacies were formed, and it became definite in the Middle Status. The office of general, or principal military commander, was the germ of that of a chief executive magistrate, the king, the emperor, and the president. It may be called a government of two powers , namely, the council of chiefs and the general. The third stage was the government of a people or nation by a council of chiefs, an assembly of the people, and a general military commander. It appeared among the tribes who had attained 22 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. to the Upper Status of barbarism; such, for example, as the Homeric Greeks and the Italian tribes of the period of Romulus. A large increase in the number of people united in a nation, their establishment in walled cities, and the creation of wealth in lands and in flocks and herds, brought in the assembly of the people as an instrument of government. The coun- cil of chiefs, which still remained, found it necessary, no doubt, through popular constraint, to submit the most important public measures to an assembly of the people for acceptance or rejection; whence the popular assembly. This assembly did not originate measures. It was its function to adopt or reject, and its action was final. From its first appearance it became a permanent jmwer in the government. The council no longer passed important public measures, but became a preconsidering council, with power to originate and mature public acts to which the assembly alone could give validity. It may be called a government of three powers, namely, the preconsidering council , the assembly of the people, and the general. This remained until the institution of political society, when, for example, among the Athenians, the council of chiefs became the senate, and the assembly of the people the ecclesia or popular assembly. The same organizations have come down to modern times in the two houses of Par- liament, of Congress, and of legislatures. In like manner the office of gen- eral military commander, as before stated, was the germ of the office of the modern chief executive magistrate. Recurring to the tribe, it was limited in the numbers of the people, feeble in strength, and poor in resources ; but yet a completely organized society. It illustrates the condition of mankind in the Lower Status of bar- barism. In the Middle Status there was a sensible increase of numbers in a tribe, and an improved condition ; but with a continuance of gentile society without essential change. Polit ical society was still impossible from want of advancement. The gentes organized into tribes remained as before, but confederacies must have been more frequent. In some areas, as in the Valley of Mexico, large numbers were developed under a common gov- ernment, with improvements in the arts of life ; but no evidence exists of the overthrow among them of gentile society and the substitution of politi- cal. It is impossible to found a political society or a state upon gentes. MORGAN] THE CONFEDERACY OF TRIBES. 23 A state must rest upon territory and not upon persons ; upon the township as the unit of a political system, and not upon the gens, which is the unit of a social system. It required time and a vast experience, beyond that of the American Indian tribes, as a preparation for such a fundamental change of systems. It also required men of the mental stature of the Greeks and Romans, and with the experience derived from a long chain of ancestors, to devise and gradually introduce that new plan of government under which civilized nations are living at the present time. THE CONFEDERACY OF TRIBES. A tendency to confederate for mutual defense would very naturally exist among kindred and contiguous tribes. When the advantages of a union had been appreciated by actual experience, the organization, at first a league, would gradually cement into a federal unity. The state of per- petual warfare in which they lived would quicken this natural tendency into action among such tribes as were sufficiently advanced in intelligence and in the arts of life to perceive its benefits. It would be simply a growth from a lower into a higher organization by an extension of the principle which united the gentes in a tribe. As might have been expected, several confederacies existed in different parts of North America when discovered, some of which were quite remarka- ble in plan and structure. Among the number may be mentioned the Iro- quois Confederacy of five independent tribes, the Creek Confederacy of six, the Ottawa Confederacy of three, the Dakota League of the “ Seven Council Fires,” the Moki Confederacy in New Mexico of Seven Pueblos, and the Aztec Confederacy of three tribes in the Valley of Mexico. It is probable that the Village Indians in other parts of Mexico, in Central and in South America, were quite generally organized in confederacies consisting of two or more kindred tribes. Progress necessarily took this direction from the nature of their institutions and from the law governing their development. Nevertheless the formation of a confederacy out of such materials, and with such unstable geographical relations, was a difficult undertaking. It was 24 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. easiest of achievement by the Village Indians from the nearness to each other of their pueblos and from the smallness of their areas ; but it was accom- plished in occasional instances by tribes in the Lower Status of barbarism, and notably by the Iroquois. Wherever a confederacy was formed it would of itself evince the superior intelligence of the people. The two highest examples of Indian confederacies in North America were those of the Iroquois and of the Aztecs. From their acknowledged superiority as military powers, and from their geographical positions, these confederacies in both cases produced remarkable results. Our knowledge of the structure and principles of the former is definite and complete, while of the latter it is far from satisfactory. The Aztec Confederacy has been handled in such a manner historically as to leave it doubtful whether it was simply a league of three kindred tribes, offensive and defensive, or a sys- tematic confederacy like that of the Iroquois. That which is true of the latter was probably in a general sense true of the former, so that a knowl- edge of one will tend to elucidate the other. The conditions under which confederacies spring into being and the principles on which they are formed are remarkably simple. They grow naturally with time out of pre-existing elements. Where one tribe had divided into several, and these subdivisions occupied independent but con- tiguous territories, the confederacy reintegrated them in a higher organiza- tion on the basis of the common gentes they possessed and of ihe affiliated dialects they spoke. The sentiment of kin embodied in the gens, the com- mon lineage of the gentes, and their dialects, still mutually intelligible, yielded the material elements for a confederation. The confederacy, there- fore, had the gentes for its basis and center, and stock language for its cir- cumference. No one has been found that reached beyond the bounds of the dialects of a common language. If this natural -barrier had been crossed it would have forced heterogeneous elements into the organization. Cases have occurred where the remains of a tribe, not cognate in speech, as the Natchez,* have been admitted into an existing confederacy; but this exception would not invalidate the general proposition. It was impossible for an Indian power to arise upon the American continent through a con- * They were admitted into the Creek Confederacy after their overthrow by the French. MORGAN.] THE IEOQ.UOIS CONFEDERACY. 25 fecleracy of tribes organized in gentes, and advance to a general supremacy, unless their numbers were developed from their own stock. The multitude of stock languages is a standing explanation of the failure. There was no possible way of becoming connected on equal terms with a confederacy excepting through membership in a gens and tribe and a common speech'. The Iroquois have furnished an excellent illustration of the manner in which a confederacy is formed by natural growth assisted by skillful legislation. Originally emigrants from beyond the Mississippi, and possi- bly a branch of the Dakota stock, they first made their way to the valley of the St. Lawrence and settled themselves near Montreal. Forced to leave this region by the hostility of surrounding tribes, they sought the central region of New York. Coasting the eastern shore of Lake Ontario in canoes, for their numbers were small, they made their first settlement at the mouth of the Oswego River, where, according to their traditions, they remained for a long period of time. They were then in at least three dis- tinct tribes, the Mohawks, the Onondagas, and the Senecas. One tribe sub- sequently established themselves at the head of the Canandaigua Lake and became the Senecas. Another tribe occupied the Onondaga Valley and became the Onondagas. The third passed eastward and settled first at Oneida, near the site of Utica, from which place the main portion removed to the Mohawk Valley and became the Mohawks. Those who remained became the Oneidas. A portion of the Onondagas or Senecas settled along the eastern shore of the Cayuga Lake and became the Cayugas New York, before its occupation by the Iroquois, seems to have been a part of the area of the Algonkin tribes. According to Iroquois traditions, they displaced its anterior inhabitants as they gradually extended their settle- ments eastward to the Hudson and westward to the Genesee. Their tra- ditions further declare that a long period of time elapsed after their settle- ment in New York before the confederacy was formed, during which they made common cause against their enemies, and thus experienced the advan- tages of the federal principle both for aggression and defense. They resided in villages, which were usually surrounded with stockades, and subsisted upon fish and game and the products of a limited horticulture. In numbers they did not at any time exceed 20,000 sonls, if they ever 2(3 HOUSES AND HOUSE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. reached that number. Precarious subsistence and incessant warfare re- pressed numbers in all the aboriginal tribes, including the Village Indians as well. The Iroquois were enshrouded in the great forests which then overspread New York, against which they had no power to contend. They were first discovered A. D. 1608. About 1675 they attained their culmi- nating point, when their dominion reached over an area remarkably large, covering the greater parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio,* and portions of Canada north of Lake Ontario. At the time of their discovery they were the highest representatives of the red race north of New Mexico in intelligence and advancement, though perhaps inferior to some of the Gulf tribes in the arts of life. In the extent and quality of their mental endowments they must be ranked among the highest Indians in America. There are over six thousand Iroquois in New York, besides scattered bands in other parts of the United States, and a still larger number in Canada; thus illustrating the efficiency as well as persistency of the arts of barba- rous life in sustaining existence It is, moreover, now ascertained that they are slowly increasing. When the confederacy was formed, about A. D. 1400-1450, f the con- ditions previously named were present. The Iroquois were in five inde- pendent tribes, occupied territories contiguous to each other, and spoke dialects of the same language which were mutually intelligible. Beside these facts, certain gentes were common in the several tribes, as has been shown. In their relations to each other, as separated parts of the same gens, these common gentes afforded a natural and enduring basis for a con- federacy. With these elements existing, the formation of a confederacy became a question of intelligence and skill. Other tribes in large numbers were standing in precisely the same relations in different parts of the conti- nent without confederating. The fact that the Iroquois tribes accomplished the work affords evidence of their superior capacity. Moreover, as the * About. l(j.51-’55 they expelled their kindred tribes, the Elies, from the region between the Gene- see Iiiver and Lake Erie, and shortly afterwards the Neutral Nations from the Niagara River, and thus came into possession of the remainder of New York, with the exception of the Lower Hudson and Long Island. t The Iroquois claimed that it had existed from one hundred and fifty to two hundred years when they first saw Europeans. The generations of sachems in the history by David Cusick (a Tuscarora) would make it more ancient. Schoolcraft’s History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes, 5, p. 631. MORGAN.] ORIGIN OF THE PLAN OF A CONFEDERACY. 27 confederacy was the ultimate stage of organization among the American aborigines, its existence would be expected in the most intelligent tribes only. It is affirmed by the Iroquois that the confederacy was formed by a council of wise men and chiefs of the five tribes which met for that purpose on the north shore of Onondaga Lake, near the site of Syracuse ; and that before its session was concluded the organization was perfected and set in immediate operation. At their periodical councils for raising up sachems they still explain its origin as the result of one protracted effort of legisla- tion. It was probably a consequence of a previous alliance for mutual defense, the advantages of which they had perceived and which they sought to render permanent. The origin of the plan is ascribed to a mythical, or, at least, tradition- ary person, Ha-yo-went' -lid, the Hiawatha of Longfellow’s celebrated poem, who was present at this council and the central person in its management. In his communications with the council he used a wise man of the Onon- dagas, Da-gd-no-we'-cld, as an interpreter and speaker to expound the structure and principles of the proposed confederacy. The same tradition further declares that when the work was accomplished Ha-yo-went' -hd miraculously disappeared in a white canoe, which arose with him in the air and bore him out of their sight. Other prodigies, according to this tradi- tion, attended and signalized the formation of the confederacy, which is still celebrated among them as a masterpiece of Indian wisdom. Such in truth it was ; and it will remain in history as a monument of their genius in developing gentile institutions. It will also be remembered as an illustra- tion of what tribes of mankind have been able to accomplish in the art of government while in the Lower Status of barbarism, and under the disad- vantages this condition implies. Which of the two persons was the founder of the confederacy it is dif- ficult to determine. The silent Ha-yo-went' -ha was, not unlikely, a real per- son of Iroquois lineage ;* but tradition has enveloped his character so com- pletely in the supernatural that he loses his place among them as one ot their number. If Hiawatha were a real person, Da-gd-no-we' -dd must hold * My friend Horatio Hale, the eminent philologist, came, as he informed me, to this conclusion. 28 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. a subordinate place ; but if a mythical person invoked for the occasion, then to the latter belongs the credit of planning the confederacy. The Iroquois affirm that the confederacy, as formed by this council, with its powers, functions, and mode of administration, has come down to them through many generations to the present time with scarcely a change in its internal organization. When the Tuscaroras were subsequently admitted, their sachems were allowed by courtesy to sit as equals in the general council, but the original number of sachems was not increased, and in strictness those of the Tuscaroras formed no part of the ruling body. The general features of the Iroquois Confederacy may be summarized in the following propositions : I. The Confederacy was a union of Five Tribes , com/posed of common gentes, under one government on the basis of equality ; each Tribe remaining independent in all matters pertaining to local self-government. II. It created a General Council of Sachems , who were limited in number, equal in rank and authority, and invested with supreme powers over all matters pertaining to the Confederacy. III. Fifty Sachemships ivere created and named in perpetuity in certain gentes of the several Tribes ; with power in these gentes to fill vacancies, as often as they occurred, by election from among their respective members, and with the further power to depose from office for cause; but the right to invest these Sachems with office was reserved to the General Council. IV. The Sachems of the Confederacy ivere also Sachems in their respective Tribes, and with the Chiefs of these Tribes formed the Council of each, which was supreme over all matters pertaining to the Tribe exclusively. V. Unanimity in the Council of the Confederacy ivas made essential to every public act. VI. In the General Council the Sachems voted by Tribes, which gave to each Tribe a negative upon the others. VII. The Council of each Tribe had power to convene the General Council; but the latter had no power to convene itself VIII. The General Council ivas open to the orators of the people for the discussion of public questions; but the Council alone decided. Morgan.] GENERAL FEATURES OF THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY. 29 IX. The Confederacy had no chief Executive Magistrate or official head. X. Experiencing the necessity for a General Military Commander , they created the office in a dual form , that one might neutralize the other. The two principal War-chiefs created were made equal in powers. These several propositions will be considered and illustrated, but with- out following the precise form or order in which they are stated. At the institution of the confederacy fifty permanent sachemships were created and named, and made perpetual in the gentes to which they were assigned. With the exception of two, which were filled but once, they have been held by as many different persons in succession as generations have passed away between that time and the present. The name of each sachemship is also the personal name of each sachem while lie holds the office, each one in succession taking the name of his predecessor. These sachems, when in session, formed the council of the confederacy in which the legislative, executive, and judicial powers were vested, although such a discrimination of functions had not come to be made. To secure order in the succession, the several gentes in which these offices were made heredi- tary were empowered to elect successors from among their respective mem- bers when vacancies occurred, as elsewhere explained. As a further meas- ure of protection to their own body, each sachem, after his election and its confirmation, was invested with his office by a council of the confederacy. When thus installed his name was “taken away” and that of the sachem- ship was bestowed upon him. By this name he was afterwards known among them. They were all upon equality in rank, authority, and priv- ileges. These sachemships were distributed unequally among the five tribes; but without giving to either a preponderance of power ; and unequally among the gentes of the last three tribes. The Mohawks had nine sachems, the Oneidas nine, the Onondagas fourteen, the Cayugas ten, and the Sene- cas eight. This was the number at first, and it has remained the number to the present time. A table of these sachemships, founded at the institu- tion of the Confederacy, with the names which have been borne by their sachems in succession, from its formation to the present time, is subjoined, 30 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. with their names in the Seneca dialect, and their arrangement in classes to facilitate the attainment of unanimity in council. In foot-notes will be found the signification of these names, and the gentes to which they belonged. Table of sachemships of the Iroquois . 1 MOHAWKS. I. 1. Da-ga-e'-o-ga. 1 2. Ha-yo-went'-ha. 2 3. Da-ga-no-we'-da. 3 II. 4. So-a-e-wa'-ah. 4 5. Da-yo'-ho-go. 5 6. O-a-a'-go-wa. 6 III. 7. Da-an-no-ga/e-neh. 7 8. Sa-da'-ga-e-wa-deh. 8 9. Has-da-weh'- se-ont-ha. 9 ONEIDAS. I. 1. Ho-das'-ha-teh. 10 2. Ga-no-gweh'-yo-do. 11 * 3. Da-yo-ha/-g wen- da. 11 II. 4. So-no -saseh 13 5. To-no-a-ga'-o. 14 6. Ila-de-a-dun-nent'-ha. 15 III. 7. Da-wa-da'-o-da-yo. 16 8. Ga-ne-a-dus'-ha-yeh. 17 9. Ho-wus'-ha- da-o. 18 ONONDAGAS. I. 1. To-do-da'-ho. 19 2. To-nes'-sa-ah. 3. Da-at'-ga-dose. 20 II. 4. Ga-nea-da'-je-wake. 21 5. Ah-wa'-ga-yat. 22 6. Da-a-yat'-gwa-e. III. 7. Ho-no-we-na-to. 23 IY. 8. Ga-wa-na'-san-do. 24 . 9. Ha-e'-ho. 25 10. Ho-yo-ne-a'-ne. 26 11. Sa-da'-kwa-seh. 27 Y. 12. Sa-go-ga-ha/. 28 13. Ho-sa-ha'-do 29 14. Ska-no'-wun-de. 30 1 These names signify as follows: 1. “ Neutral,” or “The Shield.” 2. “Man who Combs.” 3. “Inexhaustible.” 4. “ Small Speech.” 5. “At the Forks.” 6. “At the Great River.” 7. “Dragging his Horns.” 8. “ Even Tempered,” 9. “ Hanging up Rattles.” The sachems in class one belonged to the Turtle geos, in class two to the Wolf gens, and in class three to the Bear gens. 10. “A Man bearing a Burden.” 11. “A Man covered with Cat-tail Down.” 12. “Opening through the Woods.” 13. “ A Long String.” 14. “ A Man with a Headache.” 15. “ Swallowing Him- self.” 16. “ Place of the Echo.” 17. “War-club on the Ground.” 18. “A Man Steaming Himself.” The sachems in the first class belong to the Wolf gens, in the second to the Turtle gens, and in the third to the Bear gens. 19. “ Tangled,” Bear gens. 20. “ On the Watch,” Bear gens. This sachem and the one before him were hereditary councillors of the To-do-dii'-ho, who held the most illustrious sachemship. 21. “ Bitter Body,” Snipe gens. 22. Turtle gens. 23. This sachem was hereditary keeper of the wampum; Wolf gens. 24. Deer gens. 25. Deer gens. 26. Turtle gens. 27. Bear gens. 28. “ Having a Glimpse,” Deer gens. 29. “ Large Mouth,” Turtle gens. 30. “ Over the Creek,” Turtle gens. MORGAN.] TABLE OF SACHEMSIIIPS OF TflE IROQUOIS. 31 CAYUGAS. I. 1. Da-ga/-a-yo. 31 2. Da-je-no'-da-weh-o. 38 3. Ga-da'-gwa-sa. 33 4. So-yo-wasA 34 5. Ha-de-as'yo-no. 35 II. 6. Da-yo-o-yo'go. 36 7. Jote-ho-weh'-ko. 37 8. De-a-wate'-ho. 38 III. 9. To-da-e-ho'. 39 10. 10. Des-ga'-heh. 40 SENECAS. I. 1. Ga-ne-o-df-yo. 40 2. Sa-da-ga/-o-yase. 41 II. 3. Ga-no-gi'-e. 42 4. Sa-geh'-jo-wa. 43 III. 5. Sa-de-a-no'-wus. 44 6. Nis-ha-ne-a'-nent. 45 IV. 7. Ga-no-go-e-da'-we. 46 8. Do-ne-ho-ga/-weh. 47 Two of these sachemships have been filled but once since their crea- tion. Ha-yo-went' -ha and Da-ga-no-we' -da consented to take the office among the Mohawk sachems, and to leave their names in the list upon con- dition that after their demise the two should remain thereafter vacant. They were installed upon these terms, and the stipulation has been observed to the present day. At all councils for the investiture of sachems their names are still called with the others as a tribute of respect to their memory. The general council, therefore, consisted of but forty-eight members. Each sachem had an assistant sachem, who was elected by the gens of his principal from among its members, and who was installed with the same forms and ceremonies. He was styled an “ aid.” It was his duty to stand behind his superior on all occasions of ceremony, to act as his messenger, and in general to be subject to his directions. It gave to the aid the office of chief, and rendered probable his election as the successor of his principal after the decease of the latter. In their figurative language these aids of the sachems were styled “ Braces in the Long House,” which symbolized the confederacy. 31. “Man Frightened,” Deer gens. 32. Heron gens. 33. Bear gens. 34. Bear gens. 35. Turtle gens. 36. Not ascertained. 37. “Very Cold,” Turtle gens. 38. Heron gens. 39. Snipe gens. 40. Snipe gens. 41. “ Handsome Lake,” Turtle gens. 42. “ Level Heavens,” Snipe gens. 43. Turtle gens. 44. “Great Forehead,” Hawk gens. 45. “Assistant,” Bear gens. 46. “Falling Day,” Snipe gens. 47. “Hair Burned Off,” Snipe gens. 48. “ Open Door,” Wolf gens.” 32 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. The names bestowed upon the original sachems became the names of their respective successors in perpetuity. For example, upon the demise of Ga-ne-o-di'-yo , one of the eight Seneca sachems, his successor would be elected by the Turtle gens in which this sachemsliip was hereditary, and when raised up by the general council he would receive this name, in place of his own, as a part of the ceremony. On several different occasions I have attended their councils for raising up sachems both at the Onondaga and Seneca reservations, and witnessed the ceremonies herein referred to. Although but a shadow of the old confederacy now remains, it is fully organized with its complement of sachems and aids, with the exception of the Mohawk tribe, which removed to Canada about 1775. Whenever vacancies occur their places are filled, and a general council is convened to install the new sachems and their aids. The present Iroquois are also perfectly familiar with the structure and principles of the ancient confederacy. For all purposes of tribal government the five tribes were independent of each other. Their territories were separated by fixed boundary lines, and their tribal interests were distinct. The eight Seneca sachems, in con- junction with the other Seneca chiefs, formed the council of the tribe by which its affairs were administered, leaving to each of the other tribes the same control over their separate interests. As an organization the tribe was neither weakened nor impaired by the confederate compact. Each was in vigorous life within its appropriate sphere, presenting some analogy to our own States within an embracing Republic. It is worthy of remembrance that the Iroquois commended to our forefathers a union of the colonies similar to their own as early as 1755. They saw in the common interests and common speech of the several colonies the elements for a confedera- tion, which was as far as their vision was able to penetrate. The tribes occupied positions of entire equality in the confederacy in rights, privileges, and obligations. Such special immunities as were granted to one or another indicate no intention to establish an unequal compact or to concede unequal privileges. There were organic provisions apparently investing particular tribes with superior power; as, for example, the Onon- dagas were allowed fourteen sachems and the Senecas but eight ; and a larger body of sachems would naturally exercise a stronger influence in MORGAN.] CONFEDERACY FOUNDED ON KINSHIP. 33 council than a smaller. But in this case it gave no additional power, because the sachems of each tribe had an equal voice in forming a decision, and a negative upon the others. When in council they agreed by tribes, and unanimity in opinion was essential to every public act. The Onon- dagas were made “ Keepers of the Wampum,” and “ Keepers of the Coun- cil Brand,” the Mohawks “ Receivers of Tribute ” from subjugated tribes, and the Senecas “ Keepers of the Door” of the Long House. These and some other similar provisions were made for the common advantage. The cohesive principle of the confederacy did not spring exclusively from the benefits of an alliance for mutual protection, but had a deeper foundation in the bond of kin. The confederacy rested upon the tribes ostensibly, but primarily upon common gentes. All the members of the same gens, whether Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, or Senecas, were brothers and sisters to each other in virtue of their descent from the same common ancestor, and they recognized each other as such with the fullest cordiality. When they met, the first inquiry was the name of each other’s gens, and next the immediate pedigree of their respective sachems ; after which they were usually able to find, under their peculiar system of consanguinity*, the relationship in which they stood to each other. Three of the gentes — namely, the Wolf, Bear, and Turtle — were common to the five tribes ; these and three others were common to three tribes. In effect, the Wolf gens, through the division of an original tribe into five, was now in five divisions, one of which was in each tribe. It was the same with the Bear and the Turtle gentes. The Deer, Snipe, and Hawk gentes were common to the Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas. Between the separated parts of each gens, although its members spoke different dialects of the same language, there existed a fraternal connection which linked the nations together with indissoluble bonds. When the Mohawk of the Wolf gens recognized an Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, or Seneca of the same gens as a brother, and when the members of the other divided gentes did the same, * The children of brothers are themselves brothers and sisters to each other; the children of the latter were also brothers and sisters, and so downwards indefinitely. The children and descendants of sisters are the same. The children of a brother and sister are cousins; the children of the latter are cousins, and so downwards indefinitely. A knowledge of the relationships to each other of the mem- bers of the same gens is never lost. 3 34 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. the relationship was not ideal, but a fact founded upon consanguinity, and upon faith in an assured lineage older than their dialects and coeval with their unity as one people. In the estimation of an Iroquois every member of his gens, in whatever tribe, was as certainly a kinsman as an own brother. This cross-relationship between persons of the same gens in the different tribes is still preserved and recognized among them in all its original force. It explains the tenacity with which the fragments of the old confederacy still cling' together. If either of the five tribes had seceded from the con- federacy it would have severed the bond of kin, although this would have been felt but slightly. But had they fallen into collision it would have turned the gens of the Wolf against their gentile kindred, Bear against Bear; in a word, brother against brother. The history of the Iroquois demon- strates the reality as well as persistency of the bond kin, and the fidelity with which it was respected. During the long period through which the confederacy endured they never fell into anarchy nor ruptured the organi- zation. The “ Long House” (Ho-de! -no- sole) was made the symbol of the con- federacy , 1 and they styled themselves the “People of the Long House” (Ho-de' -no-scm-nee). This was the name, and the only name, with which they distinguished themselves. The confederacy produced a gentile society more complex than that of a single tribe, but it was still distinctively a gentile society. It was, however, a stage of progress in the direction of a nation, for nationality is reached under gentile institutions. Coalescence is the last stage in this process The four Athenian tribes coalesced in Attica into a nation by the intermingling of the tribes in the same area, and by the gradual disappearance of geographical lines between them. The tribal names and organizations remained in full vitality as before, but without the basis of an independent territory. When political society was instituted on the basis of the deme or township, and all the residents of the deme became a body politic, irrespective of their gens or tribe, the coalescence became complete The coalescence of the Latin and Sabine gentes into the Roman people ir The Long House was not peculiar to the Iroquois, hut used by many other tribes, as the Pow- hattan Indians of Virginia, the Nyacks of Long Island, and other tribes. MORGAN.] OBJECTS OF THE COUNCIL. 35 and nation was a result of the same processes. In all alike the gens, phra- try, and tribe were the first three stages of organization. The confederacy followed as the fourth. But it does not appear, either among the Grecian or Latin tribes in the Later Period of barbarism, that it became more than a loose league for offensive and defensive purposes. Of the nature and details of organization of the Grecian and Latin confederacies our knowl- edge is limited and imperfect, because the facts are buried in the obscurity of the traditionary period. The process of coalescence arises later than the confederacy in gentile society; but it was a necessary as well as a vital stage of progress by means of which the nation, the state, and political society were at last attained. Among the Iroquois tribes it had not mani- fested itself. The valley of Onondaga, as the seat of the central tribe, and the place where the Council Brand was supposed to be perpetually burning, was the usual though not the exclusive place for holding the councils of the con- federacy. In ancient times it was summoned to convene in the autumn of each year, but public exigencies often rendered its meetings more frequent. Each tribe had power to summon the council, and to appoint the time and place of meeting at the council-house of either tribe, when circumstances rendered a change from the usual place at Onondaga desirable. But the council had no power to convene itself. Originally the principal object of the council was to raise up sachems to fill vacancies in the ranks of the ruling body occasioned by death or deposition; but it transacted all other business which concerned the com- mon welfare. In course of time, as they multiplied in numbers and tlieir intercourse with foreign tribes became more extended, the council fell into three distinct kinds, which may be distinguished as Civil, Mourning, and Religious. The first declared war and made peace, sent and received em- bassies, entered into treaties with foreign tribes, regulated the affairs of subjugated tribes, and took all needful measures to promote the general welfare. The second raised up sachems and invested them with office. It received the name of Mourning Council because the first of its ceremonies was the lament for the deceased ruler whose vacant place was to be filled. The third was held for the observance of a general religious festival. It 36 HOUSES AND HOUSE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. was made an occasion for the confederated tribes to unite under the auspices of a general council in the observance of common religious rites ; but as the Mourning Council was attended with many of the same ceremonies it came in time to answer for both. It is now the only council they hold, as the civil powers of the confederacy terminated with the supremacy over them of the state. When the sachems met in council at the time and place appointed, and the usual reception ceremony had been performed, they arranged them- selves in two divisions and seated themselves upon opposite sides of the council-fire. Upon one side were the Mohawk, Onondaga, and Seneca sachems. The tribes they represented were, when in council, brother tribes to each other and father tribes to the other two. In like manner their sachems were brothers to each other and fathers to those opposite. They constituted a phratry of tribes and of sachems, by an extension of the principle which united gentes in a phratry. On the opposite side of the fire were the Oneida and Cayuga and at a later day the Tuscarora sachems. The tribes they represented were brother tribes to each other and son tribes to the opposite three. Their sachems also were brothers to each other, and sons of those in the opposite division. They formed a second tribal phratry. As the Oneidas were a subdivision of the Mohawks, and the Cayugas a subdivision of the Onondagas or Senecas, they were in reality junior tribes; whence their relation of seniors and juniors, and the application of the pliratric principle. When the tribes are named in council the Mohawks, by precedence, are mentioned first. Their tribal epithet was “The Shield” ( Da-gd-e-o'-dci ). The Onondagas came next, under the epithet of “ Name-Bearer” (Ho-de-san- no'-ge-td ), because they had been appointed to select and name the fifty original sachems. Next in the order of precedence were the Senecas, under the epithet of “Door-Keeper” (Ho-nan-ne-ho' -ont) They were made per- petual keepers of the western door of the Long House. The Oneidas, under the epithet of “Great Tree” (. Ne-ar'-de-on-dar' -go-war ), and the Cayugas, under that of “Great Pipe” ( So-nus' -ho-gwar-to-war ), were named fourth and fifth. The Tuscaroras, who came late into the confederacy, were named last, and had no distinguishing epithet. Forms, such as these, were more important in ancient society than we would be apt to suppose. MORGAN. | DECISIONS OF THE COUNCIL. 37 Unanimity among the sachems was required upon all public questions, and essential to the validity of every public act. It was a fundamental law of the confederacy. They adopted a method for ascertaining the opinions of the members of the council which dispensed with the necessity of casting votes. Moreover, they were entirely unacquainted with the principle of majorities and minorities in the action of councils. They voted in council by tribes, and the sachems of each tribe were required to be of one mind to form a decision. Recognizing unanimity as a necessary principle, the founders of the confederacy divided the sachems of each tribe into classes as a means for its attainment. This will be seen by consulting the table (supra, p. 30). No sachem was allowed to express an opinion in council in the nature of a vote until he had first agreed with the sachem or sachems of his class upon the opinion to be expressed, and had been appointed to act as speaker for the class. Thus the eight Seneca sachems being in four classes, could have but four opinions, and the ten Cayuga sachems, being in the same number of classes, could have but four. In this manner the sachems in each class were first brought to unanimity among themselves. A cross-consultation was then held between the four sachems appointed to speak for the four classes ; and when they had agreed they designated one of their number to express their resulting opinion, which was the answer of their tribe. When the sachems of the several tribes had, by this ingenious method, become of one mind separately, it remained to compare their sev- eral opinions, and if they agreed the decision of the council was made. If they failed of agreement the measure was defeated and the council was at an end. The five persons appointed to express the decision of the five tribes may possibly explain the appointment and the functions of the six electors, so called, in the Aztec confederacy. By this method of gaining assent the equality and independence of the several tribes were recognized and preserved. If any sachem was obdurate or unreasonable, influences were brought to bear upon him, through the preponderating sentiment, which he could not well resist, so that it seldom happened that inconvenience or detriment resulted from their adherence to the rule. Whenever all efforts to procure unanimity had failed, the whole matter was laid aside because further action had become impossible. 88 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. Under a confederacy of tribes the office of general (Hos-ga-d-geh' -cla- go-wa), “Great War Soldier,” makes its first appearance. Cases would now arise when the several tribes in their confederate capacity would be engaged in war, and the necessity for a general commander to direct the movements of the united bands would be felt. The introduction of this office as a permanent feature in the government was a great event in the history of human progress. It was the beginning of a differentiation of the military from the civil power, which, when completed, changed essentially the external manifestation of the government; but even in later stages of progress, when the military spirit predominated, the essential character of the government was not changed. Gentilism arrested usurpation. With the rise of the office of general, the government was gradually changed from a government of one power into a government of two powers. The functions of government became, in course of time, co-ordinated between the two. This new office was the germ of that of a chief executive mag'is trate, for out of the general came the king, the emperor, and the president, as elsewhere suggested. The office sprang from the military necessities of society, and had a logical development. When the Iroquois confederacy was formed, or soon after that event two permanent war-chiefships were created and named, and both were assigned to the Seneca tribe. One of them ( Ta-ivan' -ne-ars, signifying needle-breaker) was made hereditary in the Wolf, and the other ( So-no'-so - wd, signifying great oyster shell) in the Turtle gens. The reason assigned for giving them both to the Senecas was the greater danger of attack at the west end of their territories. They were elected in the same manner as the sachems, were raised up by a general council, and were equal in rank and power. Another account states that they were created later. They discovered immediately after the confederacy was formed that the structure of the Long House was incomplete, because there were no officers to execute the military commands of the confederacy. A council was con- vened to remedy the omission, which established the two perpetual war- chiefs named. As general commanders they had charge of the military affairs ot the confederacy, and the command of its joint forces when united in a general expedition. Governor Blacksnake, recently deceased, held the MORGAN. J ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY. 39 office first named, thus showing that the succession has been regularly maintained. The creation of two principal war-chiefs instead of one, and with equal powers, argues a subtle and calculating policy to prevent the domination of a single man even in their military affairs. They did with- out experience precisely as the Romans did in creating two consuls instead of one, after they had abolished the office of rex. Two consuls would balance the military power between them, and prevent either from becom- ing supreme. Among the Iroquois this office never became influential. In Indian ethnography the subjects of primary importance are the gens, phratry, tribe, and confederacy. They exhibit the organization of society. Next to these are the tenure and functions of the office of sachem and chief, the functions of the council of chiefs, and the tenure and func- tions of the office of principal war-chief. When these are ascertained the structure and principles of their governmental system will be known. A knowledge of their usages and customs, of their arts and inventions, and of their plan of life will then fill out the picture. In the work of Ameri- can investigators too little attention has been given to the former. They still afford a rich field in which much information may be gathered. Our knowledge, which is now general, should be made minute and comparative. The Indian tribes in the Lower and in the Middle Status of barbarism represent two of the great stages of progress from savagery to civilization. Our own remote forefathers passed through the same conditions, one after the other, and possessed, there can scarcely be a doubt, the same, or very similar institutions, with many of the same usages and customs. However little we may be interested in the American Indians personally, their expe- rience touches us more nearly, as an exemplification of the experience of our own ancestors. Our primary institutions root themselves in a prior gentile society in which the gens, phratry, and tribe were the organic series, and in which the council of chiefs was the instrument of government. The phenomena of their ancient society must have presented many points in common with that of the Iroquois and other Indian tribes. This view of the matter lends an additional interest to the study of comparative insti- tutions of mankind. 40 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AME1UCAN ABORIGINES. The Iroquois confederacy is an excellent exemplification of a gentile society under this form of organization. It seems to realize all the capa- bilities of gentile institutions in the Lower Status of barbarism, leaving an opportunity for further development, but no subsequent plan of govern- ment until the institutions of political society, founded upon territory and upon property, with the establishment of which the gentile organization would be overthrown. The intermediate stages were transitional, remain- ing military democracies to the end, except where tyrannies founded upon usurpation were temporarily established in their places. The confederacy of the Iroquois was essentially democratic, because it was composed of gentes each of which was organized upon the common principles of democ- racy, not of the highest but of the primitive type ; and because the tribes reserved the right of local self-government. They conquered other tribes and held them in subjection, as for example the Delawares ; but the latter remained under the government of their own chiefs, and added nothing to the strength of the confederacy. It was impossible in this state of society to unite tribes under one government who spoke different languages, or to hold conquered tribes under tribute with any benefit but the tribute. This exposition of the Iroquois confederacy is far from exhaustive of the facts, but it has been carried far enough to answer my present object. The Iroquois were a vigorous and intelligent people, with a brain approach- ing in volume the Aryan average. Eloquent in oratory, vindictive in war, and indomitable in perseverance, they have gained a place in history. If their military achievements are dreary with the atrocities of savage warfare, they have illustrated some of the highest virtues of mankind in ther rela- tions with each other. The confederacy which they organized must be regarded as a remarkable production of wisdom and sagacity. One of its avowed objects was peace — to remove the cause of strife by uniting their tribes under one government, and then extending it by incorporating other tribes of the same name and lineage. They urged the Eries and the Neu- tral Nation to become members of the confederacy, and for their refusal expelled them from their borders. Such an insight into the highest objects ot government is creditable to their intelligence. Their numbers were MORGAN.] THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY. 41 small, but they counted in their ranks a large number of able men. This proves the high grade of the stock.* * For the prevalence of the organization into gentes or clans among the Indian tribes, see Ancient Society, ch. vi. Since the publication of that work the same organization has been found by Mr. Ban- delier by personal exploration among the Pueblo tribes in New Mexico, who speak theQudris language, among whom his work thus far has been confined. Descent is in the female line. The same idefatiga- ble student has found very satisfactory evidence of the same organization among the ancient Mexicans. (See article on “ The Social Oiganization and Mode of Government of the Ancient Mexicans,” Peabody Museum, Twelfth Annual Report, p. 576.) He has also found additional evidence of the same organiza- tion among the Sedentary Tribes in Central America. It seems highly probable that this organization was anciently universal among the tribes in the Ganowirnian family. C H A P T E R II. • THE LAW OF HOSPITALITY AND ITS GENERAL PRACTICE. When America was discovered in its several parts the Indian tribes were found in dissimilar conditions. The least advanced tribes were with- out the art of pottery, and without horticulture, and were, therefore, in sav- agery. lint in the arts of life they were advanced as far as is implied by its Upper Status, which found them in possession of the bow and arrow. Such were the tribes in the Valley of the Columbia, in the Hudson Bay Terri- tory, in parts of Canada, California, and Mexico, and some of the coast tribes of South America. The use of pottery, and the cultivation of maize and plants, were unknown among them. They depended for subsistence upon fish, bread, roots, and game. The second class were intermediate between them and the Village Indians. They subsisted upon fish and game and the products of a limited horticulture, and were in the Lower Status of barbarism. Such were the Iroquois, the New England and Virginia Indians, the Creeks, Cherokees, and Choctaws, the Shawnees, Miamis, Mandans, Minnitarees, and other tribes of the United States east of the Missouri River, together with certain tribes of Mexico and South America in the same con- dition of advancement. Many of them lived in villages, some of which were stockaded, but village life was not as distinctive and common among them as it was among the most advanced tribes. The third class were the Village Indians proper, who depended almost exclusively upon horticulture tor subsistence, cultivating maize and plants by irrigation. They con- structed joint tenement houses ot adobe bricks and of stone, usually more than one story high. Such were the tribes of New Mexico, Mexico, Cen- tral America, and upon the plateau of the Andes. These tribes were in the Middle Status of barbarism. 42 MORGAN.] ETHNIC OR CULTURE PERIODS. 43 The weapons, arts, usages, and customs, inventions, architecture, insti- tutions, and form of government of all alike bear the impress of a common mind, and reveal, in their wide range, the successive stages of development of the same original conceptions. Our first, mistake consisted in overrating the degree of advancement of the Village Indians, in comparison with that of the other tribes; our second in underrating that of the latter; from which resulted a third, that of separating one from the other, and regarding them as different races. The evidence of their unity of origin has now accumu- lated to such a degree as to leave no reasonable doubt upon the question. The first two classes of tribes always held the preponderating power, at least in North America, and furnished the migrating bands which replen- ished the ranks of the Village Indians, as well as the continent, with inhabit- ants. It remained for the Village Indians to invent the process of smelting iron ore to attain to the Upper Status of barbarism, and, beyond that, to invent a phonetic alphabet to reach the first stage of civilization. One entire ethnical period intervened between the highest class of Indians and the beginning- of civilization.* It seems singular that the Village Indians, who first became possessed of maize, the great American cereal, and of the art of cultivation, did not rise to supremacy over the continent. With their increased numbers and more stable subsistence they might have been expected to extend their * PROPOSED ETHNIC OR CULTURE PERIODS. PERIOD OF SAVAGERY. Subperiods. Older Period Middle Period Later Period PERIOD OF BARBARISM. Conditions. Subperiods. Conditions. Lower Status. Older Period Lower Status. Middle Status. Middle Period Middle Status. Upper Status. Later Period Upper Status. PERIOD OF CIVILIZATION. RECAPITULATION. Older Period of Savagery. — From the infancy of the human race to the knowledge of fire and the acquisition of a fish subsistence. Middle Period. — From the acquisition of a fish subsistence to the invention of the how and arrow. Later Period. — From the invention of the how and arrow to the invention of the art of pottery. Older Period of Barbarism. — From a knowledge of pottery to the domestication of animals in the eastern hemisphere, and in the western to the cultivation of maize and plants by irrigation. Middle Period. — From the domestication of animals, ., iv, 3. 4 Ib., iii, 399. 5 Ib., iv, 244. 6 Royal Commentaries of Peru, Lond. eel., 1(388; Rycaut Trans., p. 145. MORGAN.] NUMBER OF PERSONS IN A HOUSE IMPLIES COMMUNISM- 61 was the duty of the women of the house to set food before him. An omis- sion to do this would have been a discourtesy amounting- to an affront. If hungry, he ate, if not hungry, courtesy required that he should taste the food and thank the giver. It is seen to have been a usage running through three ethnic conditions of the Indian race, becoming stronger as the means of subsistence increased in variety and amount, and attaining its highest development among the Village Indians in the Middle Status of barbarism. It was an active, well-established custom of Indian society, practiced among themselves and among strangers from other tribes, and very naturally extended to Europeans when they made their first appear- ance among them Considering the number of the Spaniards often in mili- tary companies, and another fact which the aborigines were quick to notice, namely, that a white man consumed and wasted five times as much as an Indian required, their hospitality in many cases must have been grievously overtaxed . 1 Attention has been called to this law of hospitality, and to its univer- sality, for two reasons : firstly, because it implies the existence of common stores, which supplied the means for its practice ; and secondly, because, wherever found, it implies communistic living in large households. It must be evident that this hospitality could not have been habitually practiced by the Iroquois and other northern tribes, and much less by the Village Indians of Mexico, Central and South America, with such uniformity, if the custom in each case had depended upon the voluntary contributions of single families. In that event it would have failed oftener than it would have succeeded. The law of hospitality, as administered by the American aborigines, indicates a plan of life among them which has not been care- fully studied, nor have its effects been fully appreciated. Its explanation must be sought in the ownership of lands in common, the distribution of their products to households consisting of a number of families, and the practice of communism in living in the household. Common stores for large households, and possibly for the village, with which to maintain vil- 1 “ Tlie appetite of the Spaniards appeared to the Americans insatiably voracious; and they affirmed that one Spaniard devoured more food in a day than was sufficient for ten Americans.” — (Robertson’s History of America, Loud, ed., 1856, i, p. 72.) 62 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OE THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. lage hospitality, are necessary to explain the custom. It coulcl have been maintained on such a basis, and it is difficult to see how it could have been maintained on any other. The common and substantially universal prac- tice of this custom, among the American Indian Tribes, at the period of their discovery, among whom the procurement of subsistence was their vital need, must be regarded as evidence of a generous disposition, and as exhibiting a trait of character highly creditable to the race. CHAPTER III. COMMUNISM IN LIVING. We are now to consider the remaining usages and customs named in the last chapter. THEIR COMMUNISM IN LIVING. Communism in living had its origin in the necessities of the family, which, prior to the Later Period of barbarism, was too weak an organization to face alone the struggle of life. In savagery and in the Older and the Middle Period of barbarism the family was in the syndyasmian or pairing form, into which it had passed from a previous lower form . 1 Wherever the gentile organization prevailed, several families, related by kin, united as a rule in a common household and made a common stock of the provisions acquired by fishing and hunting, and by the cultivation of maize and plants. They erected joint tenement houses large enough to accommodate several families, so that, instead of a single family in the exclusive occupation of a single the house, large households as a rule existed in all parts of America in the aboriginal period. This community of provisions was limited to the household; but a final equalization of the means of subsistence was in some measure affected by the law of hospitality. To a very great extent com- munism in living was a necessary result of the condition of the Indian tribes. It entered into their plan of life and determined the character of their houses. In effect it was a union of effort to procure subsistence, which was the vital and commanding concern of life. The desire for individual accumulation had not been aroused in their minds to any sensible extent. It is made evident by a comparison of the conditions of barbarous tribes on ’ Ancient. Society, p. 459. 64 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. different continents that communism has widely prevailed among them, and that the influence of this ancient practice had not entirely disappeared among the more advanced tribes when civilization finally appeared. The common meal-bin of the ancient and the common tables of the later Greeks seem to be survivals of an older communism in living. This practice, though never investigated as a specialty, may be shown by the known customs of a number of Indian tribes, and may be confirmed by an examination of the plans of their houses. Our first illustration will be taken from the usages of the Iroquois. In their villages they constructed houses, consisting of frames of poles cov- ered with bark, thirty, fifty, eighty, and a hundred feet in length, with a passage-way through the center, a door at each end, and with the interior partitioned off at intervals of about seven feet. Each apartment or stall thus formed was open for its entire width upon the passage-way. These houses would accommodate five, ten, and twenty families, according to the number of apartments, one being usually allotted to a family. Each house- hold was made up on the principle of kin. The married women, usually sisters, own or collateral, were of the same gens or clan, the symbol or totem of which was often painted upon the house, while their husbands and the wives of their sons belong to several other gentes. The children were of the gens of their mother. While husband and wife belonged to different gentes, the preponderating number in each household would be of the same gens, namely, that of their mothers. As a rule the sons brought home their wives, and in some cases the husbands of the daughters were admitted to the maternal house. Thus each household was composed of a mixture of per- sons of different gentes; but this would not prevent the numerical ascend- ency of the particular gens to whom the house belonged. In a village of one hundred and twenty houses, as the Seneca village of Tiotohatton described by Mr. Greenbalgh in 1G77, 1 there would be several such houses belonging to each gens. It presented a general picture of Indian life in all parts of America at the epoch of European discovery. Whatever was gained by any member of the household on hunting or fishing expeditions, or was raised by cultivation, was made a common stock. Within the house Documentary History of New York, i, 13. MORGAN".] FACT OF COMM UNION AMONG IROQUOIS. 65 they lived from common stores. Each house had several tires, usually one for each four apartments, which was placed in the middle of the passage- way and without a chimney. Every household was organized under a matron who supervised its domestic economy. After the single daily meal was cooked at the several tires the matron was summoned, and it was her duty to divide the food, from the kettle, to the several families according to their respective needs. What remained was placed in the custody of another person until it was required by the matron The Iroquois lived in houses of this description as late as A. D. 1700, and in occasional instances a hun- dred years later. An elderly Seneca woman 1 informed the writer, thirty years ago, that when she was a girl she lived in one of these joint tenement houses (called by them long-houses), which contained eight families and two fires, and that her mother and her grandmother, in their day, had acted as matrons over one of these large households. This mere glimpse at the ancient Iroquois plan of life, now entirely passed away, and of which remembrance is nearly lost, is highly suggestive. It shows that their domestic economy was not without method, and it displays the care and management of woman, low down in barbarism, for husbanding their resources and for improving their condition A knowledge of these houses, and how to build them, is not even yet lost among the Senecas. Some years ago Mr William Parker, a Seneca chief, constructed for the writer a model of one of these long-houses, showing in detail its external and internal mechanism. The late Rev. Ashur W right, D. D , for many years a missionary among the Senecas, and familiar with their language and customs, wrote to the author in 1873 on the subject of these households, as follows: “As to their family system, when occupying- the old long-houses, it is probable that some one clan predominated, the women taking in husbands, however, from the other clans ; and sometimes, for a novelty, some of their sons bringing in their young wives until they felt brave enough to leave their mothers. Usually, the female portion ruled the house, and were doubtless clannish enough about it. The stores were in common ; but woe to the luckless husband or lover who was too shiftless to do his share of the providing. 5 1 The late Mrs. William Parker, of Tonawanda. 6G HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. No matter how many children, or whatever goods he might have in the house, he might at any time be ordered to pick up his blanket and budge ; and after such orders it would not be healthful for him to attempt to diso- bey ; the house would be too hot for him ; and unless saved by the inter- cession of some aunt or grandmother, he must retreat to his own clan, or as was often done, go and start a new matrimonial alliance in some other. The women were the great power among the clans, as everywhere else They did not hesitate, when occasion required, to ‘knock off the horns,’ as it was technically called, from the head of a chief and send him back to the ranks of the warriors The original nomination of the chiefs also always rested with them.” The mother-right and gyneocracy among the Iroquois here plainly indicated is not overdrawn. The mothers and their children, as we have seen, were of the same gens, and to them the house belonged. It was a gentile house. In case of the death of father or mother, the apartments they occupied could not be detached from the kinship, but remained to its members. The position of the mother was eminently favorable to her influ- ence in the household, and tended to strengthen the maternal bond. We may see in this an ancient phase of human life which has had a wide prev- alence in the tribes of mankind, Asiatic, European, African, American, and Australian. Not until after civilization had begun among the Greeks, and gentile society was superseded by political society 7 , was the influence of this old order of society overthrown. It left behind, at least among the Grecian tribes, deep traces of its previous existence . 1 Among the Iroquois, those who formed a household and cultivated gardens gathered the harvest and stored it in their dwelling as a common stock There was more or less of individual ownership of these products, and of their possession by different families. For example, the corn, after stripping back the husk, was braided by the husk in bunches and hung up in the different apartments; but when one family had exhausted its supply, their wants were supplied by other families so long as any remained. Each 1 These statements illustrate the gyneocracy and mother-right among the ancient Grecian tribes discussed by Bachofen in “Das Mutterrecht.” The phenomena discovered by Bachofen owes its origin, probably, to descent in the female line, and to the junction of several families in one house, on the prin- ciple of kin, as among the Iroquois. MORGAN. COMMUNISTIC HOUSES OF VIRGINIA INDIANS. 67 hunting and fishing party made a common stock of the capture, of which the surplus, on their return, was divided among the several families of each household, and, having been cured, was reserved for winter use. The village did not make a common stock of their provisions, and thus offer a bounty to imprudence. It was confined to the household. But the principle of hospitality then came in to relieve the consequences of destitution. We can speak with some confidence of the ancient usages and customs of the Iroquois ; and when any usage is found among them in a definite and pos- itive form, it renders probable the existence of the same usage in other tribes in the same condition, because their necessities were the same. In the History of Virginia, by Capt, John Smith, the houses of the Powhatan Indians are partially described, and are found to be much the same as those of the Iroquois We have already (pi o ted from this work the description of a house on Roanoke Island containing five chambers. Speaking of the houses in the vicinity of James River in 1606-1 (i08, he remarks, “Their houses are built like our arbors, of small young sprigs bowed and tied, and so close covered with mats, or the bark of trees, very hand- somely, that notwithstanding either wind, rain, or weather, they are as warm as stoves but very smoky ; yet at the top of the house there is a hole made for the smoke to go into right over the fire Against the fire they lie on little hurdles of reeds covered with a mat, borne from the ground a foot and more by a hurdle of wood. On these, round about the house, they lie, heads and points, one by the other, against the fire, some covered with mats, some with skins, and some stark naked lie on the ground, from six to twenty in a house * * * In some places are from two to fifty of these houses together, or but little separated by groves of trees.” 1 The noticeable fact in this statement is the number of persons in the house, which shows a household consisting of several families. Their communism in living may be inferred. Elsewhere he speaks of “houses built after their manner, some thirty, some forty yards long;” 2 and speaking of one of the houses of Powhatan he says, “This house is fifty or sixty yards in length;” 3 and again, at Pamunky, “A great fire was made in a long-house, a mat was spread on one side as on the other ; and on one side they caused him to ®Ib., i, 143. :, Ib., i, 142. 1 Smitli’s History of Virginia, Richmond ed., 1819, i, 130. 68 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. sit.” 1 We here find among the Virginia Indians at the epoch of their dis- covery long-houses very similar to the long-houses of the Iroquois, with the same evidence of a large household. It may safely be taken as a rule that every Indian household in the aboriginal period, whether large or small, lived from common stores. Mr. Caleb Swan, who visited the Creek Indians of Georgia in 1790, found the people living in small houses or cabins, but in clusters, each cluster being occupied by a part of a gens or clan. He remarks that “the smallest of their towns have from ten to forty houses, and some of the largest from fifty to two hundred, that are tolerably compact. These houses stand in clusters of four, five, six, seven, and eight together. * * * Each cluster of houses contains a clan or family of relations ivlio eat and live in common.” 2 Here the fact of several families uniting on the princi- ple of kin, living in a cluster of houses, and practicing communism, is expressly stated. James Adair, writing still earlier of the southern Indians of the United States generally, remarks in a passage before quoted, as follows: “I have observed, with much inward satisfaction, the community of goods that pre- vailed among them. * * * And though they do not keep one promiscu- ous common stock, yet it is to the very same effect, for every one has his own family or tribe, and when any one is speaking either of the individuals or habitations of his own tribe, he says, ‘He is of my house,’ or, ‘It is my house.’” 3 It is singular that this industrious investigator did not notice, what is now known to be the fact, that all these tribes were organized in gentes and phratries. It would have rendered his observations upon their usages and customs more definite. Elsewhere he remarks further that “for- merly the Indian law obliged every town to work together in one body, in sowing or planting their crops, though their fields were divided by proper marks, and their harvest is gathered separately. The Clierokees and Mus- cogees [Creeks] still observe that old custom, which is very necessary for such idle people.” 4 They cultivated, like the Iroquois, three kinds of maize, 1 Smith’s Hist. Va., Richmond ed., Ibl9, i, 160. 2 Schoolcraft’s Hist. Cond. and Pros, of Indian Tribes, vol. v. 262. 3 History of the American Indians, p. 17. «Ib., p. 430. MORGAN.] TRIBES OF THE PLAINS. 69 an “early variety,” the “hominy corn,” and the “bread corn,” 1 also beans, squashes, pumpkins, and tobacco. Chestnuts, a tuberous root something- like the potato but gathered in the marshes, berries, fish, and game, entered into their subsistence. Like the Iroquois, they made unleavened bread of maize flour, which was boiled in earthen vessels, 2 in the form of cakes, about six inches in diameter and an inch thick. Among the tribes of the plains, who siibsist. almost exclusively upon animal food, their usages in the hunt indicate the same tendency to com- munism in food. The Blackfeet, during the buffalo hunt, follow the herds on horseback in large parties, composed of men, women, and children. When the active pursuit of the herd commences, the hunters leave the dead animals in the track of the chase to be appropriated by the first persons who come up behind. This method of distribution is continued until all are supplied. All the Indian tribes who hunt upon the plains, with the excep- tion of the half-blood Crees, observe the same custom of making a com- mon stock of the capture. It tended to equalize, at the outset, the means of subsistence obtained. They cut the beef into strings, and either dried it in the air or in the smoke of a fire. Some of the tribes made a part of the capture into pemmican, which consists of dried and pulverized meat mixed with melted buffalo fat, which is baled in the hide of the animal. During- the fishing season in the Columbia River, where fish are more abundant than in any other river on the earth, all the members of the tribe encamp together, and make a common stock of the fish obtained. They are divided each day according to the number of women, giving to each an equal share. At the Kootenay Falls, for example, they are taken by spear- ing, and in huge baskets submerged in the water below the falls. The salmon, during the spring run, weigh from six to forty pounds, and are taken in the greatest abundance, three thousand a day not being an unusual number. Father De Srnet, the late Oregon missionary, informed the writer, in 1862, that he once spent several days with the Kootenays at these falls, and that the share which fell to him, as one of the party, loaded, when dried, thirty pack mules. The fish are split opeji, scarified, and dried on History of the American Indiaris, p. 430. 2 Ib., pp. 406, 40S. 70 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMEIUCAN ABORIGINES. scaffolds, after which they are packed in baskets and then removed to their villages. This custom makes a general distribution of the capture, and leaves each household in possession of its share . 1 Their communism in living is involved in the size of the household, which ranged from ten to forty persons. “ The houses of the Sokulks are made of large mats of rushes, and are generally of a square or oblong form, varying in length from fifteen to sixty feet ; the top is covered with mats, leaving a space of twelve or fifteen inches, the whole length of the house, for the purpose of admitting the light and suffering the smoke to pass through ; the roof is nearly flat, * * * and the house is not divided into apartments, the fire being in the middle of the large room, and imme- diately under the hole in the roof. * * * On entering one of these houses he [Captain Clarke] found it crowded with men, women, and chil- dren, who immediately provided a mat for him to sit on, and one of the party immediately undertook to prepare something to eat .” 2 Again: “He landed before five houses close to each other, but no one appeared, and the doors, which were of mats, were closed. He went towards one of them with a pipe in his hand, and pushing aside the mat entered the lodge, where he found thirty-two persons, chiefly men and women, with a few children, all in the greatest consternation .” 3 And again : “ This village being part of the same nation with the village we passed above, the language of the two being the same, and their houses being of the same form and materials, and calculated to contain about thirty souls .” 4 In enumerating the people ‘Alfred W. Howitt, F. G. S., of Bariusdale, Australia, mentions, in a letter to the author, the fol- lowing singular custom of an Australian tribe concerning the distribution of food in the family group: “A man catches seven river eels; they are divided thus (it is supposed that his family consists only of these named) : “1st eel. Front half himself; hind half his wife. ““d eel. Front half his wife’s mother; hind half his wife’s sister. “ 3d eel. Front half his elder sons; hind half his younger sous. “4th eel. Front half his elder daughters; hind half his younger daughters. “5th eel. Front half his brother’s sons; hind half his brother’s daughters. “6th eel. One whole eel to his married daughter’s husband. “7tli eel. One whole eel to his married daughter.” This custom may be supposed to show the ordinary household group, and the order of their relative nearness to Ego. It foots up himself and wife, wife’s mother and sister, his sons and daughters, his brother’s sons and daughter’s, and his daughter’s husband. It implies also other members of the house- hold, who are obliged to take care of themselves ; viz, his brothers and sisters. 2 Lewis and Clarke’s Travels, pp. 351-353. 3 lb., p. 357. ■' lb., p. 376. MORGAN.] INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COLUMBIA. 71 Lewis and Clarke often state the number of inhabitants with the number of houses, thus : “ The Killamucks, who number fifty houses and a thousand souls.” 1 “ The Chilts, who * * * are estimated at seven hundred souls and thirty-eight houses.” “ The Clamoitomish, of twelve houses and two hundred and sixty souls.” “ The Potoashees, of ten houses and two hundred souls.” “ The Pailsk, of ten houses and two hundred souls.” “The Quinults, of sixty houses and one thousand souls.” 1 Speaking generally of the usages and customs of the tribes of the “Co- lumbia plains,” they make the following statements : “Their large houses usually contain several families, consisting of the parents, their sons and daughters-in-law and grandchildren, among whom the provisions are com- mon, and whose harmony is scarcely ever interrupted by disputes. Although polygamy is permitted by their customs, very few have more than a single wife, and she is brought immediately after the marriage into the husband’s family, where she resides until increasing numbers oblige them to seek another house In this state the old man is not considered the head of the family, since the active duties, as well as the responsibility, fall on some of the younger members. As these families gradually expand into bands, or tribes, or nations, the paternal authority is represented by the chief of each association. This chieftain, however, is not hereditary.” 2 Here we find among the Columbian tribes, as elsewhere, communism in living, but restricted to large households composed of several families. A writer in Harper’s Magazine, speaking of the Aleutians, remarks : “When first discovered this people were living in large yourts, or dirt houses, partially underground, * * * having the entrances through a hole in the top or centre, going in and out on a rude ladder. Several of these ancient yourts were very large, as shown by the ruins, being from thirty to eighty yards long and twenty to forty in width. * * * In these large yourts the primitive Aleuts lived by fifties and hundreds for the double object of protection and warmth.” 3 ‘Lewis and Clarke’s Travels, pp. 426-428. 2 lb., p. 446. 3 Harper’s Magazine, vol. 55, p. 806. 72 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AM EE 10 AN ABOEICxINES. Whether these tribes at this time were organized in gentes and phra- tries is not known. At the time of the Wilkes expedition (1838—1842) the gentile organization did not exist among them ; neither does it now exist; but it is still found among - the tribes of the Northwest Coast, and among the Indian tribes generally. The composition of the household, as here described, is precisely like the household of the Iroquois prior to A. D. 1 700. The Mandan village contained at the time of Catlin’s visit (1832), as elsewhere stated, about fifty houses and about fifteen hundred people. “These cabins are so spacious,” Catlin remarks, “that they hold from twenty to forty persons — a family and all their connections. * * * From the great numbers of the inmates in these lodges they are necessarily very spacious, and the number of beds considerable. It is no uncommon thing to see these lodges fifty feet in diameter inside (which is an immense room), with a row of these curtained beds extending quite around their sides, being some ten or twelve of them, placed four or five feet apart, and the space between them occupied by a large post, fixed quite firmly in the ground, and six or seven feet high, with large wooden pegs or bolts in it, on which are hung or grouped, with a wild and startling taste, the arms and armor of the respective proprietors.” 1 The household, according to the cutsom of the Indians, was a large one. The number of inhabitants divided among the number of houses would give an average of thirty persons to each house. It is evident from several statements of Catlin before given that the house- hold practiced communism in living, and that it was formed of related families, on the principle of gentile kin, as among the Iroquois. Elsewhere he intimates that the Mandans kept a public store or granary as a refuge for the whole community in a time of scarcity. 2 In like manner Carver, speaking generally of the usages and customs of the Dakota tribes and of the tribes of Wisconsin, remarks that “they will readily share with any . of their own tribe the last part of their provis- ions, and even with those of a different nation, if they chance to come in when they are eating. Though they do not keep one common store, yet that community of goods which is so prevalent among them, and their gen- 1 North American Indians, Philadelphia ed., 1S57, i, 139. 2 lb., i, 210. MORGAN.] NUMBER OF PERSONS IN A HOUSEHOLD. erous disposition, render it nearly of the same effect.” 3 What this author seems to state is that community of goods existed in the household, and that it was lengthened out to the tribe by the law of hospitality. Elsewhere, speaking of the large village of the Souks, he says : “ This is the largest Indian town I ever saw. It contains about ninety houses, each large enough for several families.” 1 In a previous chapter ( supra p. 49.) Hecke- wekler’s observations upon hospitality among the Delawares and Munsees, implying the principle of communism, have been given He remarks fur- ther that “ there is nothing in an Indian’s house or family without its par- ticular owner. Every individual knows what belongs to him, from the horse or cow down to the dog, cat, kitten, and little chicken * * * For a litter of kittens or a brood of chickens there are often as many dif- ferent owners as there are individual animals. In purchasing a hen with her brood one frequently has to deal for it with several children. Thus, while the principle of community of goods prevails in the State, the rights of property are acknowledged among the members of the family. This is attended with a very good effect, for by this means every living creature is properly taken care of” 2 I do not understand what Heckewelder means by the remark that “the principle of community of goods prevails in the state,” unless it be that the rule of hospitality was so all-pervading that it was tantamount to a community of goods, while individual property was everywhere recognized until it was freely surrendered. This may be the just view of the result of their communism and hospitality, but it is a higher one than I have been able to take. The household of the Mandans consisting of from twenty to forty persons, the households of the Columbian tribes of about the same num- ber, the Shoshonee household of seven families, the households of the Sauks, of the Iroquois, and of the Creeks each composed of several fami- lies, are fair types of the households of the Northern Indians at the epoch of their discovery. The fact is also established that these tribes constructed as a rule large joint tenement houses, each of which was occupied by a large household composed of several families, among whom provisions were in common, and who practiced communism in living in the household. 3 Travels, etc., p. 171. 1 Travels, etc., Phila. ed. 1796, p. 29. 2 Indian Nations, p. 158. 74 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. Among the A'illage Indians of New Mexico a more advanced form of house architecture appears, and their joint tenement character is even more pronounced. They live in large houses, two, three, and four stories high, constructed of adobe brick, and of stone imbedded in adobe mortar, and containing fifty, a hundred, two hundred, and in some cases five hundred apartments in a house. They are built in the terraced form, with fire- places and chimneys added since their discovery, the first story closed up solid, and is entered by ladders, which ascend to the platform-roof of the first story. These houses are fortresses, and were erected as strongholds to resist the attacks of the more barbarous tribes by whom they were perpetu- ally assailed. Each house was probably occupied by a number of house- hold groups, whose apartments were doubtless separated from each other by partition walls. In a subsequent chapter the character of these houses will be more fully shown. Our knowledge of the plan of life in these houses in the aboriginal period is still very imperfect They still practice the old hospitality, own their lands in common, but with allotments to individuals and to fami- lies, and are governed by a cacique or sachem and certain other offi- cers annually elected. An American missionary to the Laguna Village Indians, Rev. Samuel Gorman, in an address before the Historical Society of New Mexico in 1869, remarks as follows: “They generally marry very young, and the son-in-law becomes the servant of the father-in-law, and very often they all live together in one family for years, even if there be several sons-in-law; and this clannish mode of living is often, if not gen- erally, a fruitful source of evil among this people. Their women generally have control over the granary, and they are more provident than their Span- ish neighbors about the future. Ordinarily they try to have one year’s provisions on hand. It is only when they have two years of scarcity suc- ceeding each other that pueblos as a community suffer hunger.” 1 The usages of these Indians have doubtless modified in the last two hundred years under Spanish influence; they have decreased in numbers, and the family group is probably smaller than formerly. But it is not too late to recover the aboriginal plan of life among them if the subject were ‘Address, p. 14. MORGAN.] TEIBES OF YUCATAN. 75 intelligently investigated. It is to be hoped that some one will undertake this work. The Spanish writers do not mention the practice of communism in living as existing among the Village Indians of Mexico or Central America. They are barren of practical information concerning their mode of life; but we have the same picture of large households composed of several families, whose communism in the household may reasonably be inferred. We have also the striking illustration of “ Montezuma’s Dinner,” here- after to be noticed, which was plainly a dinner in common by a communal household. Beside these facts we have the ownership of lands in common by communities of persons. • Moreover, the ruins of ancient houses in Cen- tral and South America, and in parts of Mexico, show very plainly their joint tenement character. From the plans of these houses the communism of the people by households may be deduced theoretically with reasonable certainty. Yucatan, when discovered, was occupied by a number of tribes of Maya Indians. The Maya language spread beyond the limits of Yucatan. This region, with Chiapas, Guatemala, and a part of Honduras, contained and still contains evidence, in the ruins of ancient structures, of a higher advancement in the arts of life than any other part of North America The present Maya Indians of Yucatan are the descendants of the people who occupied the country at the period of the Spanish conquest, and who occu- pied the massive stone houses now in ruins, from which they were forced by Spanish oppression. We have a notable illustration of communism in living among the present Maya Indians, as late as the year 1840, through the work of John L. Stephens. At Nohcacab, a few miles east of the ruins of Uxmal, Mr Stephens, having occasion to employ laborers, went to a settlement of Maya Indians, of whom he gives the following account: “ Their community con- sists of a hundred labradores, or working men; their lands are held and wrought in common, and the products are shared by all. Their food is pre- pared at one hut, and every family sends for its portion, which explains a singular spectacle we had seen on our arrival, a procession of women and children, each carrying an earthen bowl containing a quantity of smoking 7(5 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. hot broth, all coming down the same road, and disappearing among the different huts. Every member belonging to the community, down to the smallest pappoose, contributing in turn a hog. 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 some- times heard of among us; and as theirs has existed for an unknown length of time, and can no longer be considered merely experimental, Owen or Fourier might perhaps take lessons from them with advantage .” 1 A hundred working men indicate a total of five hundred persons, who were then depend- ing for their daily food upon a single fire, the provisions being supplied from common stores, and divided from the caldron. It is, not unlikely, a truth- ful picture of the mode of life of their forefathers in the “House of the Nuns,” and in the “Governor's House” at Uxmal, at the epoch of the Span- ish conquest. It is well known that Spanish adventurers captured these pueblos, one after the other, and attempted to enforce the labor of the Indians for per- sonal ends, and that the Indians abandoned their pueblos and retreated into the inaccessible forests to escape enslavement, after which their houses of stone fell into decay, the ruins of which, and all there ever was of them, still remain in all parts of these countries It is hardly supposable that the communism here described by Mr. Stephens was a new thing to the Mayas; but far more probable that it was a part of their ancient mode of life, to which these ruined houses were emi- nently adapted. The subject of the adaptation of the old pueblo houses in Yucatan and Central America to communism in living will be elsewhere considered. When Columbus first landed on the island of Cuba, he sent two men into the interior, who reported that “they travelled twenty-two leagues, and found a village of fifty houses, built like those before spoken of, and they contained about one thousand persons, because a whole generation lived in a house; and the prime men came out to meet them, led them by the arms, and lodged them in one of these new houses, causing them to sit down on 1 Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, ii, 14. MORGAN.] TRIBES OF PERU. 77 seats; * * * and they gave them boiled roots to eat, which tasted like chestnuts .” 1 One of the first expeditions which touched the main land on the coast of Venezuela in South America found much larger houses than these last described. “The houses they dwelt in were common to all, and so spacious that they contained one hundred and sixty persons, strongly built, though covered with palm-tree leaves, and shaped like a bell .” 2 Herrera further remarks of the same tribe, that “they observed no law or rule in matrimony, but took as many wives as they would, and they as many hus- bands, quitting one another at pleasure, without reckoning any wrong done on either part. There was no such thing as jealousy among them, all living as best pleased them, without taking offense at one another .” 3 This shows communism in husbands as well as wives, and rendered communism in food a necessity of their condition Elsewhere the same author speaks of the habitations of the tribes on the coast of Carthagena. “Their houses were like long arbors, with several apartments, and they had no beds but ham- mocks ” 4 Many similar statements are scattered through his work. Among the more advanced tribes of Peru the lands were divided, and allotted to different uses; one part was for the support of the government, another for the support of religion, and another for the support of individu- als. The first two parts were cultivated by the people under established regulations, and the crops were placed in public storehouses. This is the statement of Gfarcilasso . 5 Herrera, however, sa} r s generally that the people lived from common stores “ The Spaniards drawing near to Caxamalca begun to have a view of the Inca army lying near the bottom of a mount- ain. * * * They were pleased to see the beauty of the fields, most regularly cultivated, for it was an ancient law among these people that all should be fed from common stores, and none should touch the standing corn .” 6 The discrepancy between Herrera and Gfarcilasso may perhaps be explained by the reservation of the crops grown on lands set apart for the government and for religion. CT O The reason for presenting the foregoing observations of different authors concerning the households, the houses, and the practice of communism in 1 Herrera, i, 55. 3 Ib.,216. 3 Ib., i, 216. 4 Ib., 348. 5 Royal Com. 1. c., pp. 154, 157. 6 Herrera, iv, 249. 78 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. food, lias been to show, firstly, that the household of the Indian tribes was a large one, composed of several families; secondly, that their houses were constructed to accommodate several families; and thirdly, that the house- hold practiced communism in living. These are the material facts, and they have been sufficiently illustrated. The single family of civilized society live from common stores, yet it is not communism ; but where several fami- lies coalesce in one common household and make a common stock of their provisions, and this is found to be a general rule in entire tribes, it is a form of communism important to be noticed. It is seen to belong to a society in a low stage of development, where it springs from the necessities of their condition. These usages and customs exhibit their plan of life, and reveal the wide difference between their condition and that of civilized society; between the Indian family, without individuality, and the highly individu- alized family of civilization. CHAPTER IV. USAGES AND CUSTOMS WITH RESPECT TO LANDS AND TO FOOD THE OWNERSHIP OF LANDS IN COMMON. Among the Iroquois the tribal domain was held and owned by the tribe in common. Individual ownership, with the right to sell and convey in fee-simple to any other person, was entirely unknown among them. It re- quired the experience and development of the two succeeding ethnical periods to bring mankind to such a knowledge of property in land as its individual ownership with the power of alienation in fee-simple implies. No per- son in Indian life could obtain the absolute title to land, since it was vested by custom in the tribe as one body, and they had no conception of what is implied by a legal title in severalty with power to sell and convey the fee. But he could reduce unoccupied land to possession by cultivation, and so long as he thus used it he had a possessory right to its enjoyment which would be recognized and respected by his tribe. Gardens, planting - lots, apartments in a long-liouse, and, at a later day, orchards of fruit were thus held by persons and by families. Such possessory right was all that was needed for their full enjoyment and for the protection of their interest in them A person might transfer or donate his rights to other persons of the same tribe, and they also passed by inheritance, under established customs, to his gentile kin. This was substantially the Indian system in respect to the ownership of lands and apartments in houses among the Indian tribes within the areas of the United States and British America in the Lower Status of barbarism. In later times, when the State or National Government acquired Indian lands, and made compensation therefor, pay- ment for the lands went to the tribe, and for improvements to the individ- ual who had the possessory right. At the Tonawanda Reservation of the 70 80 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. Seneca-Iroquois, a portion of the lands are divided into separate farms, which are fenced and occupied in severalty, while the remainder are owned by the tribe in common. When a young man marries and has no land on which to subsist, the chiefs may allot him a portion of these reserved lands. The title to all these lands, occupied and unoccupied, remains in the tribe in common. Individuals may sell or rent their possessory rights to each other, or rent them to a white man. No white man can now acquire a title from an Indian to Indian lands in any part of the United States. A person could transfer his possessions to another, but apartments in a house must remain to his gentile kindred. In the time of James II the right to acquire lands was vested in the Crown exclusively as a royal prerogative, to which prerogative our State and National Governments succeeded. The same usages prevail on the Tuscarora Reservation, near the Niag- ara River, where this Iroquois tribe owns in common about 8,000 acres of fine agricultural land in one body. A part of this reservation has long been parceled out to individuals in small farms, fenced, and cultivated by the possessors. The remainder is unparceled and under the control of the chiefs. The people are allowed to remove from the wood-land of the reserve the dead wood and litter, but are not permitted to touch the standing tim- ber. When a young man marries, if he has no land, the chiefs allot him forty acres to cultivate for his subsistence ; but, before giving him posses- sion, the lot is first open to all the tribe to cut otf the timber for fire- wood. Tints, the double object is gained of supplying the people with fire-wood and of clearing the land for cultivation for the new family. These possess- or} 7 rights pass by inheritance to the recognized heirs. A person may transfer or rent his possession to. another person ; he may rent to a white man, but in no case can lie sell to a white man. And here I may be allowed a brief digression, to notice a recent opin- ion of the late Secretary of the Interior, Hon. Carl Scliurz, shared in to some extent by the National Government, in relation to the division of our Indian reservations into lots or tracts, and their conveyance in severalty to the Indians themselves, with power of alienation to white men after a short period, say twenty-five years. It is to be hoped that this policy will never be adopted by any National Administration, as it is fraught with nothing but MORGAN.] OWNERSHIP OE LANDS IN SEVERALTY. 81 mischief to the Indian tribes. The Indian is still, as lie always has been, and will remain for many years to come, entirely incapable of meeting the white man, with safety to himself, in the field of trade and of resisting the arts and inducements which would be brought to bear upon him. lie is incapable of steadily attaching that value to the ownership of land which its importance deserves, or of knowing how far the best interests of himself and family are involved in its continued possession. The result of individ- ual Indian ownership, with power to sell, would unquestionably be, that in a very short time he would divest himself of every foot of land and fall into poverty. The case of the Shawnee tribe of Kansas affords a perfect illustration of this pernicious policy. The Shawnees were removed to Kansas under the Jackson policy, so called, and occupied a splendid reservation on the Kansas River, where they were told they were to make their home forever. But after a few years of undisturbed possession, our people, in the natural flow of population, reached Kansas, where they found the Shawnees in possession of the best part of what has since been the State of Kansas Our people at once wanted these Indian lands, and they determined to root out the Shawnees in the interest of civilization and progress. They accomplished this result in the most speedy and scientific manner, using as their proposed lever this identical plan since adopted by Mr. Scliurz. First, the government was induced to re-purchase a part of the reservation on the ground that they had more land than they needed for cultivation ; and, secondly, the government induced the Indians to have the remainder divided up into farms and conveyed to heads of families in severalty, with power of alienation. In 1859, when this scheme was being worked out, I visited Kansas, and found the Shawnees cultivating and improving their farms, some of which embraced a thousand acres, and owning them, too, like other farmers. When next in Kansas, ten years later, the work was done. There was not a Shawnee in Kansas, but American farmers were in possession of all these lands. It was this indi- vidual ownership with power to sell that had done the work. In managing the affairs of our Indian tribes, we must apply a little common sense to their condition. In their brains they are in the same stage of growth and development with our remote forefathers when they learned 0 82 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. to domesticate animals, and came to rely upon a meat and milk subsistence. The next condition of advancement at which the Indian would naturally reach is the pastoral, the raising of flocks and herds of domestic animals. The Indian has taught himself to raise the horse in herds, and some of the tribes raise sheep and goats. A few of them raise cattle. If the govern- ment could assist them in this until they were started, they would soon become expert herdsmen ; would make a proper use of the unoccupied prairie area in the interior of the continent as well as of the reservations, and would become prosperous and abundant in their resources. Among the sedentary Village Indians of New Mexico, who were in the Middle Status of barbarism, the land system is much the same in principle, but with special usages adapted to a more advanced condition At Taos, the pueblo lands are held under a Spanish grant of 1689, covering four Spanish square leagues. This grant was afterward confirmed, as I am in- formed by David J. Miller, esq. of the surveyor-general’s office at Santa Fe, by letters patent of the United States. It is, of course, to the Taos Indians in common as a tribe, and without the power of alienation except among themselves These lands have been allotted from time to time to individuals, and held in severalty for cultivation ; but these allotments, so to call them, are verbal, and the rights of persons to their possession are settled and adjusted by the chiefs in case of disputes. Mr. Miller wrote me from Taos, under date of December 5, 1877, that “A land-owner cannot, under any circumstance, sell to any but a Pueblo Indian, and one of tins (Taos) pueblo If he should do so he would be banished the pueblo, and the sale be treated as void. There is an instance now in this pueblo of a San Juan Indian man married here, but he is not allowed to acquire land in the pueblo premises. His wife has lands which he cultivates. A piece of land belonging to a man may or may not be utilized by him, but it is recognized and treated as his in fee until he sell it or dies. If a lad grows up and marries, and his father or father-in-law has no land to give him, he may pur- chase in the pueblo, or the pueblo may assign him land, whereby the title in fee as private property remains in him until he sells or dies. When he dies it is divided equally among widow and children. If the children are small, his brother or other relatives cultivate the land for them until they MORGAN.] USAGES AMONG PUEBLO INDIANS. 83 can do it for themselves ; but the right of property is in the children. When a piece of land is sold it is done in the presence of witnesses, if it is so de- sired. Oftener the sale and transfer are made by and between the parties themselves No documents are used. This is so in all the pueblos. The rules and customs in the sale and deliveiy of rooms in a house and of per- sonal property, such as animals, are the same. There is no preference, as to males or females, in the descent of property rights and titles There is a corn-field at each pueblo, cultivated by all in common, and when grain is scarce the poor take from this store after it is housed. It is in the charge of, and at the disposal of, the cacique (called the governor). Land cannot be sold to an alien ; but an Indian coming from another pueblo to live at this may acquire land to subsist upon, though such immigration is rare. It is not allowed at any of the pueblos that a white person acquire prop- erty therein. An Indian woman is not allowed to marry a Mexican and live at the pueblo. A piece of land held and recognized as belonging to a person is his property, whether he utilizes it or not, and he may sell or donate it absolutely at his will to persons within the community. “At Jemes and Zia (other pueblos in New Mexico), when a woman dies her property goes into the control of her husband; if a widow, it descends to her children ; if she has no children, it goes to her brothers and sisters equally; and if none survive her, then to her nearest relatives; if she has no relatives, then to such friends as attend her in her last illness. It never reverts to the pueblo, which as a corporate community owns no land.” What Mr. Miller refers to as property rights and titles, and ownership in fee of land, is sufficiently explained by the possessory right found among the Northern tribes. The limitations upon its alienation to an Indian from another pueblo or to a white man, not to lay any stress upon the absence of written conveyances of titles made possible by Spanish and American intercourse, show quite plainly that their ideas respecting the ownership of the ultimate title to land, with power to alienate in fee, were entirely below this conception of property in land. The more important ends of individual ownership were obtained through the possessory right, while the ultimate title remained in the tribe for the protection of all. That the pueblo now owns no land, as Mr. Miller states, must be under- 84 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. stood to mean that all the lands of the oiiginal grant have been parcelled out. The further statement of Mr. Miller, that if a father dies his land is divided between his widow and children, and that if a mother dies, leaving no husband, her land is divided equally between her sons and daughters, is important, because it shows an inheritance by the children from both father and mother, a total departure from the principles of gentile inheritance. While visiting the Taos pueblo in the summer of ! 878 I was unable to find among them the gentile organization, and from lack of sufficient time could not inquire into their rules of descent and inheritance. My friend, Mr. Ad. F. Bandolier, now recognized as our most eminent scholar in Spanish American history, has recently investigated the subject of the tenure of lands among the ancient Mexicans with great thoroughness of research. The results are contained in an essay published in the Eleventh Annual Report of the Peabody Museum of Archasology and Ethnology, p. 385 (Cambridge, 1 878). It gives me great pleasure to incorporate verbatim in this chapter, and with his permission, so much of this essay as relates to the kinds or classes of land recognized among them, the manner in which they were held, and his general conclusions. In the pueblo of Mexico (Tenochtitlan), he remarks: “Four quarters had been formed by the localizing of four relationships composing them respectively, and it is expressly stated that each one ‘might build in its quarter (barrio) as it liked.’ 1 The term for these relationships, in the Na- lmatl tongue, and used among all the tribes speaking it, was ‘calpulli.’ It is also used to designate a great hall or house, and we may therefore infer that, originally at least, all the members of one kinship dwelt under one common roof . 2 3 The ground thus occupied by the ‘calpulli’ was not, as 1 Duran (Cap. V, p. 42). Acosta (Lib. VII, cap. VII, p. 467). Herrera (Dec. Ill, Lib. II, cap. XI, p. 61). 3 Torquemada (Lib. II, cap. LXVIII, p. 194. “Estaba de ordinario, recogido en una grande Sala (6 calpul).” (Lib. Ill, cap>. XXVII, p. 305. Lib. IV, cap. XIX, p. 396 (que asi Hainan las Salas grandes de Comunidad, u de Cabildo). We find, under the corrupted name of “galpon,” the “calpulli” in Nicaragua among the Niquirans, which speak a dialect of the Mexican (Nahuatl) language. See E. G. Squier (“Nicaragua,” Vol. II, p. 342). “The council-houses were called grepons, surrounded by broad corridors called galpons, beneath which the arms were kept, protected by a guard of young men”). Mr. Squier evidently bases upon Oviedo (“Hist, general,” Lib. XLII, cap. Ill, p. 52. “ Esta casa do cabildo llaman galpon . . .” It is another evidence in favor of our statements, that the kinship formed the original unit of the tribe, and at the same time a hint that, as in New Mexico, originally an entire kin inhabited a single large house. See Molina’s Vocab. (p. 11). MORGAN. | LANDS AMONG ANCIENT MEXICANS. 85 Torquemada admits, assigned to it by a higher power ; the tribal government itself held no domain which it might apportion among subdivisions or to individuals, either gratuitously or on condition of certain prestations, or barter against a consideration . 1 * 3 The tribal territory was distributed, at the time of its occupancy, into possessory rights held by the kindred groups as such, by common and tacit consent, as resulting naturally from their organi- zation and state of culture d “The patches of solid ground, on which these ‘quarters’ settled, were gradually built over with dwellings, first made out of canes and reeds, and latterly, as their means increased, of turf, ‘adobe,’ and light stone These houses were of large size , since it is stated that even at the time of the con- quest ‘ there were seldom less than two, four, and six dwellers in one house; thus there were infinite people (in the pueblo) since, as there was no other way of providing for them, many aggregated together as they might please.’ Communal living , as the idea of the ‘ calpulli ’ implies, seems, therefore, to have prevailed among the Mexicans as late as the period of their greatest power'd 1 The division into “quarters ” is everywhere represented as resulting from common consent. But nowhere is it stated that the tribal government or authority assigned locations to any of its fractions. This is only attributed to the chiefs, on the supposition that they, although elective, were still hereditary monarchs. 3 There is no evidence of any tribute or prestation due by the quarters to the tribe. The custom always remained, that the “ calpulli” was sovereign within its limits. See Alonzo de Zurita (“Rapport sur les differentes classes de chefs de la Nouvelle-Espagne,” pp. 51-65). Besides, Ixtlilxochitl says: (“Hist, des Cliichim,” cap. XXXV, p. 242), “Other fields were called Calpolalli or Altepetlalli.” Now calpulalli (from “calpulli,” quarter or kinship, and “tlalli,” soil), means soil of the bin, and altepetlalli (“ altepetl,” tribe), soil of the tribe. Clavigero even says that the lands called “ altepetlalli,” belong- ing to the communities “of the towns and villages, were divided into so many parts as there were quarters in the town, each quarter having its own, without the least connection will the other.” (Lib. VII, cap. XIV.) This indicates plainly that the kinships held the soil, whereas the tribe occupied the terri- torial expanse. The domain, either as pertaining to a “lord,” or to a “ state,” was unknown among the Indians in general. Even among the Peruvians, who were more advanced than the Mexicans in that respect, there was no domain of the tribe. 3 See Torquemada (Lib. II, cap. XI, and Lib. Ill, cap XXII). DurJn (cap. V). The quotation is from Herrera (Dec. II, Lib. VII, cap. XIII, p. 190), and is confirmed by Torquemada (Lib. Ill, cap. XXIII, p. 291), and especially by Gomara (“ Conquista de Mejico,” p. 443. Vedia, I). “Many married people (“muchos casados”) live in one house, either on account of The brothers and relations being together, as they do not divide their grounds ( “ heredades ”), or on account of the limited space of the pueblos ; although the pueblos are large, and even the houses.” Peter Martyr of Angleria (“ De Novo Orbe,” translated by Richard Eden and Michael Lok, London, 1612, Dec. Y, cap. X, p. 228), says: “But the common houses themselves as hygh as a mannes Girdle, were also built of stone, by reason of the swellyng of the lake through the floode, or washing flote of the Ryvers f allying into it. Vpon those greate foundations, they builde the reste of the house, with Bricke dryed, or burned in the sunne, inter- mingled with Beames of Tymber, and the common houses have but one floore or plancbin.” We are 8(5 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. “ The soil built over by each ‘ calpnlli ’ probably remained for some time the only solid expanse held by the Mexicans. Gradually, however, the necessity was felt for an increase of this soil. Remaining unmolested ‘ in the midst of canes and reeds,’ their numbers had augmented, and for residence as well as for food a greater area was needed. Fishing and hunting no longer satisfied a people whose original propensities were horti- cultural ; they aspired to cultivate the soil as they had once been accus- tomed to, and after the manner of the kindred tribes surrounding them. For this purpose they began throwing up little artificial garden beds, ‘ chi- nampas,’ on which they planted Indian corn and perhaps some other vege- tables. Such plots are still found, as ‘floating gardens,’ in the vicinity of the present city of Mexico, and they are described as follows by a traveler of this century : “ ‘ They are artificial gardens, about fifty or sixty yards long, and not more than four or five wide. They are separated by ditches of three or four yards, and are made by taking the soil from the intervening ditch and throwing it on the chinampa, by which means the ground is raised gen- erally about a yard, and thus forms a small fertile garden, covered with the finest culinary vegetables, fruits, and flowers. * * *’ “Each consanguine relationship thus gradually surrounded the surface on which it dwelt with a number of garden plots sufficient to the wants of its members. The aggregate area thereof, including the abodes, formed the ‘ calpullalli ' — soil of the ‘calpulli’ * 1 — and was held by it as a unit; the single tracts , however, being tilled and used for the benefit of the single families. The mode of tenure of land among the Mexicans at that period was there- fore very simple. The tribe claimed its territory, ‘altepetlalli,’ an unde- fined expanse over which it might extend — the ‘calpules,’ however, held and possessed ivithin that territory such portions of it as were productive ; each forcibly reminded here of the houses of Itza on Lake Peten, which were found in 1695. “Hist, do la Conq. de los Itzaex,” Lib. VIII, cap. XII, p. 494.” “ It was all filled with houses, some with stone walls more than one rod high, and higher up of wood, and the roofs of straw, and some ouly of wood and straw. There lived in them all the Inhabitants of the Island brutally together, one relationship occu- pying a single house.” See also the highly valuable Introduction to the second Dialogue of Cervantes- Salazar (“Mexico in 1554”) by my excellent friend Sr. Icazbalceta (pp. 73 and 74). 1 Alonzo de Zurita (p. 51). Ixtlilxochitl (“Hist, des Chichim,” cap. XXXV, p. 242). Torquemada (Lib. XIV, cap. VII, p. 545). Bustamante (“Tezcoco en los ultimos Tiempos de sus antiguas Keyes,” p. 232). MORGAN] OWNERSHIP OP LANDS AMONG ANCIENT MEXICANS. 87 ‘calpulli’ being sovereign within its limits, and assigning- to its individual members for their use the minor tracts into which the soil was parcelled in consequence of their mode of cultivation. If, therefore, the terms ‘altepet- lalli’ and ‘calpulalli’ are occasionally regarded as identical , it is because the former indicates the occupancy , the latter the distribution of the soil. We thus recognize in the calpulli, or kindred group, the unit of tenure of what- ever soil the Mexicans deemed worthy of definite possession. Further on we shall investigate how far individuals, as members of this communal unit, participated in the aggregate tenure. “ In the course of time, as the population further increased, segmentation occurred within the four original ‘ quarters, ’new ‘ calpulli’ being formed . 1 For governmental purposes this segmentation produced a new result by leaving, more particularly in military affairs, the first four clusters as great subdivis- ions . 2 But these, as soon as they had disaggregated, ceased to be any longer units of territorial possession, their original areas being held thereafter by the ‘minor quarters’ (as Herrera, for instance, calls them), who exercised, each one within its limits, the same sovereignty which the original ‘calpulli’ formerly held over the whole . 3 A further consequence of this disaggrega- l This successive formation of new “calpulli ” is nowhere explicitly stated, but it is implied by the passage of Diirdn which we have already quoted (Cap. V, p. 42). It also results from their military organization as described in the “Art of War” (p. 115). With the increase of population, the original kinships necessarily disaggregated further, as we have seen it to have occurred among the Qquiclid (see “ Popol-Vuh,” quoted in our note 7), forming smaller groups of consanguinei. After the successful war against the Tecpanecas, of which we shall speak hereafter, we find at least twenty chiefs, representing as many kins (Duran, cap. XI, p. 97), besides three more, adopted then from those of Culhuacan (Id., pp. 98 and 99). This indicates an increase. 2 “Art of War, etc.,” pp. 115 and 120. 3 Torquemada (Lib. Ill, cap. XXIV, p. 295) : “ I confess it to he truth that this city of Mexico is divided into four principal quarters, each one of which contains others, smaller ones, included, and all, in common as well as in particular, have their commanders and leaders . . . .” Zurita (“EappoTt,” p. 58-04). That the smaller subdivisions were those who held the soil, and not the four original groups, must he inferred from the fact that the ground was attached to the calpulli. Says Zurita (p. 51), “They (the lands) do not belong to each inhabitant of the village, hut to the calpulli, which possesses them in common.” On the other hand, Torquemada states (Lib. XIV, cap. VII, p. 545), “That in each jiuehlo, according to the number of people, there should he (were) clusters (‘parcialidades’) of diverse people and families .... These clusters were distributed by calpules, which are quarters (‘barrios’), and it happened that one of the aforesaid clusters sometimes contained three, four, and more calpules, according to the population of the place (‘pueblo’) or tribe.” The same author further affirms: “These quarters and streets were all assorted and leveled with so much accuracy that those of one quarter or street could not take a palm of land from those of another, and the same was with the streets, their lots running (being scattered) all over the pueblo.” Consequently there were no communal lauds allotted to the four great quarters of Mexico as such, hut each one of the kinships (calpules) held its part of the original aggregate. Compare Gomara (Vedia, Vol. I, “Conq. dc Mejico,” p. 434: “Among tributaries it is a custom, etc., etc.” Also p. 440). Clavigero (Lib. VII, cap. XIV) : “ Each quarter has its own tract, without the least connection with the'others.” 88 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. tion was (by removing the tribal council farther from the calpules) the necessity for an official building , exclusively devoted to the business of the whole tribe alone . 1 “This building was the l teepan ’ called, even by Torquemada, ‘house of the community’; it was, therefore, since the council of chiefs was the high- est authority in the government, the ‘council house’ proper. It was erected near the center of the ‘pueblo,’ and fronting the open space reserved for public celebrations. But, whereas’ formerly occasional, gradually merging into regular , meetings of the chiefs were sufficient, constant daily attendance at the “teepan’ became required, even to such an extent that a permanent residence of the head-chief there resulted from it and was one of the duties of the office. Consequently the ‘ tlacatecuhtli,’ his family, and such assistants as he needed (like runners), dwelt at the ‘official house.’ But this occu- pancy was in no manner connected with a possessory right by the occupant, whose family relinquished the abode as soon as the time of office expired through death of its incumbent. The ‘teepan’ was occupied by the head war- chiefs only as long as they exercised the functions of that office . 2 * * * “Of those tracts whose products were exclusively applied to the gov- ernmental needs of the pueblo or tribe itself (taken as an independent unit) there were, as we have already seen, two particular classes : “The first was the ‘teepan-tlalli,’ land of the house of the community, whose crops were applied to the sustenance of euch as employed themselves in the construction, ornamentation, and repairs of the public house. Of these there were sometimes several within the tribal area. They were tilled in common by special families who resided on them, using the crops in com- pensation for the work they performed on the official buildings. 1 Compare Duran (Cap. XI, p. 87). Acosta (Lib. VII, cap, XXXI, p. 470). It appears as if the “teepan” bad not been constructed previous to Ihe middle of the 14tb century, the meetings of tbe tribe being previously called together by priests, and probably in the open space around the main bouse of worship. Tbe fact of the priests calling tbe public meetings is proved by Duran (Cap. IV, p. 42). Acosta (Lib. VII, cap. VII, p. 468). Veytia (Lib. II, cap. XVIII, pp. 156,150. Cap. XXI, p. 186). Acosta first mentions “unos palacios, aunque harto pobres.” (Lib. VII, cap. 8, p. 470), on tbe occasion of tbe election of tbe first regular “tlacatecuhtli:” Acamapichtli — Torquemada says (Lib. XII, cap. XXII, p. 290) that they lived in miserable huts of reeds and straw, erected around tbe open space where the altar or place of worship of Huitzilopochtli was built. Tbe public building was certainly their latest kind of construction. -Nearly every author who attempts to describe minutely the “ chief-house” (teepan) mentions it as containing great balls (council-rooms). See the description of the teepan of Tezcuco by Ixtlilxochitl (“Hist, des Chichimcques,” cap. XXXVI, p. 217). « MORGAN.] DIVISION OF THE LANDS. 89 “The second class was called ‘tlatoca-tlalli,’ land of the speakers. Of these there was but one tract in each tribe, which was to be ‘four hundred of their measures long on each side, each measure being equal to three Castilian rods .’ 1 The crops raised on such went exclusively to the require- ments of the household at the ‘teepan,’ comprising the head-chief and his family with the assistants. The tract was worked in turn by the other members of the tribe, and it remained always public ground, reserved for the same purposes . 2 3 “ Both of these kinds were often comprised in one, and it is even not improbable that the first one may have been but a variety of the general tribute-lands devoted to the benefit of the conquering confederates. Still the evidence on this point is too indefinite to warrant such an assumption. “ While the crops raised on the ‘teepan-tlalli,’ as well as on the ‘tlatoca- tlalli,’ were consumed exclusively by the official houses and households of the tribe, the soil itself which produced these crops was neither claimed nor possessed by the chiefs themselves or their descendants. It was simply, as far as its products were concerned, official soil . 2 “ The establishing and maintaining of these areal subdivisions was very simple with the tribes of the mainland, since they all possessed ample terri- tories for their wants and for the requirements of their organizations. Their soil formed a contiguous unit. It was not so, however, with the Mexicans proper. With all their industry in adding artificial sod to the patch on which they had originally settled, the solid surface was eventually much too small for their numbers, and they themselves put an efficient stop to 1 Ixtlilxochitl (“Hist, des Chicliim,” cap. XXXV, p. 242). Vedia (Lib. Ill, cap. VI, p. 195). “ This had to he four hundred of their measures in square (‘encuadro,’ each side long), each one of these being equal to three Castilian rods . . . .” See “Art of War” (p. 944, note 183). “ The rod” (vara) is equal to 2.78209 feet English (Guyot). 3 Veytia (Lib. Ill, cap. VI, p. 195). It is superfluous to revert to the erroneous impression that the chiefs might dispose of it. 3 “ Patrimonial Estates” are mentioned frequently, but the point is, where are they to be found? Neither the “teepan-tlalli” nor the “tlatoca-tlalli,” still less the “calpulalli,” show any trace of indi- vidual ownership. “Eredad” (heirloom) is called indiscriminately “milli” and “cuemitl” (Molina, Parte la, p. 57). The latter is also rendered as “tierra labrada, 6 camellon” (Molina, Parte. I Io, p. 26). It thus reminds us of the “ chinamit.l ” or garden-bed (as the name “camellon” also implies), and reduces it to the proportion of an ordinary cultivated lot among the others contained within the area of the calpulli. It is also called “ tlalli,” but that is the general name for soil or ground. “ Tierras o eredades de particulares, juntas en alguna vega,” is called “tlalmilli.” This decomposes into “tlalli” soil and “milli.” But “vega” signifies a fertile tract or field, and thus we have again the conception of com- munal lands, divided into lots improved by particular families, as the idea of communal tenure neces- iarily implies. 90 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. further growth thereof by converting, as we have seen elsewhere, for the purpose of defence, their marshy surroundings into water- sheets, through the construction of extensive causeways . 1 While the remnants of the origi- nal ‘teepantl alii ’ and of the ‘ tlatocatlalli ’ still remained visible in the gar- dens, represented to us as purely ornamental, which dotted the pueblo of Mexico , 2 the substantial elements wherewith to fulfill a purpose for which they were no longer adequate had, in course of time, to be drawn from the mainland. But it was not feasible, from the nature of tribal condition, to extend thither by colonization. The soil was held there by other tribes, whom the Mexicans might well overpower and render tributary, but whom they could not incorporate, since the kinships composing these tribes could not be fused with their own. Outposts, however, were established on the shores, at the outlets of the dykes, at Tepeyacac on the north, at Iztapala- pan, Mexicaltzinco, and at Huitzilopoclieo to the south, but these were only military positions, and beyond them the territory proper of the Mexicans never extended . 3 Tribute , therefore, had to furnish the means for sustaining their governmental requirements in the matter ot food, and the tribute lands had to be distributed and divided, so as to correspond minutely to the details of their home organization For this reason we see, after the overthrow of the Tecpanecas, lands assigned apparently to the head war-chiefs, to the military chiefs of the quarters, ‘from which to derive some revenue for their maintenance and that of their children . 4 These tracts were but ‘official tracts,’ and they were apart from those reserved for the special use of the kinships. The latter may have furnished that general tribute which, although ‘“Art of War” (pp. 150 and 151). L. H. Morgan (“Ancient Society,” Part II, cap. VII, pp. 190 and 191). 3 Humboldt (“Essai politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne,” Vol. II, Lib. Ill, cap. VIII, p. 50): Nearly all the old authors describe the public buildings as surrounded by pleasure-grounds or orna- mental gardens. It is very striking that, the pueblo having been founded in 11125, and nearly a century having been spent in adding sufficient artificial sod to the originally small solid expanse settled, the Mexicans could have been ready so soon to establish purely decorative parks within an area, every inch of which was valuable to them for subsistence alone! 3 The Mexican tribe proper clustered exclusively within the pueblo of Tenuchtitlan. The settle- ments at Iztapalapan, Huitzilopoclieo, and Mexicaltzinco were but military stations — outworks, guarding the issues of the causeways to the South. Tepeyacac (Guadalupe Hidalgo) was a similar position — unimportant as to population — in the north. Chapultepec was a sacred spot, not inhabited by any num- ber of people, and only held by the Mexicans for burial purposes, and on account of the springs furnish- ing fresh water to their pueblo. 4 Tezozomoo (Cap. XV, p. 24). MORGAN.] SIMILAR TO LAND TENURES IN PERU. 91 given nominally to tlie head war-chief, still was £ for all the Mexicans in common.’ “The various classes of lands which we have mentioned were, as far as their tenure is concerned, included in the 1 2 calpulalli ’ or lands of the kinships. Since the kin, or £ calpulli,’ Avas the unit of governmental organi- zation, it also Avas the unit of landed tenure. Clavigero says : £ The lands called altepetlalli, that is, those who belonged to the communities of the towns and villages, Avere divided into as many parts as there were quarters in a toAvn, and each quarter held its own for itself, and without the least connection with the rest. Such lands could in no manner be alienated .’ 1 These ‘quarters’ were the ‘calpulli’; hence it follows that the consanguine groups held the altepetlalli or soil of the tribe. “ We have, therefore, in Mexico the identical mode of the tenure of lands which Polo de Ondogardo had noted in Peru and reported to the King of Spain, as follows: * * * ‘Although the crops and other pro- duce of these lands were devoted to the tribute, the land itself belonged to the people themselves. Hence a thing Avill be apparent which has not hitherto been properly understood. When any one wants land, it is con- sidered sufficient if it can be shown that it belonged to the Inca or to the sun. But in this the Indians are treated Avith great injustice; for in those days they paid the tribute, and the land teas theirs .' 1 2 * * * “ The expanse held and occupied by the calpulli, and therefore called ‘ calpulalli ’ was possessed by the kin in joint tenure . 3 It could neither be 1 “ Storia del Messico” (Lib. VII, cap. XVI). 2 “Narratives of the Eites and Laws of the Yncas, translated from the original Spanish manu- scripts, and edited by Clement E. Markham.” Publication of the “Haekluyt Society,” 1873. “Eeport of Polo de Ondegardo,” who was “ Eegidor ” of Cuzco in 15G0, and a very important authority (see Prescott, “History of the Conquest of Peru,” note to Book I, cap. V). Confirmed by Garcia (“El Origen de los Indios,” Lib. IV, cai). XVI, p. 1G2). 3 Znrita (“Support,” etc., etc., p. 50) : “The chiefs of the second class are yet called calpullec in the singirlar and chinancallec in the plural. (This is evidently incorrect, since the words £ calpulli ’ and ‘ chinancalli ’ can easily be distinguished from each other. “ Cbinancalli,” however, after Molina means ‘ cercado de seto’ (Parte Ila, p. 21), or an inclosed area, and if we connect it with the old origi- nal ‘ chinamitl ’ we are forcibly carried back to the early times, when the Mexicans but dwelt on a few flakes of more or les§ solid ground. This is an additional evidence in favor of the views we have taken of the growth of landed tenure among the Mexican tribe. We must never forget that the term is ‘ Nahuatl,’ and as such recognized by all the other tribes, outside of the Mexicans proper. The inter- pretation as ‘ family ’ in the QQuichd tongue of Guatemala, which we have already mentioned, turns up here as of further importance ; th. is chiefs of an old race or family, from the word calpulli or chi- nancalli, which is the same, and signifies a quarter (barrio), inhabited by a family known, or of old i )2 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. alienated nor sold ; in fact, there is no trace of barter or sale of land pre- vious to the conquest . * 1 If, however, any calpulli weakened, through loss of numbers from any cause whatever, it might farm out its area to another similar group, deriving subsistence from the rent . 2 If the kinship died out, and its lands therefore became vacant, then they were either added to those of another whose share was not adequate for its wants or they were dis- tributed among all the remaining calpulli .’ 3 The calpulli was a democratic organization. Its business lay in the hands of elective chiefs — ‘old men’ promoted to that dignity, as we intend to prove in a subsequent paper, for their merits and experience, and after severe religious ordeals. These chiefs formed the council of the kin or quarter, but their authority was not abso- lute, since on all important occasions a general meeting of the kindred was convened . 4 The council in turn selected an executive, the ‘calpullec’ or ‘ chinancallec,’ who in war officiated as ‘achcacauhtin’ or ‘teachcaulitin’ origin, which, possesses since long time a territory whose limits are known, and whose members are of the same lineage.” “ The calpnllis, families or quarters, are very common in each province. Among the lands which were given to the chiefs of the second class there were also calpnllis. These lands are the property of the people in general (‘de la masse du peuple’) from the time the Indians reached this land. Each family or tribe received a portion of the soil for perpetual enjoyment. They also had the name of calpulli, and until now this property has been respected. They do not belong to each inhabit- ant of the village in particular, hut to the calpulli, which possesses them in common.” Don Ramirez de Fuenleal, letter dated Mexico, 3 Nov., 1532 (“ Recueil de pieces,” etc., Ternaux-Compans, p. 253): “ There are very few people in the villages which have lands of their own ; * * * the lands are held in common and cultivated in common.” Herrera (Dec. Ill, Lib. IV, cap. XV, p. 135) confirms, in a condensed form, the statements of Zurita, “ and they are not private lands of each one, hut held in com- mon.” Torquemada (Lib. XIV, cap. VII, p. 545.) Veytia (Lib III, cap. VI, p. 196). “ Finally, there were other tracts of lands in each tribe, called calpulalli, which is land of the calpules (barrios), which also were worked in common.” Oviedo (Lib. XXXII, cap. LI, pp. 536 and 537). Clavigero (Lib. VII, cap. XIV). Bustamante (“Tezcoco,” etc., Parte Ilia, cap. V. p. 232). 1 Zurita (p. 52) : “He who obtained them from the sovereign has not the right to dispose of them.” Herrera (Dec. Ill, Lib. IV, cap. XV, p. 135) : “ He who possessed them could not alienate them, although he enjoyed their use for his lifetime.” Torquemada (Lib. XIV, cap. VII, p. 545) : “ Disputes about lands are frequently mentioned, but they refer to the eujoyment and possession, and not the transfer of the land. Baron Humboldt (“Vues des Cordilleres et monuments indigenes des peuples de l’Amdrique,” Vol. I, Tab. V) reproduces a Mexican painting representing a litigation about land. But this painting was made subsequent to the conquest, as the fact that the parties contending are Indians and Spaniards sufficiently asserts. Occasional mention is made that certain lands “could be sold.” All such tracts, however, like- the “ pallali,” have been shown by us to be held in communal tenure of the soil, their enjoyment alone being given to individuals and their families. 3 Zurita (p. 93) : “In case of need it was permitted to farm out the lands of a calpulli to the in- habitants of another quarter.” Herrera (Dec. Ill, lib. IV, cap. XV, p. 134) : “ They could be rented out to another lineage.” 3 Zurita (p. 52): “When a family dies out, its lands revert to the calpulli, and the chief dis- tributes them among such members of the quarter as are most in need of it.” 4 Zurita (pp. 60, 61, 62). Ramirez de Fuenleal (“ Letter,” etc., Ternaux-Compans, p. 249). MORGAN.] SMALLEST SUBDIVISIONS. 93 (elder brother ). 1 This office was for life or during good behavior . 2 It was one of his duties to keep a reckoning of the soil of the calpulli, or 1 calpu- lalli,’ together with a record of its members, and of the areas assigned to each family, and to note also whatever changes occurred in their distribu- tion . 3 Such changes, if unimportant, might be made by him; more impor- tant ones, or contested cases, had to be referred to the council of the kin- ship, which in turn often appealed to a gathering of the entire quarter . 4 “The ‘ calpulalli ’ was divided into lots or arable beds, ‘ tlalmilli .’ 5 These were assigned each to one of the married males of the kinship, to be worked by him for his use and that of his family. If one of these lots remained unimproved for the term of two consecutive years, it fell back to the quarter for redistribution. The same occurred if the family enjoying its possession removed from the calpulli. But it does not appear that the cultivation had always to be performed by the holders of the tract them- selves. The fact of improvement under the name of a certain tenant was only required to insure this tenant’s rights . 6 1 Zurita (p. 60) : The calpulli have a chief taken necessarily from among the tribe ; he must be one of the principal inhabitants, an able mau who can assist and defend the people. The election takes place among them. * * * The office of this chief is not hereditary ; when any one dies, they elect in his place the most respected old man. * * * If the deceased has left a son who is able the choice falls upon him, and a relative of the former incumbent is always preferred” (Id., pp. 50 and 222). Simancas M. S. S. (“ De l’ordre de-succession,” etc. ; “Kecueil,” p. 225) : As to the mode of regulating the jurisdiction and election of the alcaldes and regidors of the villages, they nominated men of note who had the title of achcacaulitin. * * * There were no other elections of officers.” * * * “Art of War,” etc. (pp. 119 and 120). '-Zurita (pp. 60 and 61). Herrera (Dec. Ill, Lib. IV, cap. XV, cap. 125) : “ I le elegian entresi y tenian por maior.” 3 Zurita (pp. 61 and 62) : “This chief has charge of the lands of the calpulli. It is his duty to defend their possession. He keeps paintings showing the tracts, the names of their holders, the situa- tion, the limits, the number of men tilling them, the wealth of private individuals, the designations of such as are vacant, of others that belong to the Spaniards, the date of donation, to whom and by whom they were given. These paintings he constantly renews, according to the changes occurring, and in this they are very skillful.” It is singular that Motolinia, in his “Epistola proemial” (“Col. de Doc.” ; Icazbalceta, Vol. I, p. 5), among the live “ books of paintings” which he says tho Mexicans had, makes no mention of the above. Neither does he notice it in his letter dated Cholula, 27 Aug., 1554 (“Eecueil de xneces,” etc., Ternaux-Compans). 4 Zurita “Rapport,” etc., pp. 56 and 62). We quote him in preference, since no other author known to us has been so detailed. 5 “Tlalmilli” “tierras, d heredades de particulares, que estan juntas en alguna vega” (Molina, Part lie, p. 124). e Each family, represented by its male head, obtained a certain tract or lot for cultivation and use, Zurita (p. 55). “The party (member of the calpulli, because no member of another one had the right to settle within the area of it — see Id., p. 53), who has no lands applies to the chief of the cal- pulli, who, upon the advice of the other old men, assigns to him such as corresponds to his ability and wants. These lands go to his heirs.” * * * Id., p. 56). “The proprietor who did not cultivate during two years, either through his own fault or through negligence, without just cause, * * * ho 94 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OP THE AM EE IC AN ABORIGINES. “Therefore the chiefs and their families, although they could not, from the nature of their duties, till the land themselves, still could remain entitled to their share of ‘ tlalmilpa ’ as members of the calpulli. Such tracts were cultivated by others for their use. They were called by the specific name of ‘ pillali ’ (lands of the chiefs or of the children, from ‘ piltontli,’ boy, or ‘ piltzintli,’ child), and those who cultivated them carried the appellation of ‘ tlalmaitT — hands of the soil . 1 “The ‘tlalmilpa,’ whether held by chiefs or by ordinary members of the kin (‘macehuales’), were, therefore, the only tracts of land possessed for use by individuals in ancient Mexico. They were so far distinguished from the ‘ tecpantlalli ’ and ‘tlatocatlalli’ in their mode of tenure as, whereas the latter two were dependent from a certain office, the incumbent of which « changed at each election, the ‘tlalmilli’ was assigned to a certain family, and its possession, therefore, connected with customs of inheritance. “Being- thus led to investigate the customs of Inheritance of the ancient Mexicans, we have to premise here, that the personal effects of a deceased -can be but slightly considered. The rule was, in general, that whatever a man held descended to his offspring . 2 Among most of the was called upon to improve them, and if he failed to do so they were given to another the following year.” Bustamante (Tezcooo, etc., Parte Ilia, p. 190, cap I) : “The fact that any holder of a ‘ tlal- milli ’ might rent out his share, if he himself was occupied in a line precluding him from actual work ou it, results from the lands of the ‘ calpulli’ being represented alternately treated as communal and again as private lands. Besides, it is said of the traders who, from the nature of their occupat ion, were mostly absent, that they were also members and participants of a ‘ calpulli ’ (Zurita, p. 223. Sahagun, Lib. VIII, cap III, p. 349): “Now, as every Mexican belonged to a kinship, which held lands after the plan exposed above, it follows that such as were not able to work themselves, on account of their per- forming other duties subservient to the interests of the community, still preserved their tracts by having others to work them for their benefit. It was not the right of tenancy which authorizes the improve- ment, but the fact of improvem ent for a certain purpose and benefit, which secured the possession or tenancy.” ' Prom “ tlalli ” soil, and “ maiti’ hand. Hands of the soil. Molina (Parte II«, p. 124) has: “tlahnaitl” — “labrador, 6 ganan.” This name is given in distinction of the “ macehuales ” or people working the soil in general. The tlalmaites are identical with the “mayeques.” (See Zurita, p. 224) : “ tlalmaites or mayeques, which signifies tillers of the soil of others.” * * * He distinguishes them plainly from the “teccallec,” which are the “tecpanpouhque” or “ tecpantlaca ” formerly mentioned as attending to a class of official lands (p. 221, Zurita). Herrera (Dec. Ill, Lib. IV, cap. XVII, p. 138) : “These mayeques could not go from oue tract to another, neither leave those whichthey cultivated, and they paid a rent to its masters according as they agreed upon (‘ en lo que se concertaban’) in what they raised. They paid tribute to nobody else but the master of the land.” This tends to show that there existed not an established obligation,. a serfdom, but a voluntary contract, that the “tlalmaites’ were not serfs, but simply renters. 2 Motolinia (Tratado II, cap. V, p. 120): “But they left their houses and lands to their chil- dren . . .” Gomara (p. 434) : “ Es costumbre de pecheros que el hijo mayor lierede al padre en toda la hacienda raiz y mueble, y que tenga y mantcnga todos los hermanos y sobrinos, con tal que hagan MORGAN.] IN MEXICO MALES INHERITED. 95 northern Indians a large cluster participated . * 1 In conformity with the or- ganization of society based upon kin, when in the first stage of its devel- opment, the kindred group inherited, and the common ancestor of this kin being considered a female, it follows that if a man died, not his children, still less his wife, but his mother’s descendants, that is, his brothers, sisters, in fact the entire consanguine relationship from which lie derived on his mother’s side, were his heirs . 2 Such may have been the case even among the Muysca of New Granada . 3 It was different, however, in Mexico, where we meet with traces of a decided progress. Not only had descent been changed to the male line , 4 but heirship was limited, to the exclusion of the kin and of the agnates themselves, to the children of the male sex . 5 What- ever personal effects a father left, which were not offered up in sacrifice at the ceremonies of his funeral , 6 they were distributed among his male off- ellos lo que el les mandare.” Clavigero (Lib. VII, cap. XIII) : “In Mexico, and nearly the entire realm, the royal family excepted as already told, the sons succeeded to the father’s rights; and if there were no sons, then the brothers, and the brothers’ sons inherited.” Bustamante (“Tezcoco,” etc., p. 219) : In all these cases, Bustamante only speaks of chiefs; hut the quotations from Motolinia and Gomara directly apply to the people in general. 1 Mr. L. H. Morgan has investigated the customs of inheritance, not only among the northern Indians, but also among the pueblo Indians of New Mexico. He establishes the fact, that the “kin- ship” or “gens,” which we may justly consider as the unit of organization in American aboriginal society, participated in the property of the deceased. He proves it among the Iroquois (“Ancient So- ciety,” Part II, cap. II, pp. 75 and 7fi). Wyandottes, Id., cap. VII, p. 153. Missouri-tribes, p. 155. Winnebagoes, p. 157. Maudans, p. 158. Minnitarees, p. 159. Creeks, p. 161. Choctas, p. 162. Chick- asas, p. 163. Ojibwas, p. 167 ; also Potowattomies and Crees, Miamis, p. 168. Shawnees, p. 169. Sauks, Foxes, and Menominies, p. 170. Delawares, p. 172. Munsees and Mohegans, p. 173. Finally, the pueblo Indians of New Mexico are shown to have, if not the identical at least a similar mode of inheritance. It would be easy to secure further evidence, from South America also. 2 “Ancient Society” (Part II, cap. II, p. 75 ; Part IV, cap. I, pp. 528, 530, 531, 536, and 537). 3 Gomara (“Historia de las Indios,” Yedia I, p. 201). Garcia (“Origen de los Indies,” Lib. IV, cap. 23, p. 247). Piedrahita (Parte 1, Lib. I, cap. 5, p. 27). Joaquin Acosta (“Compeudio historico del Descumbrimiento y Colonisazion de laNueva-Granada,” Cap. XI, p. 201). Ternaux-Compans (“L’ancien Cnndinamarca,” pp. 21 and 38). 4 Motolinia (Trat. II, cap. V, p. 120). Gomara (p. 434). Clavigero (Lib. VII, cap. XIII). Zurita (pp. 12 and 43). 5 Letter of Motolinia and Diego d’Olarte, to Don Luis de Velasco, Cholula, 27 Aug., 1554 (“Ke- cueil,” etc., etc., p. 407) : “The daughters did not inherit; it was the principal, wife’s son . . . .’ Besides, nearly every author designates but a son, or sons, as the heirs. There is no mention made of daughters at all. In Tlaxcallan, it is also expressly mentioned that the daughters did not. inherit (Tor- quemada, Lib. XI, cap. XXII, p. 348). Iu general, the position of woman in ancient Mexico was a very inferior one, and but little above that which it occupies among Indians iu general. (Compare the description of Gomara, p. 440, Vedia I, with those of Sahagun. Lib. X, cap. I, p. 1 ; cap. XIII, pp. 30, 31, 32, and 33. The fact is generally conceded). H. II. Bancroft, “Native Faces,” Vol. II, cap. VI, p. 224, etc. 6 Motolinia (Trat, II, cap. V, p. 120). Torquemada (Lib. XIII, cap. XLII to XL VIII, pp. 515 to 529). Acosta (Lib. V, cap. VIII, pp. 320,321, and 322). Gomara (pp. 436 and 437, Vedia, I). Mendicta (Lib. II, cap. XL, pp. 162 and 163). Clavigero (Lib. VI, cap. XXXIX). “They burnt the clothes, ar- rows, and a portion of the household utensils . ” 96 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. springs, and if there were none, they went to his brothers. Females held nothing whatever, beyond their wearing apparel and some few ornaments for personal use. “The ‘tlalmilli’ itself, at the demise of a father, went to his oldest son, with the obligation to improve it for the benefit of the entire family until the other children had been disposed of by marriage 1 But the other males could apply to the chief of the calpulli for a ‘tlalmilli’ of their own ; 2 the females went with their husbands. Single blessedness, among the Mexi- cans, appears to have occurred only in case of religious vows, and in which case the} T fell back for subsistence upon the part allotted to worship, or in case of great infirmities, for which the calpulli provided . 3 No mention is made of the widow participating in the products of the ‘tlalmilli,’ still it is presumable that she was one of those whom the oldest son had to support. There are indications that the widow could remarry, in which case her hus- band, of course, provided for her. “The customs of Inheritance, as above reported, were the same with chiefs as well as with the ordinary members of the tribe. Of the personal effects very little remained, since the higher the office was which the de- ceased had held, the more display was made at his cremation, and conse- quently the more of his dresses, weapons, and ornaments were burnt with the body. Of lands, the chiefs only held each their ‘tlalmilli’ in the usual way, as members of their kin, whereas the other ‘official’ lots went to the new incumbents of the offices. It should always be borne in mind that none of these offices were hereditary themselves. Still, a certain ‘right of suc- cession’ is generally admitted as having existed. Thus, with the Tezcucans, the office of head war-chief might pass from father to son , 4 at Mexico from 'Gomara (“G'onq. tie Mejico, p. 434): “It is customary among tributary classes that the oldest son shall inherit the father’s property, real and personal, and shall maintain and support all the brothers and nephews, provided they do what he commands them. The reason why they do not partition the estates is in order not to decrease it through such a partition . ” Simancas M. S. S. (“ Ke- cueil,” etc., etc., p. 224) : “Relative to the calpulalli .... the sons mostly inherited.” 2 Zurita (p. 55) : “He who has no land applies to the chief of the tribe (calpulli), who, upon the advice of the other old men, assigns to him a tract suitable for his wants, and corresponding to his abil- ities and to his strength.” Herrera (Dec. Ill, Lib. IY, cap. XV, p. 135). 3 Such unmarried females were the “nuns” frequently mentioned by the old writers. We shall have occasion to investigate the point in our paper on “ The ancient Mexican priesthood.” As attend- ants to worship, they participated in the tributes furnished towards it by each calpulli, of which we have spoken. 4 Zurita (p. 12). Gomara (Vcdial, p. 434). Torquemada (Lib. IX, cap. IV, p. 177; Lib. XI, cap. 27, p. 356, etc. etc.). MORGAN.] CONCLUSIONS CONCERNING MEXICAN OWNERSHIP. 07 brother to brother, and from uncle to nephew. 1 This might, eventually, have tended to perpetuate the office in the family , and with it also the pos- session of certain lands, attached to that officer’s functions and duties. But it is quite certain too that this stage of development had not yet been reached by any of the tribes of Mexico at the time of its conquest by the Spaniards. The principal idea had not yet been developed, namely, that of the domain , which, in eastern countries at least, gradually segregated into individually hereditary tenures and ownerships. “ Out of the scanty remains thus left of certain features of aboriginal life in ancient Mexico, as well* as out of the conflicting statements about that country’s early history, we have now attempted to reconstruct the con- ceptions of the Mexican aborigines about tenure of lands, as well as their manner of distribution thereof. Our inquiries seem to justify the following conclusions : “1. The notion of abstract ownership of the soil, either by a nation or state, or by the head of its government, or by individuals, was unknown to the ancient Mexicans. “2. Definite possessory right was vested in the kinships composing the tribe; but the idea of sale, barter, or conveyance or alienation of such by the kin had not been conceived. “3. Individuals, whatever might be their position or office, without any exception, held but the right to use certain defined lots for their sustenance, which right, although hereditary in the male line, was nevertheless limited to the conditions of residence within the area held by the kin, and of culti- vation either by or in the name of him to whom the said lots were assigned. “4. No possessory rights to land were attached to any office or chief- taincy. As members of a kin, each chief had the use of a certain lot, which he could rent or farm to others, for his benefit. “5. For the requirements of tribal business, and of the governmental features of the kinships (public hospitality included), certain tracts were set apart as official lands, out of which the official households were supplied and sustained; but these lands and their products were totally independent from the persons or families of the chiefs themselves. 1 This fact is too amply proven to need special references. We reserve it for final discussion in our proposed paper on the chiefs of the Mexicans, and the duties, powers and functions of their office. 7 98 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OE THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. ‘‘6. Conquest of any tribe by the Mexicans was not followed by an annexation of that tribe’s territory, nor by an apportionment of its soil among the conquerors. Tribute was exacted, and, for the purpose of raising that tribute (in part), special tracts were set off; the crops of which were gathered for t-lie storehouses of Mexico. “7. Consequently, as our previous investigations (of the warlike insti- tutions and customs of the ancient Mexicans) have disproved the generally received notion of a military despotism prevailing among them, so the results of his review of Tenure and distribution of lands .tend to establish ‘that the principle and institution of feudality did not exist in aboriginal Mexico.”’ Among the Peruvians their land system was probably much the same as among the ancient Mexicans. But according to Garcilapo de la Vega, they had carried their system with respect to lands a little farther. Their lands, he remarks, were “divided into three parts and applied to different uses. The first was for the Sun, his priests and ministers; the second was for the King, and for the support and maintenance of his governors and officers. * * * And the third was for the natives and sojourners of the provinces, which was divided equally according to the needs which each family required.” 1 While these several statements may not present the exact case in all respects in Peru, Mexico, or among the Northern Indian tribes, they suf- ficiently indicate the ownership of land by communities of persons, larger or smaller, with a system of tillage that points to large households. Neither the Peruvians, nor the Aztecs, nor any Indian tribe had attained to a knowl- edge of the ownership of land in severalty in fee simple at the period of their discovery. This knowledge belongs to the period of civilization. There is not the slightest probability that any Indian, whether Iroquois, Mexican, or Peruvian, owned a foot of land that he could call his own, with power to sell and convey the same in fee simple to whomsoever he pleased. 1 Eoyal Commentaries of Peru, Lond. ed., 1688. Eycaut, trans., p. 154. MORGAN.] ONE PREPARED MEAL EACH HAY. 99 THE CUSTOM OF HAYING BUT ONE PREPARED MEAL EACH DAY— A DINNER— AND THEIR SEPARATION AT MEALS, THE MEN EATING FIRST, AND THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN AFTERWARDS. This was the usage among the Indian tribes in the Lower Status of bar- barism. In the Middle Status there seems to have been more method and regularity of life, but no change in their customs with respect to food, so marked in character that we are forced to recognize a new plan of domes- tic life among them. The Iroquois had but one cooked meal each day. It was as much as their resources and organization for housekeeping could furnish, and was as much as they needed. It was prepared and served usually before the noon -day hour, ten or eleven o’clock, and may be called a dinner. At this time the principal cooking for the day was done. After its division at the kettle, among the members of the household, it was served warm to each person in earthen or wooden bowls. They had neither tables, nor chairs, nor plates, in our sense, nor any room in the nature of a kitchen or a dining room, but ate each by himself, sitting or standing, and where most convenient to the person. They also separated as to the time of eat- ing, the men eating first and by themselves, and the women and children afterwards and by themselves. That which remained was reserved for any member of the household when hungry. Towards evening the women cooked hominy, the maize having been pounded into bits the size of a kernel of rice, which was boiled and put aside to be used cold as a lunch in the morning or evening, and for the entertainment of visitors. They had neither a formal breakfast nor a supper Each person, when hungry, ate of whatever food the house contained. They were moderate eaters. This is a fair picture of Indian life in general in America, when discovered. After intercourse commenced with whites, the Iroquois gradually began to adopt our mode of life, but very slowly. One of the difficulties was to change the old usage and accustom themselves to eat together. It came in by degrees, first with the breaking up of the old plan of living together in numbers in the old long-houses, and with the substitution of single houses for each family, which ended communism and living in the large household, and substituted the subsistence of a single family through individual effort. After many years came the use of the table and chairs among the more 100 HOUSES AND HOUSE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. advanced families of the Iroquois tribes. There are still upon the Iroquois reservations in this State many log houses or cabins with but a single room on the ground floor, and a loft above, with neither a table or chair in their scanty furniture. A portion of them still live very much in the old style, with perhaps two regular meals daily instead of one. That they have made tins much of change in the course of two centuries must be accounted remarkable, for they have been compelled, so to speak, to jump one entire ethnical period, without the experience or training of so many intervening generations, and without the brain-growth such a change of the plan of domestic life implies, when reached through natural individual experience There is a tradition still current among the Seneca-Iroquois, if the memory of so recent an occurrence may be called traditional, that when the propo- sition that man and wife should eat together, which was so contrary to im- memorial usage, was first determined in the affirmative, it was formally agreed that man and wife should sit down together at the same dish and eat with the same ladle, the man eating first and then the woman, and so alternately until the meal was finished. The testimony of such writers as have noticed the house-life of the Indian tribes is not uniform in respect to the number of meals a day. Thus Catlin remarks, “As I have before observed, these men (the Mandans) generally eat but twice a day, and many times not more than once, and these meals are light and simple * * * The North American Indians, taking them in the aggregate, even when they have an abundance to sub- sist on, eat less than any civilized population of equal numbers that I have ever travelled among .” 1 And Heckewekler, speaking of the Delawares and other tribes, says: “They commonly make two meals every day, which they say is enough. If any one should feel hungry between meal-times, there is generally something in the house ready for him . 2 Adair contents himself with stating of the Chocta and Cherokee tribes that “they have no stated meal time .” 3 There was doubtless some variation in different localities, and even in the same household; but as a general rule, from what is known of 1 North. American Indians, Philadelphia ed., 1857, i, 20:!. 2 Indian Nations, 193. 3 History of the American Indian, Lond. ed., 1775, p. 17. MORGAN.] SAME AMONG ANCIENT MEXICANS. 101 tlieir mode of life, one prepared meal each day expresses very nearly all the people in this condition of society can do for the sustenance of mankind. Although the sedentary Village Indians were one ethnical period in advance of the Northern Indians, there can be but little doubt that their mode of life in this respect was substantially the same. Among the Aztecs or ancient Mexicans a dinner was provided about midday, but we have no satisfactory account of a breakfast or a supper habitually and regularly prepared. Civilization, with its diversified industries, its multiplied prod- ucts, and its monogamian family, affords a breakfast and supper in addi- tion to a dinner. It is doubtful whether they are older than civilization ; and even if they can be definitely traced backward into the older period of barbarism, there is little probability of their being found in the Middle period. Clavigero attempts to invest the Aztecs with a breakfast, but he was unable to find any evidence of a supper. “ After a few hours of labor in the morning,” he observes, “ they took their breakfast, which was most commonly atolli, a gruel of maize, and their dinner after midday ; but among all the historians we can find no mention of their supper .” 1 The “ gruel of maize” here mentioned as forming usually the Aztec breakfast suggests the “hominy of the Iroquois,” which, like it, was not unlikely kept constantly prepared in every Mexican house as a lunch for the hungry. Two meals each day are mentioned by other Spanish authors, but as the Aztecs, as well as the tribes in Yucatan and Central America, were ignorant of the use of tables and chairs in eating their food, divided their food from the kettle, placing the dinner of each person usually in a separate bowl, and separated at their meals, the men eating first and by themselves, and the women and children afterwards, this similarity of usage renders it proba- ble they were not far removed from the Iroquois in respect to the time and manner of taking their food Montezuma’s dinner, witnessed by Bernal- I )iaz and others, and elaborately described by a number of authors, shows that the Aztecs had a smoking hot dinner each day, prepared regularly, and on a scale adequate to a large household; that the dinner of each per- son was placed in one bowl, and all these bowls to the number of several hundred were brought in and set down together upon the floor of one room, History of Mexico, ii, 262. 102 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. where they were taken up one by one by the male members of the house- hold, and the contents eaten sitting down upon the floor or standing in the open court, as best suited them. The breakfast that preceded it, and the supper that follows, are not mentioned, from which we infer that there was neither a breakfast nor a supper for these inquisitive observers to see. Neither is the subsequent dinner of the women and children of the house- hold mentioned, from which it may be inferred that as the men ate their dinner first in a particular hall by themselves, the women and children took their dinner later in another hall, not seen by the Spaniards. In the accounts of Montezuma’s dinner a cook-house or kitchen is men- tioned, in which the dinner for the large household of the “ Tecpan” or “official house,” so fully explained above by Mr. Bandelier, was prepared. This kitchen, and the use of another room, where the bowls containing the dinner of each person separately were set down on the floor in a mass by themselves — an incipient dining-room — make their first appearance in the Middle Status of barbarism. But, as will be noticed, they are but rude realizations of the kitchen and dining-room of civilized man. The pueblo houses in Yucatan and Chiapas, now in ruins, are without chimneys, from which it mav be inferred that no cooking- was done within them. At Uxmal we recognize in the Governor’s House the Tecpan or official-house, and in the House of the Nuns, and other structures which formed the .pueblo, the joint-tenement houses in which the body of the tribe resided. If the truth of the matter is ever ascertained, it will probably be found that the dinner for each household group, consisting of several families, was prepared in a common cook-house outside of the main structure, and that it was divided at the kettle to the individuals of each household. The separation of the sexes at their meals has been sufficiently referred to among the Iroquois. Robertson states the usage as general: “They must approach their lords with reverence; they must regard them as more exalted beings, and are not permitted to eat in their presence ” 1 Catlin the same: “These women, however, although graceful and civil, and ever so beautiful, or ever so hungry, are not allowed to sit in the same group with the men while at their meals. So far as I have yet travelled in the History of America, New York eel., 1856, 178. MORGAN.] AMONG NORTHERN TRIBES. 103 Indian country, I have never seen an Indian woman eating with her hus- band. Men form the first group at the banquet, and women and children and dogs all come together at the next..” 1 And Adair “for the men feast by themselves and the women eat the remains.” 2 Herrera remarks that “the woman of Yucatan are rather larger than the Spanish, and generally have o-ood faces, * * * but they would formerly be drunk at their festivals, though they did eat apart” 3 And Sahagun, speaking ot the ceremony of baptism among the Aztecs, observes that “to the women, who ate apart, they did not give cacao to drink.” 4 With these general references to the universality of the practice on the part of the men of eating first, and leaving the women and children to come afterwards, according to the man- ners of barbarism, we leave the subject. 1 North American Indians, i, 202. 3 History of America, iv, 175. 2 History of the American Indians, p. 140. 4 Historia General, lib. iv, 36. CHAPTER V. HOUSES OF INDIAN TRIBES NORTH OF NEW MEXICO. The growth ot the idea ot house architecture in general is a subject more comprehensive than the scope of this volume. But there is one phase ot this giowth, illustrating as it does the condition of society and of the family in savagery and in barbarism, to which attention will be invited. It is found in the domestic architecture ot the American aborigines con- sidered as a whole, and as parts of one system. As a sj^stem it stands 1 elated to the institutions, usages, and customs presented in the previous chapters. There is not only abundant evidence in the collective architec- ture of the Indian tribes of the gradual development of this great faculty or aptitude of the human mind among them, through three ethnical periods, but the structures themselves, or a knowledge of them, remain for com- parison with each other. A comparison will show that they belong to a common indigenous system of architecture. There is a common principle 1 mining thiough all this architecture, from the hut of the savage to the commodious joint-tenement house of the Village Indians of Mexico and Central America, which will contribute to its elucidation. I lie indigenous aichitecture of the A illage Indians has given to them, more than aught else, their position in the estimation of mankind. The facts ot their social condition in other respects, which, unfortunately, are obscuie, have been much less instrumental in fixing their status than exist- ing architectural remains. The Indian edifices in Mexico and Central Ameiica of the period of the Conquest may well excite surprise and even admiiation ; from their palatial extent, from the material used in their con- struction, and from the character of their ornamentation, they are highly creditable to their skill in architecture. But a false interpretation has, from the first, been put upon this architecture, as I think can be shown, and 104 MORGAN.) HOUSES ADAPTED TO COMMUNISM IN LIVING. 105 inferences with respect to the social condition and the* degree of advance- ment of these tribes have been constantly drawn from it both fallacious and deceptive, when the plain truth would have been more creditable to the abo- rigines. It will be my object to give an interpretation of this architecture in harmony with the usages and customs of the Indian tribes. The houses of the different tribes, in ground-plan and mechanism, will be considered and compared, in order to show wherein they represent one system. A common principle, as before stated, runs through all this architecture, from the “long-house” of the Iroquois to the “pueblo houses” of New Mexico, and to the so-called “palace” at Palenque, and the “ House of the Nuns” at Uxmal. It is the principle of adaptation to communism m living, restricted in the first instance to household groups, and extended finally to all the inhabitants of a village or encampment by the law of hospitality. Hunger and destitution were not known at one end of an Indian village while abundance prevailed at the other. Joint-tenement houses, each occu- pied by one large household, as among the Iroquois, or by several house- hold groups, as in Yucatan, were the natural and inevitable result of their usages and customs. Communism in living and the law of hospitality, it seems probable, accompanied all the phases of Indian life in savagery and in barbarism. These and other facts of their social condition embodied themselves in their architecture, and will contribute to its elucidation. The house architecture of the Northern tribes is of little importance, in itself considered; but, as an outcome of their social condition and for comparison with that of the Southern Village Indians, it is highly important. An attempt will be made to show, firstly, that the known communism in living of the former tribes entered into and determined the character of their houses, which are communal ; and, secondly, that wherever the struc- tures of the latter class are obviously communal, the practice of commun- ism in living at the period of discovery may be inferred from the structures themselves, although many of them are now in ruins, and the people who constructed them have disappeared. Some evidence, however, of the com- munism of the Village Indians has been presented. 106 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. COMMUNAL HOUSES OF TRIBES IN SAVAGERY. ' Mr. Stephen Powers, in his recent and instructive work on the “ Cali- fornia Tribes,” 1 enumerates seven varieties of the lodge constructed by these tribes, adapted to the different climates of the State. One form was adapted to the raw and foggy climate of the California coast, constructed of redwood poles over an excavated pit; another to the snow-belt of the Coast Range and of the Sierras ; another to the high ranges of the Sierras ; an- other to the warm coast valleys ; another, limited to a small area, constructed of interlaced willow poles, the interstices being open ; another to the wood- less plains of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, dome-shaped and covered with earth ; and another to the hot and nearly rainless region of the Kern and Tulare valleys, made of tule. Four of these varieties are given below, the illustrations being taken from his work. “In making a wigwam, they excavated about two feet, banked up the earth enough to keep out the water, and threw the remainder on the roof dome-shaped. With the Lolsel the bride often remains in the father’s house, and her husband comes to live with her, whereupon half the purchase money is returned. Thus there will be two or three families in one lodge. They are very clannish, especially the mountain tribes, and family influ- ence is all potent.” 2 Elsewhere he remarks upon this form of house as fol- lows: “ On the great woodless plains of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, the savages naturally had recourse to earth for a material. The round, domed-shaped, earth-covered lodge is considered the characteristic one of California ; and probably two-thirds of its immense aboriginal population lived in dwellings of this description. The doorway is sometimes directly on top, sometimes on the ground, at one side. I have never been able to ascertain whether the amount of rain-fall of any given locality had any influence in determining the place of the door.” 3 This mode of entrance reappears in the more artistic house of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, where the rooms are entered by means of a trap-door in the roof, the de- ' Powell’s Geographical Survey, &c., of the Rocky Mountain Region, Contributions to American Ethnology, vol. iii, Powers’ Tribes of California, p. 436. 2 lb., p. 221. 3 lb., p. 437. Fig. ]. — Earth Lodges in the Sacramento Valley. MORGAN.] FORM OF HOUSE AMONG TRIBES OF CALIFORNIA. 107 scent being made by a ladder, The “immense aboriginal population” of California, claimed by Mr. Powers, is too strong a statement. “ This wigwam is in the shape of the capital letter L, made up of slats leaning up to a ridge-pole and heavily thatched. All along the middle of it the different families or generations have their fires, while they sleep next the walls, lying on the ground, underneath rabbit-skins and other less ele- gant robes, and amid a filthy cluster of baskets, dogs, and all the wretched trumpery dear to the aboriginal heart. There are three narrow holes for dens, one at either end and one at the elbow .” 1 This is Mr. Powers’ fifth variety of the lodge. “ In tl le very highest region of Sierra, where the snow falls to such an enormous depth that the fire would be blotted out and the whole open side snowed up, the dwelling retains substantially the same form and materials, but the fire is taken into the middle of it, and one side of it (generally the east one) slopes down more nearly horizontal than the other, and terminates in a curved way about three feet high and twice as long .” 3 Half a dozen such houses make an Indian village, with the addition of a “dome-shaped assembly or dance house” in the middle space. “One or more acorn-gran- aries of wicker-work stand around each lodge, much like hogsheads in shape and size, either on the ground or mounted on posts as high as one’s head, full of acorns and capped with thatch .” 1 In Southern California, where the climate is both dry and hot, the natives constructed a wigwam entirely different from those found in other parts of the State. “In the Yokut nation,” Mr. Powers remarks, “there appears to be more political solidarity, more capacity in the petty tribes of being grouped into large and coherent masses than is common in the State. This is particularly true of those living on the plains, who display in their encampments a military precision and regularity which are remarkable. Every village consists of a single row of wigwams, conical or wedge- shaped, generally made of tide, and just enough hollowed out within so that the inmates may sleep with the head higher than the feet, all in perfect alignment, and with a continuous awning of brushwood stretching along in front. In one end-wigwam lives the village captain; on the other the ‘Powers’ Tribes of Cal., p. 284. 108 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. shaman or si-se'-ro. In the mountains there is some approach to this mar- tial array, but it is universal on the plains .” 1 As a rule these houses were occupied by more families than one, as is shown by the same author. In the northern part of the State “the Tatu wigwams do not differ essentially from those of the vicinal tribes They are constructed of stout willow wicker-work, dome-shaped, and thatched with grass. Sometimes they are very large and oblong, with sleeping-room for thirty or forty persons .” 2 The Yo-kai'-a inhabit a section of the north- west part of the State. “ Their style of lodge is the same which prevails generally along Russian River, a huge frame-work of willow poles covered with thatch, and resembling a large flattish haystack. Though still pre- serving the same style and materials, since they have adopted from the Americans the use of boards they have learned to construct all around the wall of the wigwam a series of little state rooms, if I may so call them, which are snugly boarded up and furnished with bunks inside. This enables every family in these immense patriarchal lodges to disrobe and retire with some regard to decency, which could not be done in the one common room of the old-style wigwam .” 3 Again: “The Se-nel, together with three other petty tribes, mere villages, occupy that broad expanse of Russian River Valley on one side of which now stands the American village of Senel. Among them we find unmistakably developed that patriarchal system which appears to prevail all along Russian River. They construct immense dome- shaped or oblong lodges of willow poles an inch or two in diameter, woven in square lattice- work, securely lashed and thatched. In each one of these live several families, sometimes twenty or thirty persons, including all who are blood relations. Each wigwam, therefore, is a pueblo , a law unto itself; and yet these lodges are grouped in villages, some of which formerly con- tained hundreds of inhabitants . 4 I cannot find that Mr. Powers mentions the practice of communism in these households, but the fact seems probable Their usages in the matter of hospitality are much the same as in the other tribes. Their principal food was salmon, acorn-flour bread, game, kamas, and berries. They were, without pottery, cooked in ground ovens, and also in water-tight baskets by means of heated stones. Powers’ Tribes of Cal., p. 370. 2 Ib., p. 139. ^Ib., p. 1(53. 4 lb., -p. 168. Maid ii Lodge in the High Sierra. Ydkuts Title Lodges. MORGAN. | KUTCHlN LODGE. 109 A brief reference may be made to the skin lodge of the Kutclhn or Louchoux of the Yukon and Peel Rivers. This simple structure, the ground plan and elevation of which were taken from the Smithsonian Report , 1 is thus described by Mr. Strachan Fig. 5. — Kutclrin Lodge. Jones : “ Deer-skins are dressed with the hair on, and sewed together, form- ing two large rolls, which are stretched over a frame of bent poles. The lodge is nearly elliptical, about twelve or thirteen feet in diameter and six feet high, very similar to a tea-cup turned over. The door is about four feet high, and is simply a deer-skin fastened above and hanging down. The hole to allow the smoke to escape is about four feet in diameter. Snow is heaped up outside the edges of the lodge and pine brush spread on the ground inside, the snow having been previously shoveled off with snow- shoes. The tire is made in the middle of the lodge, and one or more fami- lies, as the case may be, live on each side of the lire, every one having his or her particular place .” 2 He further remarks that “they have no pottery,” and that they boil water “by means of stones heated red hot and thrown into the kettle .” 3 The principal fact to be noticed is that the lodge is com- parted into stalls open on the central space, in the midst of which is the fire-pit, evidently for the accommodation of more families than one. This arrangement of the interior will reappear in numerous other cases. The Kutchin must be classed as savages, although near the close of that condi- tion. Report for 1866, p. 321. 2 Ib., p. 322. 3 lb., p. 321. 110 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. The tribes of the valley of the Columbia lived more or less in villages, but, like the tribes of California, were without horticulture and without pottery. But they found an abundant subsistence in the shell-fish of the coast, and in the myriads of fish in the Columbia and its tributaries. They also subsisted upon kamash and other bread roots of the prairies, which they cooked in ground ovens, and upon berries and game. They were expert boatmen and fishermen, manufactured water-tight baskets, imple- ments of wood, stone, and bone, and used the bow and arrow. As another quite remarkable fact, they used plank in their houses, made by splitting logs with stone and elk-horn chisels. Like the Kutchin, they were in the Upper Status of savagery. When Lewis and Clarke visited the Columbia River district (1805-1806) the}^ found the Indian tribes living in houses of the plainest communal type, and some of them approaching in ground dimensions and in the number of their occupants the pueblo houses in New Mexico. They speak of a house of the Cliopunish (Nez Percfs) as follows: “This village of Tumachem- ootool is in fact only a single house one hundred and fifty feet long, built after the Cliopunish fashion, with sticks, straw and dried grass. It con- tains twenty-four fires, about double that number of families, and might perhaps muster a hundred fighting men.” 1 This would give five hundred people in a single house. The number of fires probably indicates the num- ber of groups practicing communism in living among themselves, though for aught we know it may have been general in the entire household. ! o Ov ro to o 3 30' 226 FT. Fig. 6 — Ground-plan of Ncerclioldoo. Another great house, Ncerchokioo, is thus described: “This large building is two hundred and twenty- six feet in front, entirely above ground, and may be considered a single house, because the whole is under one roof, otherwise it would seem more like a range of buildings, as it is divided into 1 Travels, etc., I. c., p. 548. MORGAN. 1 HOUSES OF TRIBES OF COLUMBIA. Ill seven distinct apartments, each thirty feet square, by means of broad boards set up on end from the floor to the roof. The apartments are separated from each other by a passage or alle}^ four feet wide, extending through the whole depth of the house, and the only entrance is from the alley through a small hole about twenty inches wide and not more than three feet high. The roof is formed of rafters and round poles laid on horizontally. The whole is covered with a double roof of bark of white cedar .” 1 The apart- ments, as in the previous case of the tires, may be supposed to indicate the number of groups into which the great household was subdivided for the practice of communism. Elsewhere, speaking of the houses of the Clahclellahs, they remark: “These houses are uncommonly large; one of them measured one hundred and sixty by forty feet, and the frames are constructed in the usual manner. * * * Most of the houses are built of boards and covered with bark, though some of the more inferior kind are constructed wholly of cedar bark, kept smooth and flat by small splinters fixed crosswise through the bark, at the distance of twelve or fourteen inches apart .” 2 The houses of the coast tribes (Clatsops and Chinooks) are also described. “The houses in this neighborhood are all large wooden build- ings, ranging in length from twenty to sixty feet, and from fourteen to twenty in width. They are constructed in the following manner: two posts of split timber or more, agreeable to the number of partitions, are sunk in the ground, above which they rise to the height of fourteen or eighteen feet. They are hollowed at the top, so as to receive the end of a round beam or pole (ridge-pole) stretching from one to the other, and forming' the upper point of the roof for the whole extent of the building. On each side of this range is placed another, which forms the eaves of the house, and is about five feet high; and as the building is often sunk to the depth of four or five feet, the eaves come very near the surface of the earth. Smaller pieces of timber are now extended by pairs, in the form of rafters, from the lower to the upper beams, where they are attached at both ends with cords of cedar bark. On these rafters two or three ranges of small poles are placed hori- zontally, and secured in the same way with strings of cedar bark. The 1 Lewis and Clarke’s Travels, p. r>03. 3 Ib.,p. 515. 112 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. sides are now made, with a range of white boards, sunk a small distance into the ground, with upper ends projecting above the poles at the eaves. * * * The gable end and partitions are formed in the same way. * * * The roof is then covered with a double range of thin boards, except an aperture of two or three feet in the center, for the smoke to pass through. The entrance is by a small hole, cut out of the boards, and just large enough to admit the body. The very largest houses only are divided by partitions, for though three or four families reside in the same room, there is quite space enough for all of them. In the center of each room is a space six or eight feet square, sunk to the depth of twelve inches below the rest of the floor, and inclosed by four pieces of square timber. Here they make the fire, for which purpose pine bark is generally preferred. Around the fire- place mats are placed, and serve as seats during the day, and very fre- quently as beds at night. There is, however, a more permanent bed made by fixing, in two or sometimes three sides of the room, posts reaching from the roof to the ground, and at the distance of four feet from the wall. From these posts to the wall itself, one or two ranges of boards are placed so as to form shelves, in which they either sleep or there stow away their various articles of merchandise.” 1 These explorers found the houses of the Indian tribes throughout the Columbia Valley occupied by several families, the smallest of them con- taining from twenty to forty persons, and the largest five hundred. The presence of large households is fully shown as the rule in their house-life. The practice of communism by the household, as stated by these authors, has already (supra, p. 71) been presented. This tendency to aggregation in groups, for subsistence and for mutual protection, reveals the weakness of the single family in the presence of the hardships of life. Communism in living was very plainly a necessity of their condition. In a recent description (18G9) of the modern houses of the Makali Indians of Cape Flattery, Washington Territory, by Mr. James G. Swan, the old usage which led to joint-tenement houses still asserts itself. Speak- ing of the manner of building these houses in detail, he remarks that “they are designed to accommodate several families, and are of various dimeri- 1 Lewis and Clarke’s Travels, p. 431, MORGAN.] OJIBWA LODGE. 113 sions ; some of them being sixty feet long by thirty wide, and from ten to fifteen feet high.” 1 The houses were made of split boards on a frame ot timber. COMMUNAL HOUSES OF TRIBES IN LOWER STATUS OF BARBARISM. Among the Indian tribes in the Lower Status of barbarism some diversity existed in the plans of the lodge and house. Fig. 7, which is taken from Schoolcraft’s work on the Indian tribes, shows the frame of an Ojibwa cabin or lodge of the best class, as it may still be seen on the south shore of Lake Superior. Its mechanism is sufficiently shown by the frame of elastic poles exhib- ited by the figure. It is covered with bark, usually canoe -birch, taken off in large pieces and attached with splints. Its size on the ground va- FlG. 7. — Frame of Ojibwa Wig-e-wam. ried from ten to sixteen feet, and its height- from six to ten. Twigs of spruce or hemlock were strewn around the border of the lodge on the ground floor, upon which blankets and skins were spread for beds. The fire-pit was in the center of the floor, over which, in the center of the roof, was an opening for the exit of the smoke. Such a lodge would accommodate, in the aboriginal plan of living, two and sometimes three married pairs with their children. Several such lodges were usually found in a cluster, and the several households consisted of related families, the principal portion being of the same gens or clan. I am not able to state whether or not the households thus united by the bond of kin practiced communism in living in ancient times, but it seems probable. Carver, who visited an Ojibwa village in Wisconsin in 1767, makes it appear that each house was occupied by several families. “This town,” he remarks, “con- tains about, forty houses, and can send out upwards of a hundred warriors, many of whom are fine young men.” 2 This would give, by the usual rule 1 Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, No. 220, p. 5. 2 Travels, etc., p. 65, 8 ' ’ . 114 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. of computation, five hundred persons, and an average of twelve persons to a house. When first discovered the Dakotas lived in houses constructed with a frame ot poles and covered with bark, each of which was large enough for several families. They dwelt princi- pally in villages in their original area on the head-waters of the Mississippi, in the present State of Minnesota. Forced upon the plains by an advanc- ing white population, but after they had become possessed of horses, they invented a skin tent eminently adapted to their present nomadic condition. It is superior to any other in use among the American aborigines from its roominess, its portable character, and the facility with which it can be erected and struck. The frame con- sists of thirteen poles from fifteen to eighteen feet in length, which, after being tied together at the small ends, are raised upright with a twist so as to cross the poles above the fastening. They are then drawn apart at, the large ends and adjusted upon the ground in the rim of a circle usually ten feet in diameter. A number of untanned and tanned buffalo skins, stitched together in a form adjustable to the frame, are drawn around it and lashed together, as shown in the figure. The lower edges are secured to the ground with tent-pins. At the top there is an extra skin adjusted as a collar, so as to be open on the windward side to facilitate the exit of the smoke. A low opening is left for a doorway, which is covered with an extra skin used as a drop. The fire-pit and arrangements for beds are the same as in the Ojibwa lodge, grass being used in the place of spruce or hemlock twigs. When the tent is struck, the poles are attached to a horse, half on each side, like thills, secured to the horse’s neck at one end, and the other dragging on the ground. The skin-covering and other camp-equipage are packed upon other horses and even upon their dogs, and are thus trans- ported from place to place on the plains. This tent is so well adapted to their mode of life that it has spread far and wide among the Indian tribes MORGAN.] HOUSES OF THE VIRGINIA INDIANS. 11,5 of the prairie region. I have seen it in nse among seven or eight Dakota sub-tribes, among the Iowas, Otoes, and Pawnees, and among the Black- feet, Crows, Assiniboines, and Crees. In 1878 I saw it in use among the Utes of Colorado. A collection of fifty of these tents, which would accommodate five hundred persons, make a picturesque appearance. Under the name of the “Sibley tent” it is now in use, with some modifica- tions of plan, in the United States Army, for service on the plains. Sir Richard Grenville’s expedition in 1585 visited the south part of the original colony of Virginia, now included in North Carolina. They landed at Roanoke Island, and also ascended a section of Albemarle Sound as far as the villages of Pomeiock and Secotan. An artist, John Wyth, be- fore mentioned, was a member of this expedition, and we are indebted to him for a number of valuable sketches — the two villages named among the number, of which copies are given, together with representa- tions of the people and of their in- dustrial arts The description of Pomeiock is as follows: “The towns in Virginia are very like those of Florida, not, however, so well and firmly built, and are enclosed by a circular palisade with a narrow entrance. In the town of Pomeiock, the buildings are mostly those of the chiefs and men of rank. On one side is the Temple (council-house) (A) of a circular shape, apart from the rest, and covered with mats on every side, without windows, and receiving no light except through the entrance. The resi- dence of their chief (B) is constructed of poles fixed in the ground, bound together and covered with mats, which are thrown off at pleasure, to admit as much light and air as they may require. Some are covered with the boughs of trees. The natives, as represented in the plate, are indulging 116 DOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. in their sports. When the spring or pond is at a distance from the town, they dig a ditch from it that supplies them with water ” 1 The village consisted of seventeen joint-tenement houses and a council- house, arranged around a central open space, and surrounded with a pali- sade. Here the Algonkin lodge, unlike that of the Ojibwas, is a long, round-roofed house, apparently from fifty to eighty feet in length, covered with movable matting in th.e place of bark, and large enough to accom- modate several families. The suggestion of this author, that “the buildings were mostly those of chiefs and men of rank,” embodies the precise error which has repeated itself from first to last with respect to the houses of American aborigines. Because the houses at, Pomeiock were large, they were the residences of chiefs; and because the House of the Nuns at Uxmal was of palatial extent, it was the exclusive residence of an Indian poten- tate — conclusions opposed to the whole theory of Indian life and institutions. Indian chiefs, the continent over, were housed with the people, and no better, as a rule, than the poorest of them. “Some of their towns,” says the same author, “are not enclosed with a palisade and are much more pleasant ; Secotan, for example, here drawn from nature. The houses are more scattered and a greater degree of com- fort and cultivation is observable, with gardens in which tobacco (E) is cultivated, woods filled with deer, and fields of corn. In the fields they erect a stage (F), in which a sentry is stationed to guard against the dep- redations of birds and thieves. Their corn they plant in rows (Id), for it grows so large, with thick stalk and broad leaves, that one plant would stint the other and it would never arrive at maturity. They have also a curious place (C) where the) 7 convene with their neighbors at their feasts, as more fully shown on Plate 20, and from which they go to the feast (D) On the opposite side is their place of prayer (B), and near to it the sepul- chre of their chiefs (A). * * * They have gardens for melons (I), and a place (K) where they build their sacred fires. At a little distance from the town is the pond (L) from which they obtain their water.” 2 The houses of the Powhatan Indians of Virginia proper, as described 1 Wyth’s Sketches of Virginia, first published by De Bry, 1690, La, ugly’s ed., 1841, Plate 21. 2 Sketches, etc., of Virginia, description of Plate 22. Fig. 10. — Village of Seeotan MORGAN 1 HOUSES OF THE VIRGINIA INDIANS. 117 by Captain John Smith, were precisely like those of Pomeiock and Secotan. A part of the interior of the house in which Smith was received by Pow- hatan as a prisoner is engraved upon his map of Virginia, of which the following is a copy: “Their houses are built/’ Smith remarks, “like our arbors, of small young sprigs, bowed and tied, and so close covered with mats, or the bark of trees, very handsomely, that notwith- standing either wind, rain, or weather, they are as warm as stoves, but very smoky ; yet, at the top of the house there is a hole made for the smoke to - ' U) I % JOYCE'S PROCESS, Fig. 33. — Ground plau of Cliettro Kettle, Room in Pueb’o Chettro Kettle. ✓ / WALLS OBSCURE < □□□□□□□ L □ □ □ 1 \ /' 2 \ ESTUFA ESTUFA < = LJ H I I I IL: (/) rr < — □ □ L I 17 \E sru FA j 70 eo so too SCALE, 100 FEET. Fig. 35. — Ground plan of Pueblo Bonito. Joyce's process MORGAN.] RUINS OF PUEBLO BONITO. 163 in its original condition, this line pueblo must have made a very striking appearance. Immediately under the walls of the canon, and about a quarter of a mile below the last pueblo, are the ruins of the still greater Pueblo Bonito, Fig. 35. This edifice is, in some respects, the most interesting of the series as well as the best preserved in certain portions Its exterior development, including the court, is one thousand three hundred feet. Its corners are rounded, and the east wing, now the most ruinous part of the structure, appears to have had row upon row of apartments added, until nearly one-third of the area of the court was covered “Its present elevation,” General Simpson observes, “ shows that it had at least four stories of apartments. The num- ber of rooms on the ground floor is one hundred and thirty-nine. In this enumeration, however, are not included the apartments which are not dis- tinguishable in the eastern portion of the pueblo, and which would swell the number to about two hundred. There, then, having been at least four stories of rooms * * * there must be a reduction * * * of one range of rooms for every story after the first, which would increase the number to six hundred and forty-one.” 1 No single edifice of equal accom- modations, it may be here repeated, has ever been found in any part of North America. It would accommodate three thousand Indians One of the best of its rooms is shown in the engraving, Fig. 36. It will compare, not unfavorably, with any of equal size to be found at Palenque or Uxmal, although, from the want of a vaulted ceiling, not equal in artistic design. The nice mechanical adjustment of the masonry and the finish of the ceiling are highly creditable to the taste and skill of the builders. “ It is walled up,” says Simpson, “with alternate beds of large and small stones, the regularity of the combination producing a very pleasant effect. The ceiling of this room is also more tasteful than any we have seen, the trans- verse beams being smaller and more numerous, and the longitudinal pieces, which rest upon them, only about an inch in diameter, and beautifully reg- ular. These latter have somewhat the appearance of barked willow. The room has a doorway at each end, and one at the side, each of them leading Simpson’s Report, p. 81 164 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. into adjacent apartments. The light is let in by a window two feet by eight inches on the north side.” 1 Mr. Jackson’s study of the ruins enabled him to produce a restoration, which is given in his report, and of whose plate Fig. 37 is a copy. It is an interesting work, considered as a restoration, which can only claim to be an approximation. It will be noticed that three passage-ways were left open into the court, although the ground plan shows but one. In the Yucatan edifices, as the House of the Nuns at Uxmal, there is usually an arched gateway through the center of the building facing the court. The court was also open at each of the four angles, which, however, might have been protected b} 7 palisades in time of danger. The walls of the canon are seen in the background of the engraving. Of this pueblo, Mr. Jackson remarks that “three hundred yards below are the ruins of the Pueblo del Arroyo, Fig. 38, so named probably because it is on the verge of the deep arroyo which traverses the middle of the canon.” This was given only a passing glance by Simpson, but it well repays more careful inspection. It is of the rectangular form, but with the open space or court facing a few degrees north of east. The west wall is two hundred and sixty-eight feet long, and the two wings one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and thirty-five feet, respectively; their ends connected by a narrow and low semi-circular wall. The wings are the most massive- ly-built and best-preserved portion of the whole building, that portion which lies between them and back of the court being much more ruinous and dissimilar in many respects. The walls of the south wing, which are in the first story, very heavy and massive, are still standing to the height of the third story. Many of the vigas are still in place, and are large and perfectly smooth and straight undressed logs of pine, averaging ten inches in thickness; none of the smaller beams or other wood-work now remains. There is one esttifa thirty-seven feet in diameter in this wing. In the north wing the walls are standing somewhat higher, but do not indicate more than three stories, though there was probably another. The vigas of the second floor project through the wall for a distance of about five feet along its whole northern face, the same as in the Pueblo Ilungo Pavie. There are Simpson’s Report, p. 81. Fig 36. — Room in Pueblo Bonito. Fig. 37.— Restoration of Pueblo Bonito. WALLS STANDING THREE STORIES- HIGH. 1 II 1 II nr 11 1 II 1 IL_ jUL 1 II 1 II II ll 1 II 1 ESTUFA v y 1 (estufa) □□□ □□□ □□□ □□□ PUEBLO DEL ARROYO, Chaco Canon, N. M. 10 20 30 40 50 t.0 "O 60 90 10 0 -I I l l I 1- 1 -1 - I 1 • 'SCALE, 100 FEET.. Ml II 1 II 1 nnn nn % ' & ' O ? : // 0^0° 3 >° □ □□□□□□□□□a □□□□□□□□□□□ wnna Ho □ □ □ □ □□□□□□ □□□□□ □ PUEBLO N o. 8 , jo: m 30: .40 s? zo 70 m so 100 Chaco Canon, * 1 ^ 1 1 1 * 1 * I ■ - - 1 - jyj |y| ‘SCALE, 100 FEET. □ □□1: □□nr PUEBLO No. 9 , Chaco Canon, N. M. SCALE 50 FEET. Fig. 38. — Ground plan of Pueblo Del Arroyo MORGAN.] RUINS OF PENASCA BLANCA. 165 two estufas; one near the east end of the wing, which is twenty-seven feet in diameter, was three stories in height. The floor-beams are removed, but the remains show this plainly. The interior is nearly filled up, but it was originally over twenty -five feet in depth. The ruins of the other estufa are insignificant compared with this, and it probably consisted of but one low room. Facing the center of the court are remains of what were three circu- lar rooms. At the end of the wings, outside of the building, are faint outlines of other circular apartments or inclosures, shown by dotted lines on the plan. In the central portion of the ruin, between the two wings, some rooms have been preserved entire. I crawled down into one of these through a small hole in the covering, and found its walls to consist of delicate masonry, thinly plastered and whitewashed. The ceiling was formed in the usual manner, fine willow brush supporting the earthen door above, instead of the lath-like sticks or thin boards that were used in the exceptional cases noted. Two miles below the Pueblo del Arroyo are the mins of the Pueblo of Penasca Blanca, Fig. 39. “This is the largest pueblo in plan we have seen,” Lieutenant Simpson remarks, “and differs from others in the arrangement of the stones composing its walls. The walls of the other pueblos were all of one uniform character in the several beds composing it; but in this there is a regular alternation of large and small stones, which are about one foot in length and one-half a foot in thickness, form but a single bed, and then, alternating with these, are three or four beds of very small stones, each about an inch in thickness. The general plan of the structure also differs from the others in approximating the form of the circle. The number of the rooms at present discoverable upon the first floor is one hundred and twelve; and the existing walls show that there have been at least three stories of apartments. The number of circular estufas we counted was seven.” 1 “In point of size,” Mr. Jackson remarks, “the rooms of this ruin will average larger than in most of the others; the twenty-eight rooms, as they appear on the outer circumference, average twenty feet in length from wall to wall inside. The smallest, which are only ten feet wide, are at the two Simpson’s Keporf, p. G4. 1 6(5 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. ends. The width of the rooms of each tier appears to have been constant throughout the length of the whole ruin. The dimensions given in these drawings are, in nearly every case, of those apartments which constitute the second story, as it is in those that there is the least obscuration of the walls. “In most of the ruins the first floor is almost entirely filled up with debris, but when the ruins can be followed they show that this floor is gen- erally divided into much smaller apartments, two or three occurring some- times in place of each one above them. The eastern half of the ellipse, as above said, consists of a single continuous line of small apartments, with a uniform width of thirteen feet inside and an average length of twenty feet. By a curious coincidence the same number of rooms are in this row as in the outer tier of the main building. The walls of the central portion for a distance of about two hundred feet are in fair preservation, standing in places six to eight feet in height, the dividing walls showing apertures lead- ing from one room to another. They are built of stones uniform in size, averaging six by nine by three and a half inches. Mortar was used between the stones, instead of the small plates of stone. At both ends, for a distance of some two hundred feet from the point of juncture with the main build- ing, the walls are entirely leveled, but enough remains to show the dimen- sions of each apartment. Twenty yards from the south end of the building- are the ruins of a great circular room fifty feet in diameter, with some por- tions of its interior wall in such preservation that its character is readily discernible .” 1 Without the canon, upon the mesa, and about half a mile back of the bluff, upon the north side, are the ruins of the Pueblo Alto, constructed of stone on three sides of a court, like those before described. The main building is three hundred feet long, and one wing is two hundred feet measured externally from the back end of the main building, the other wing is one hundred and seventy feet measured the same way. This wing is but two rooms deep, while the main building and the other wing are each three rooms deep. It has six estufas, with remains of a convex wall, connecting the two wings, and inclosing the court. These estufas, like those in the 1 Hayden’s Tenth Annual Keport, 1878, p. 446. Fig. 39. — Ground plan of Pueblo Peuasca Blanca. MORGAN.] CORONADO’S RELATION. 167 other jmeblos, suggest the probability that they were places for holding the councils of the gentes and phratries. This great ruin, with two others of smaller size, shown in Fig. 38 as No. 8 and No. 9, of which the first is one hundred and thirty-five feet long and one hundred feet deep, and the other seventy-eight by sixty-three feet, both of stone, complete the list of ruins in the canon. The pueblo of Pintado, is, however, at the upper end, and without the canon, and the Pueblo Alto, not yet described, is not in the canon, but on the. bluff. It is a remarkable display of ancient edifices; the most remarkable in New Mexico. With the bordering walls of the canon, rising vertically, in places, one hundred feet high, it presented long vistas in either direction, with natural and inclosing walls. Shut in from all view of the table lands at the summit of these walls, this valley, at the time its great houses were occupied, must have pre- sented a very striking picture of human life as it existed in the Middle Period of Barbarism. The greater part of the valley must have been covered with garden beds, from which the people derived their principal support, as the mesa lands without the canon were too dry for cultivation. It no doubt presented an interesting picture of industrious and contented life, with a corresponding advancement in the arts of this period. There is still some uncertainty concerning the time when these pueblos were last occupied, and the fate of their inhabitants. There are a number of circum- stances tending to show that they were the “Seven Cities of Cibola,” against which the expedition of Coronado was directed in 1540-1542. There are seven pueblos in ruins in the canon, without reckoning Nos. 8 and 9, the smallest in the valley. Some of the facts which point to these pueblos as the Towns of Cibola may here be noted. In his Relation to the Viceroy, which is dated from the province of Ci- bola, August 3, 1540, Coronado describes his conquest and intimates his disappointment in the following language: “It remaineth now to certify your Honor of the seven cities, and of the kingdoms and provinces whereof the Father Provincial made report unto your Lordship. And, to be brief, I can assure your Honor he said the truth in nothing that he reported, but all was quite contrary, saving only the names of the cities, and great houses of stone; for although they be not 168 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. wrought with turqueses, nor with lime, nor bricks, yet they are very excellent good houses, of three, or four, or five lofts high, wherein are good lodgings and fair chambers, with ladders instead of stairs, and certain cellars under the ground, very good and paved, which are made for winter, — they are in manner like stoves; and the ladders which they have for their houses are in a manner moveable and portable, which are taken away and set down when they please; and they are made of two pieces of wood, with their steps, as ours be. The seven cities are seven small towns, all made with these kind of houses that I speak of; and they stand all within four leagues together, and they are all called the Kingdom of Cibola, and every one of them have their particular name, and none of them is called Cibola, but all together they are called Cibola. And this town, which I call a city, I have named Granada, as well because it is somewhat like unto it, as also in remembrance of your Lordship. In this town where I now remain there may be some two hundred houses, all compassed with walls; and, I think, that, with the rest of the houses which are not so walled, they may be together five hun- dred. There is another town near this, which is one of the seven, and it is somewhat bigger than this, and another of the same bigness that this is of, and the four are somewhat less ; and I send them all painted unto your Lordship with the voyage. And the parchment wherein the picture is was found here with other parchments. The people of this town seem unto me of a reasonable stature, and witty, yet they seem not to be such as they should be, of that judgment and wit to build these houses in such sort as they are. * * * They travel eight days’ journey unto certain plains lying towards the North Sea. In this country there are certain skins, well dressed; and they dress them and paint them where they kill their oxen [buffalo]; for so they say themselves .” 1 On the fourth day after the capture of Cibola, Coronado further says: “ They set in order all their goods and substance, their women and children, and fled to the hills, leaving their towns as it were abandoned, wherein remained very few of them .” 2 It will be observed that the phrases “great houses of stone,” and “good houses of three, or four, or five lofts high,” not only describe the Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 377. lb., vol. iii, p. 379. MORGAN.] JAEAMILLO’S RELATION. 169 pueblo on the Chaco in apt language, but there are no other pueblos in New Mexico, exclusively of stone, of which we have knowledge, except those of the Molds, in the Canon de Chelly, on the Animas River, and elsewhere in Southwestern Colorado. There is an apparent difficulty in the narrative, in the reference made to the number of houses; but it is evident, I think, that Coronado meant apartments or sections, treating each great house as a block of houses, and expressing a doubt of their “judg- ment and wit to build these houses in such sort as they are.” If any doubt remained, it is entirely removed by the fact that all the pueblo houses in New Mexico, whether occupied or in ruins, are great edifices constructed like these on the communal principle, and that two hundred such houses grouped in one town were an utter impossibility. Jaramillo, who wrote his Relation some time after the return of the expedition, remarks, “that all the water-courses that we fell in with, whether brook or river, as far as that of Cibola, and I believe for one or two days’ journey beyond, flow in the direction of the South Sea [the Pacific]; farther on they take the direction of the North Sea [the Atlantic].” 1 This tends to show that Cibola was situated on a tributary of the Colorado, which gathers all the waters of New Mexico west of the Rio Grande and north of the Gila, and also that it was situated quite near the dividing ridge. It is but ten miles from the Canon de Torrejon, on the Puerco, a tributary of the Rio Grande, to the commencement of the Rio de Chaco, an affluent of the San Juan, and but twenty-three miles to the Pueblo Pintado. In this respect the sites of the ruins on the Chaco are in close agreement with the description of the situations of the towns of Cibola. Castaneda, after speaking of the seven villages, and the character of the houses, remarks that “the valley is very narrow, between precipitous mountains” [“C’est une vallee trks-etroite entre des montagues escarpees”], 2 which, in the light of Coronado’s declaration, that “the country is all plain, and on no side mountains,” may perhaps have reference to the encompassing walls of the canon. This language, literally interpreted, does not describe this canon, neither is there any valley in New Mexico, occupied by pueblos, which answers this description. 1 Coll. H. Ternaux-Compans, vol. ix, p. 370. 3 Castaneda Relation, Ternaux-Compans, ix, p. 164. 170 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. Upon the evidence contained in these several narratives, and with our present knowledge of New Mexico, the sites of the seven towns of Cibola cannot be determined with certainty. It is a question of probabilities.; and those which seem the strongest in favor of the ruins on the Chaco are the following : Firstly, they are superior, architecturally, to any pueblos in New Mexico, now existing or in ruins, and agree in number and in prox- imity to each other, with the towns of Cibola as described Secondly, they are upon an affluent of the San Juan, and within “one or two days’ journey” of the waters which flow into the Gulf of Mexico; in other words, they are near the summit of the watershed of the two oceans, where Jaramillo distinctly states Cibola was situated. Thirdly, they are within eight days of the buffalo ranges, the nearest of which are upon the north- eastern confines of New Mexico. Cibola was said to be thus situated. Moreover, the name Cibola implies the buffalo country. We are also told by Friar Marcos that the Indians south of the Gila trafficked with the Cibolans for ox-liides, which he found them wearing. Zufii, the only known place, showing a probability that it was one of the seven towns, is too far distant from the buffalo ranges to answer to this portion of the nar- rative. Lastly, the evidence, collectively, favors a far northern as well as far eastern position for Cibola. The people of Cibola knew nothing of either ocean. This could hardly have been true of the people of Zuni with respect to the Pacific, or at least the Gulf of California. Coronado himself was in doubt as to which sea was nearest, and seems to have been conscious of the widening of the continent upon both sides of him. Assum- ing that the pueblos on the Chaco were inhabited in 1540, they were the finest structures then in New Mexico. Coronado captured all the villages on the Rio Grande, and probably sent a detachment to the Moki Pueblos, and remained two years in the country. It seems impossible, therefore, that he should have failed to find the pueblos on the Chaco ; and they answer his description better than any other pueblos in New Mexico. With respect to the manner of constructing these houses, it was prob- ably done, as elsewhere remarked, from time to time, and from generation to generation. Like a feudal castle, each house was a growth by additions from small beginnings, made as exigencies required. When one of these MORGAN.] HOUSES GRADUALLY CONSTRUCTED. 171 houses, after attaining 1 a sufficient size, became overcrowded with inhabit- ants, it is probable that a strong colony, like the swarm from the parent hive, moved out, and commenced a new house, above or below, in the same valley. This would be repeated, as .the people prospered, until several pueblos grew up within an extent of twelve or fifteen miles, as in the valley of the Chaco. When the capabilities of the valley were becom- ing overtaxed for their joint subsistence, the colonists would seek more dis- tant homes. At the period of the highest prosperity of these pueblos, the valley of the Chaco must have possessed remarkable advantages for sub- sistence The plain between the walls of the canon was between half a mile a (id a mile in width near the several pueblos, but the amount of water now passing through it is small. In July, according to Lieutenant Simpson, the running stream was eight feet wide and a foot and a half deep at one of the pueblos; while Mr. Jackson found no running water and the valley entirely dry in the month of May, with the exception of pools of water in places and a reservoir of pure water in the rocks at the top of the bluff. The condition of the region is shown by these two statements. During the rainy season in the summer, which is also the season of the growing crops, there is an abundance of water ; while in the dry season it is confined to springs, pools, and reservoirs. From the number of pueblos in the valley, indicating a population of several thousand, the gardens within it must have yielded a large amount of subsistence ; the climate being favorable to its growth and ripening. CHAPTER VIII. BUINS OF HOUSES OF THE SEDENTABY INDIANS OF THE SAN JUAN BIVEB AND ITS TBIBUTABIES— CONTINUED. About sixty miles north of the pueblos on the Chaco, and in the valley of the Animas River, is a cluster of stone pueblos, very similar to the former. These I visited in 1878. The valley is broad at this point, and for some miles above and below to its mouth. At the time of our visit (July 22) the river was a broad stream, carrying a large volume of water. We followed down the river from the point of its rise in the dividing range, where it was a mere brook, nearly the whole distance through Silverton to Animas City. The constant accession of mountain streams, and the rapid descent of its bed, soon changed it into a noisy and dashing stream About twenty miles above Animas City we were compelled to ascend to the top of the bordering mountains to avoid the narrow canon below, which was im- passable; and in descending from Animas City to visit these pueblos we crossed over to the La Plata Valley, and after passing through this valley we recrossed to the Animas Valley to avoid similar canons also impassable. The supply of water for irrigation at the pueblo was abundant. The pueblo of which the ground 1 plan is shown, Fig. 40, is one of four situated within the extent of one mile on the west side of the Animas River in New Mexico, about twelve miles above its mouth Besides these four, there are five other smaller ruins of inferior structures within the same area. This pueblo was five or perhaps six stories high, consisting of a main build- ing three hundred and sixty-eight feet long, and two wings two hundred and seventy feet long, measured along the external wall on the right and left sides, and one hundred and ninety-nine feet measured along the inside l Tlie engravings of Figs. 40, 41, and 41a, were kindly loaned by Mr. F. W. Putnam of the Pea- body Museum, Cambridge, Mass. 172 MORGAN.] RUINS OF PUEBLO ON ANIMAS RIVER. 173 from the end back to the main building’. A fourth structure crosses from the end of one wing to the end of the other, thus inclosing an open court. It was of the width of one and perhaps two rows of apartments, and slightly convex outward, which enlarged somewhat the size of the court. The main building and the wings were built in the so-called terraced form; that is to say, the first row of apartments in the main building and in each wing on the court side were but one story high. The second row back of these were 1 74 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. carried up two stories high, the third row three stories, and so on to the number of five stories for the main building- and four for each wing. The external wall rose forty or fifty feet where the structure was five stories high and but ten feet on the court side, including a low parapet wall, where the structure was but one story high. There was no entrance to these great structures in the ground story. After getting admission within the court, they ascended to the roof of the first row of apartments by means of lad- ders, and in the same way, by ladders, to each successive story. As the second story receded from the first, the third from the second, and so on, each successive story made a great step ten feet high. The apartments were entered through trap-doors in the roof of each story, the descent being by ladders inside. In some places, without doubt, the upper stories were entered by doorways from the roof of the story in front. The two wings are a mass of ruins. Pit-holes along the summit show the forms of the rooms, with plain traces of the original walls here and there, and excavations, made by curious settlers, have opened a number of rooms in the ground story 7 of one of the wings. These we entered and measured. Some of the rooms were faced with stone, i. e., we found a stone wall regularly 7 laid up, like the one in the main building, as will else- where be shown. Some of the walls in these rooms were of cobblestone and adobe; others were of stone with natural faces and cobblestone inter- mixed. We saw no wall of adobe brick alone. The fallen walls formed a mass about twelve feet deep over the site of the wings, being the deepest on the outside and thinning out on the court side. The mass of material used in the construction of these edifices was very great and surprises the beholder. It is explained in part by 7 the thick- ness of the walls. We measured a number of them. They were two feet four inches, two feet six inches, two feet nine inches, three feet, and in rare cases three feet six inches thick. None measured less than two feet. The main building was originally the best constructed part of the edifice, it may be supposed, because a part of it now remains standing. The walls of the first story, of some part of the second, and, in some places, of a part of the third story, forming the second row of apartments from the outside, are still standing, and rise about twenty-five feet from the ground. The meas- MORGAN.] DESCKIPTION OF EUINS. 175 urements of the second row of apartments, as shown in the diagram, were from the standing walls, and were made in the second story. The first or basement story is filled up with the rubbish of the fallen walls, ceilings, and floors, in the second row of apartments named. In some cases they are full above the line of the original ceilings; in others nearly up to them. The main ceiling beams were of yellow cedar from eight to twelve inches in diameter, usually three and four in number, and were placed across the narrow way of the room. Stubs of these beams still remain in the walls parallel with the court. Just above the line of these beams in the other two walls were the ends of a row of poles about four inches in diameter, which passed transversely across the cedar beams. Stubs of these poles, broken off short at the line of the walls, still remain in place. Upon these poles were originally thin pieces of split cedar limbs, and then the floor of adobe mortar, four or five inches thick. We thus get the position and height of the floor of the first and second stories, which were about nine feet six inches for the ground story, and nine feet for the second story. The external wall of the main building 1 has fallen the entire length of the structure. As these ruins are resorted to by the few settlers in the valley as a stone quarry to obtain stone for foundations to their houses and barns, and for stoning up their wells, the loose material is being gradually removed; and when the standing walls are more convenient to take they will be removed also. One farmer told me he thought that one quarter of the accessible material of this and the adjacent stone pueblo had already been removed. It is to be hoped that the number of these settlers inclined to Vandalism will not increase. A part of the partition walls which connected the outside wall with the next parallel wall is still standing where the wall last named rises above the second story. They stand out for three or four feet like buttresses against the wall, and show that the masonry of the parallel and transverse walls was articulated, that the partition walls were continuous from front to rear, and that the walls of the several stories rested upon each other. All this is seen by a bare inspection of the walls as they now stand. The masonry itself is the chief matter of interest in these structures. 176 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. Every room in the main building was faced with stone on the four sides, having an adobe floor and a wooden ceiling. Each room had, as far as walls now remain to show, two doorways through the walls parallel with the court, and four openings about twelve inches square, two on the side of each doorway, near the ceiling. These openings were for light and venti- lation. In a limited sense it may be said that the stones were dressed, and also that they were laid in courses, but, in the high and strict meaning of these terms, neither is true. The stones used were small and of different sizes. Sometimes they were nearly square, from six to eight inches on a side; sometimes a foot long by six inches wide. The latter is the size of the stones used at Uxmal and Chichen Itza, according to Norman. In some cases longer and thicker stones were used without any attempt to square the ends. In some instances thin pieces of stone were employed with parallel faces. In all cases the stone was a sandstone, now of a reddish brown color. It is the prevailing stone in the bluffs of the Animas River, and of all the rivers parallel with it running into the San Juan, as far as personal observation enabled me to judge. It is a soft rather than a hard stone, usu- ally of a buff color when first quarried, and some of it has decayed in the using. The wasted and weatherworn appearance of some of these stones would otherwise indicate a very great age for the structure. With stone of the size used a good face can be formed by simple fracture, and a joint sufficiently close may be made by a few strokes with a stone maul. If finer work was aimed at, it must have been accomplished by rubbing the stones to a face. But this work is sufficiently explained by the former processes. In the row of apartments and stories named, both faces of each wall were of stone, so that all of the apartments were of stone on the inside. They were fair walls, both in masonry and workmanship, and creditable to the builders. There was an attempt to lay up these walls in courses of uniform thickness, but each course differing from the one above and below it. The attempt was only partially successful. They did not hesitate to break in upon the regularity of the courses. Some of the standing walls are now sprung ; but most of them are straight, and fairly vertical, the adobe mor- tar being sound and the bond unbroken. The Indian had a string from time immemorial. With it he could strike MORGAN.] ADOBE MORTAR, 177 a circle, and lay out the four sides of a quadrangular structure with tolera- ble correctness. It is not too much to assume that with a string and sinker attached the Village Indian had the plumb-line, and could prove his wall as well as we can. At all events, the eye still proves the general correctness of their work. The adobe mortar of the Pueblo Indians is something more than mud mortar, although far below a mortar of lime and sand. Adobe is a kind of finely pulverized clay with a bond of considerable strength by mechanical cohesion. In Southern Colorado, in Arizona, and New Mexico, there are immense tracts covered with what is called adobe soil. It varies somewhat in the degree of its excellence. The kind of which they make their pottery has the largest per cent, of alumina, and its presence is indicated by the salt weed which grows in this particular soil. This kind also makes the best adobe mortar. The Indians use it freely in laying their walls, as freely as our masons use lime mortar ; and although it never acquires the hardness of cement, it disintegrates slowly. The mortar in these walls is still sound, so that it requires some effort of strength to loosen a stone from the w; dl and remove it. But this adobe mortar is adapted only to the dry climate of Southern Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, where the precipitation is less than five inches per annum. The rains and frosts of a northern climate would speedily destroy it. To the presence of this adobe soil, found in such abuudance in the regions named, and to the sandstone of the bluffs, where masses are often found in fragments, we must attribute the great progress made by these Indians in house-building. The exclusive presence of this adobe mortar in all New Mexican struc- tures of the aboriginal period shows that the tribes of New Mexico were then ignorant of a mortar of lime and sand. And here a digression may be allowed to consider whether a cement of this grade was known to the aborigines. Theoretically, the use of a mortar composed of quick-lime and sand, which gives a cement chemically united, would not be expected of the Indian tribes either in North or South America. There is no sufficient proof that they ever produced a cement of this high grade. It requires a kiln, artificially constructed, and a concentrated heat to burn limestone into lime, supposing they had learned that lime could be thus obtained, and some 12 178 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. knowledge of the properties of quick-lime before they reached the idea of a true cement. The Spanish writers generally speak of walls of lime and stone, thus implying a mortar of lime and sand. Thus, Bernal Diaz speaks of the great temple in the Pueblo of Mexico as surrounded “with double enclosures built of stone and lime .” 1 * Clavigero remarks that “the houses of lords and people of circumstances were built of stone and lime .” 5 * Again, “ the ignorant Mr. De Pauw denies that the Mexicans had either the knowl- edge or made use of lime; but it is evident from the testimony of all the historians of Mexico, by tribute rolls, and above all from the ancient build- ings still remaining, that all these nations made the same use of lime as all the Europeans do .” 3 In like manner, Herrera, speaking of Zempoala, near Vera Cruz, remarks that the Spaniards, entering the town, found “the houses [were] built of lime and stone ;” 4 and again, speaking of the houses in Yucatan, he remarks that “at the place where the encounter happened, there were three houses built of lime and stone .” 5 These several state- ments can hardly be said to prove the fact of the use of a mortar of lime and sand. Mr. John L. Stephens, in speaking of the ruins at Palenque, is more explicit: “The building was constructed of stone, with a mortar of lime and sand, and the whole front was covered with stucco, and painted.” 1 ’ The back wall of the governor’s house at Uxmal is nine feet thick through its length of two hundred and seventy feet In this wall, by means of crowbars, “ the Indians made a hole six and seven feet deep, but through- out the wall was solid and consisted of large stones imbedded in mortar, almost as hard as rock .” 7 At the ruins of Zayi, there was one row of ten apartments, two hundred and twenty feet long, called the Casas Cerrada, or closed house, because the core over which the triangular ceiling was con- structed had not been removed when the house was abandoned, of which Stephens says, “We found ourselves in apartments finished with the walls and ceilings like the others, but filled up (except so far as they had 1 The True History of the Conquest of Mexico, Keatiuge’s Translation, Salem ed., 1803, vol. i, p. 20S. ^History of Mexico, Cullen’s Trans., Pliila. ed., 1817, vol. ii, p. 232. 0 lb., vol. ii, p. 237. ••History of America, Stevens’ Trans., London ed., 1725, vol. ii, p.266. 6 lb. , p. 112. 0 Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, vol. ii, p. 310. 7 lb., vol. i, p. 178. MORGAN.] STONES USED SHOW NATURAL EAOES. 179 been emptied by the Indians) with solid masses of mortar and stones.” 1 Norman, speaking of the ruins of the House of the Cacique at Chichen, remarks, “that the wall is made of large and uniformly square blocks of limestone set in mortar, which appears to be as durable as the stone itself.” 2 Elsewhere, speaking of the ruins of Yucatan generally, he observes, “the stones are cut in parallelopipeds of about twelve inches in length and six in breadth, the interstices filled up of the same materials of which the terraces are composed.” 3 That these tribes used mortar of some kind in their stone walls cannot be doubted, but these several statements do not prove the use of quick-lime, which is the main question Mr. Stephens’ statement satis- fied me until I saw the New Mexican pueblos. These show that a very efficient mortar can be had without the use of lime. The Indians of Mexico and the coast tribes near Vera Cruz plastered their houses externally with gypsum, which made them a brilliant white, and the stucco used upon the inner walls of houses in Chiapas and Yucatan was not unlikely made of gypsum. This mineral is abundant as well as easily treated. From it comes plaster of Paris, and from it may have come in some form the bond which held the mortar together, to the strength of which Mr. Stephens refers. The neatness and general correctness of the masonry is now best seen in the doorways. In the standing walls of the second story, and of the first, where occasionally uncovered, there are to be seen two doorways in each room, as before stated, running in all cases across the building from the court side toward the external wall, and never in the direction of its length. These doorways measured some three feet two inches in height by two feet six inches in width, and others three feet four inches by two feet seven inches. The stone used in these doorways are rather smaller than those in other parts of the wall, but prepared in the same manner. I brought away two of these stones, taken from the standing walls of the main building, as samples of the character of the work with respect to size and dressing. Fig. 41 represents one of them, engraved from a photo- graph. It measures eight inches in its greatest length by six inches in its greatest width, and it is two and three-quarter inches in thickness. The Central American, Chiapas and Yucatan, vol. ii, p. 23. -Rambles in Yucatan, p. 120. 3 Ib., p. 127. 180 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. upper and lower faces of the stone are substantially, but not exactly, paral- lel. It also shows one angle, which is substantially, but not exactly, a right angle and it was so adjusted that the long edge was on the doorway and short one in the wall of a chamber or apartment, with the right angle at the corner between them. This stone was evidently prepared by fracture, probably with a stone maul, and the regularity of the break- age was doubtless partly Fig. 41. Stone from doorway. due to skill and partly to accident. It shows no marks of the chisel or the drove, or of having been rubbed, and where the square is applied to the sides or angles the rudeness of the stone is perfectly apparent. Fig. 41 a represents a sandstone cut by American skilled workmen in the form of a brick, and it is intended to show by comparison the great dif- ference between the dressed stone of the civilized man and the ruder stone of the mason in the condition of barbarism. The comparison shows that no instruments of exactness were used in the stone work of the pueblo, and that exactness was not at- tempted. But the accuracy of a practiced comparison with Fig. 4i. e y e aiK { hand, such as their methods af- forded, was reached, and this was all they attempted. With stones as rude as that shown in the figure, a fair and even respectable stone wall may be laid. The art of architecture in stone is of slow and difficult growth. Stone prepared by fracture with a stone hammer precedes dressed stone, which requires metallic implements. In like manner mud mortar or adobe mortar precedes a mortar of lime and sand. The Village Indians of America were working their way experimentally, and step by step, in the art of house-building, as all mankind have been obliged to do, each race for itself; and the structures the Village Indians have raised in various parts MORGAN.] WOODEN LINTELS. 181 of America, imperfect as they are by contrast, are highly creditable to their intelligence. Stone lintels were not used for these doorways, as stones three feet long would have been required. No stones of half that length are to be seen in any of the walls. They had, however, the idea of a stone lintel, for they used them in this structure over the foot-square openings for light and air. We found a stone lintel over an opening eighteen inches wide in a cliff house on the Mancos River. This was so firmly imbedded that wo found its removal impossible. They used for a lintel six round cedar cross- pieces, Fig. 42, each about four inches in diameter and now perfectly sound. In some of these doorways we noticed a peculiar feature. On the side toward the external wall, one and sometimes two of these wooden lintels were placed, four and sometimes six inches lower than the remainder, so that on entering from the outside room into the second room, the top of the doorway rose higher as the room was entered. A necessity was experi enced to save the head from bumps, and the wonder is that it did not occur to them to raise the doorways to the height of the body. As the doorways were always open, no doors being used, it may well be that larger openings would have created stronger currents of air through the building than they wished. The ends of these lintels were hacked off by stoile implements of some kind. The peculiar arrangement of the doorways tends to show that this great house was divided into sections by the partition walls extending from the court to the exterior wall; and that the rooms above were connected with those below by means of trap-doors and ladders. If this supposition be well founded, the five rooms on the ground floor, from the court back, communicated with each other by doorways. "The four in the second story 182 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. communicated with each other in the same manner, and with those below through trap-doors in the floors The three rooms in the third story com- municated witli each other by doorways, and with those below as before. The same would be true of the two rooms of the fourth story. It seems probable that the connected rooms were occupied by a group of related families. We afterwards found the same thing nearly exemplified in the present occupied Pueblo of Taos, in New Mexico. We found that the families lived in the second and upper stories, and used the rooms below them for storage and for granaries. Each family had two, four, and six rooms, and those who held the upper rooms held those below. In the south wing before mentioned, several rooms on the ground floor are still perfect, with the ceilings in place upholding the rubbish above. The openings or trap-doorways of two of these rooms are still perfect, but the ladders are gone. The rooms had been opened, as elsewhere stated, by late explorers. One of these trap-doors measured sixteen by seventeen inches, and the other sixteen inches square. Each was formed in the floor by pieces of wood put together. The work was neatly done. These rooms were smaller than the rooms above. Some were as narrow as four feet six inches, others six feet, showing that one room had been divided into two. The basement rooms were probably occupied for storage exclusively, whence their division. They were dark, except as light entered through the trap- doorway from above. The structure connecting the wings and bounding the court was evi- dently a single or double row of apartments. This is shown by the amount of fallen material, which is larger than a wall would require, and from pits or depressions which plainly marked the outline of apartments. There are two circular estufas in the main building, one twenty-three feet and the other twenty-eight feet in diameter. A part of the wall of the first -estufa is still standing. It is of stone, mostly of blocks about five inches square, and laid in courses, with considerable regularity. The work is equal to the best masonry in the edifice. In the open court, and near the outer structure, bounding it in front, is another estufa of great size, sixty- three and a half feet in diameter. These estufas , which are used as places MORGAN.] NO CHIMNEYS IN BUILDING. 183 of council, and for the performance of their religious rites, are still found at all the present occupied pueblos in New Mexico. There are six at Taos, three at each house, and they are partly sunk in the ground by an exca- vation. They are entered through a trap-doorway in the roof, the descent being by a ladder. Outside the front wall closing the court, and about thirty feet distance therefrom, are the remains of a low wall crossing the entire front and extend- ing beyond it. The end structures were about sixty -five feet long by forty feet wide, while at the center was a smaller structure, fifty -four feet long by eighteen wide. All its parts were connected. It was evidently erected for defensive purposes; but it is impossible to make out its character from the remains. One wing is several feet longer than the other, and the wall on the court side is about twenty feet longer than the opposite exterior wall, thus showing that they used no exact measurements. There were no fire-places with chimneys in this structure. There are none in the ruins in Yhicatan and Central America. It is a fair inference, therefore, that chimneys were entirely unknown to the aborigines at the time of their discovery. They have since that time been adopted into the old pueblo houses from American or Spanish sources. They are placed in one corner of the room. We saw recently at Taos two chimneys and two fire-places in one and the same room, one for cooking and the other for a fire to warm the room; proof conclusive that they were not to the chimney born. They were in an apartment of one of the principal chiefs In a number of rooms are recesses like niches left in the wall, about two feet six inches wide and high, and about eighteen inches deep. These fur- nished places to set household articles in, in the place of a mantel or shelf. We afterwards saw niches precisely similar at Taos, and thus used. It remains to consider the number of rooms or apartments contained in this great edifice. It is plain that it was built in the terraced form, the second story set back from the first, the third from the second, and so on to the last, which was a single row of apartments, on the top somewhere, but not necessarily on the back side. Pueblos were not entirely uniform in this respect. The edifice at Taos recedes in front and rear and even upon the sides. This may have been built in the same way, but it can neither 184 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. be proved nor disproved from the ruins. The number of apartments would not vary much whether the upper stories were symmetrically or irreg- ularly formed. If symmetrical, the main building contained two hundred and sixty apartments, and each wing seventy, making the computation for the latter by area and from the number of depression still discernible, thus making an aggregate of four hundred rooms. The house was a fortress, proving the insecurity in which the people lived. It was also a joint tenement house of the aboriginal American model, indicating a plan of life not well understood. It may indicate an ancient communism in living, practiced by large households formed on the principle of kin. In such a case the communism was limited to the household as a part of a kinship. Those familiar with the remains of Indian Pueblos in ruins will recog- nize at once the resemblance between this pueblo and the stone pueblos in ruins on the Rio Chaco, in New Mexico, about sixty miles distant from these ruins, particularly the one called Hungo Pavie, so full ) 7 described by General J. H. Simpson. There is one particular in which the masonry agrees, viz., in the use of courses of thin stones, about half an incb in thickness, some- times three together, and sometimes five and six. These courses are carried along the wall from one side to the other, but often broken in upon. The effect is quite pretty. These stones measure six inches in length by one- half an inch in thickness. General Simpson found the same courses of thin stones, and even thinner, in the Chaco ruins, and comments upon the pleas- ing effect they produced. This edifice was a credit to the skill and industry of the men among the Village Indians; for the men, and not the women, were the architects and the masons, although the women undoubtedly assisted in doing the work. Women brought stone and adobe and cedar, and made adobe mor- tar, without a doubt, as they still do. One of the hopeful features in their advancement was the beginning of the reversal of the old usage which put all labor upon the women. It is now the rule among the Village Indians for the men to assume the heavy work, which was doubtless the case when this pueblo was constructed. They cultivated maize, beans, and squashes, in garden beds, and irrigated them with water drawn from the river by MORGAN.] SECOND PUEBLO ALSO OF STONE. 185 means of a canal, and passed in several smaller streams through their gar- dens. The men now engage in the work of cultivation. This is a sure sign of progress. Off the south wing of the building, and without it, are the remains of an additional building, large enough for twenty or thirty rooms on the ground, some part of which were, doubtless, carried up two or more stories high ; but it is a mass of indistinct ruins, about which little can be said except that some of the rooms were unusually large. This may have been the first building constructed, and the one occupied while the stone pueblo was being built. This outline plan is submitted with some hesitation, because the sketch from which it is taken was made in haste, and with no expectation of using it. It is but an approximation. Near the pueblo last described, and about five hundred feet northeast- erly therefrom, is another pueblo in two sections, Fig. 43, with a space about fifteen feet wide between them. They ma}’ have been, and pro- bably were, connected and inhabited as one structure. Some of the 200 ' o hJ 140 ' 60 a A walls are still standing, Fig. 43. — Outline of a St.oue Pueblo on Animas River. and a number of the rooms in the ground story are well preserved, the ceilings still remaining in place. Although the structure is chiefly of stone like the last, some of the walls are of cobblestone and adobe mortar. The largest section seems to have had an open court in the center in the form of a parallelogram. This feature increased the difficulty of understanding the original form of the house and the arrangement of the rooms. The walls of the first, of parts of the second, and occasionally of parts of the third story, are still standing in places. Many of the rooms are small, as the measurements of the following rooms in the second story of the smallest building of the two will show: 186 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 3 feet 4 inches by 6 feet 6 inches, 4 feet by 8 feet 4 inches, 4 feet 7 inches by 14 feet 2 inches, 6 feet 5 inches by 14 feet 9 inches, 7 feet 3 inches by 16 feet 9 inches, 6 feet 4 inches by 1 1 feet 7 inches, 7 feet 3 inches by 7 feet 5 inches, 8 feet 7 inches by 15 feet. Height of rooms, 8 feet. The rooms were faced with stone laid up in the main in courses. They were small, from four to eight inches square, and the walls from two to three feet in thickness. Adobe mortar was used abundantly in the inner part of the wall, but not showing on the face at the joints, the stones being laid together as closely as the natural surfaces of the stone woidd permit, and without mortar near the edge. This feature was also characteristic of the walls of the pueblo first described. Mr. Bandelier made to me recently the important suggestion that as far as any progress or improvement in this architecture, in style or character, can be discerned, it seems to have been from smaller to larger rooms, fol- lowed by a reduction of the size of the house in ground dimensions. The last is more particularly illustrated by the houses in Yucatan, where single rooms are found, in rare cases, sixty feet long, but where the size of the house in ground dimensions is much smaller than of those in New Mexico. It was in consequence of an examination of some very old pueblo ruins in New Mexico, east of the Rio Grande, near Santo Domingo. There the pueblo was more like a cluster of cells than of rooms, as many of them were but four or five feet square, contrasting strongly with the present inhabited pueblos. The same fact may be seen at Taos It was mentioned (p. 144) that the Taos Indians many years ago conquered and dispossessed the former occupants of a pueblo at this place, and that some remains of the old pueblo were still standing. In 1878 I visited one of the ground- rooms in the old structure still standing, and entirely alone. It was about five feet by six in ground-dimensions, and was then occupied by a solitary Taos Indian, a sort of hermit, as his place of residence. A bunk across one side furnished him both a bed and a seat, and the remaining room was scarcely sufficient to turn around in, but it gave him all the home he had, and, doubtless, all the room he needed Another room, a few feet distant, also a part of the old pueblo, was still standing. These rooms were of adobe, and were about six feet high. As the Indian gained in experience MORGAN.] OTHER RUINS. 187 and knowledge in the use and construction of the joint-tenement houses, improvements w'ould gradually manifest themselves. It is important to find and trace this progress, as we have every reason to believe that it is one system of architecture throughout North America at least, with a con- nection of all its forms. Along the curving or westerly side of the first building, and along the northerly side, there are cedar beams projecting about four feet from the wall in the second story on the line of the ceiling. They are about four inches in diameter. Their object is not apparent. In one of the basement rooms of the second building are a series of pictographs upon a plastered wall. Our limited time would not permit a sketch. Midway between the pueblo, Fig. 40, and the one now being consid- ered is a circular ruin three hundred and thirty feet in circuit, which seems to have consisted of two concentric rows of apartments around an inclosed estufa. It was built of cobblestone and adobe mortar. Pit-holes indicate the form and plan of the inclosing rooms, but the ruin is too indistinct to form a clear idea of its structure. A removal of the loose material would probably disclose the original ground plan. A few hundred feet north are the ruins of four other structures of cob- blestone and adobe quite near each other. They were, without doubt, pueblo houses, but they are now a mass of undistinguishable ruins, and, from present appearance, were probably ruins, when the stone pueblos were inhabited. The river here runs nearer the western border of the valley than the eastern, and quite near the pueblo last noticed, but from this point it bears toward the east side of the valley. About a mile in a direction a little south of east and near the river are the ruins of two other large pueblos, of which the lower one is one thou- sand and forty feet in circuit, and the one above four hundred and fifty-two feet. Both are built of sandstone and cobblestone and adobe mortar. No part of the walls are standing above the rubbish; but they were apparently contemporary with the stone pueblos. The first stands upon the brink of the river, which is now cutting away its foundations, thus proving that it was insecurely located. The mass of fallen material is very great, showing 188 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. an apparent depth of at least fifteen feet. Some of the basement rooms in each of these pueblos are probably still entire, judging from the great mass of material over them. Great pit-holes indicate the position of chambers and inclosing-walls. The largest of the two pueblos is 300 feet in depth In one place, where some excavation has been done, the corner of a base- ment room is in sight. All these ruins ought to be re-examined, and so far excavated as to recover complete ground plans. Near the mouth of the river are said to be still other ruins, and still others on the east side of the river, which we had no time to examine. The valley of the Animas River is here broad and beautiful, about three miles wide. The river passes nearly through the center of the valle} 7 '. The cliff, on the east side of the level plain, is bold and mountainous, rising from fifteen hundred to two thousand feet high, while on the west side the valley is bordered with the mesa* formation in two benches, one rising back of the other, and both as level as a floor, with the highlands forming the divide between the Animas and La Plata Rivers in the distance. From the number and size of the houses, there was probably a popula- tion of at least five thousand persons at this settlement, living by horticult- ure. It is not now known by what tribe of Indians these pueblos were inhabited or constructed. These pueblos, newly constructed and in their best condition, must have presented a commanding appearance. From the materials used in their construction, from their palatial size and unique design, and from the cultivated gardens by which they were doubtless surrounded, they were calculated to impress the beholder very favorably with the degree of culture to which the people had attained. It is a singular fact that, none of the occupied pueblos in New Mexico at the present time are equal in materials or in construction with those found in ruins. It tends to show a decadence of art among them since the period of European discovery. Westward of the Animas, the La Plata, and the Mancos Rivers, which run southwesterly into the San Juan, is the Montezuma Valley, a broad and level plain, so named by General Heffernan, of Animas City. It is about fifty miles in length, and apparently ten miles wide at the ranch of Mr. Henry L. Mitchell, which is situated at, the commencement of the MORGAN.] RUINS OF ADOBE HOUSES. 189 McElmo Canon. It stretches southward thirty-six miles to the San Juan. In this valley, which lias no flowing stream through it at present (and there is no certainty that it ever had), and which is without water, except in springs and pools, and has but a slight rainfall during the year, Mr Mitchell was successfully cultivating, at the time of our visit, wheat, oats, maize, and the garden vegetables. The valley is uninhabited, except by the family of Mr. Mitchell, and a solitary man living- four miles westward. Their nearest neighbors are on the Man- cos River, twenty-five miles distant. The bluffs bordering the eastern side of the valley rise boldly about fifteen hundred feet, with table lands above, while on the west the valley is bordered with mountains. About t e n miles southwest of Mr. Mitchell’s ranch the Ute Mountain rises out of the plain, and from this point appears as a solitary and detached mountain. The McElmo Canon passes along its north and westerly sides, while the main valley passes southward along its eastern base. This high and noble mountain is situated in the southwest corner of Colorado, near the inter- section of the boundary lines of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. It is a conspicuous object from the La Plata Valley. The Montezuma Valley possesses features of remarkable natural beauty. Near Mr. Mitchell’s ranch, and within a space of less than a mile square, are the ruins of nine pueblo houses of moderate size. They are built of sandstone intermixed with cobblestone and adobe mortar. They are now in a very ruinous condition, without standing walls in any part of them above the rubbish. The largest of the number is marked No. 1 in the plan Fig. 44, of which the outline of the original structure is still dis- cernible It is ninety-four feet in length and forty-seven feet in depth, and shows the remains of a stone wall in front inclosing a small court about fifteen feet wide. The mass of material over some parts of this structure Fig. 44. — Pueblos at commencement of McElmo Canon. 190 HOUSES AND HOUSE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. is ten or twelve feet deep. There are, no doubt, rooms with a portion of the walls still standing covered with rubbish, the removal of which would reveal a considerable portion of the original ground-plan. A short distance below the pueblos last named is another cluster of the same number of pueblos, and much in the same condition ; and upon rising ground near the foot of the bluff, on the east side of the valley, there are, as Mr. Mitchell informed me, the ruins of several pueblos of stone. He also informed me that similar ruins were to be found here and there in the valley to the San Juan. Four miles westerly, near the ranch of Mr. Shirt, are the ruins of another large stone pueblo, together with an Indian ceme- tery, where each grave is marked by a border of flat stones set level with the ground in the form of a parallelogram eight feet by four feet. Near the cluster of nine pueblos shown in the figure are found strewn on the ground numerous fragments of pottery of high grade in the ornamentation, and small arrow-heads of flint, quartz, and chalcedony delicately formed, and small knife-blades with convex and serrated edges in considerable numbers. This is an immense ruin with small portions of the walls still standing, particularly of the round tower of stone of three concentric walls, incor- porated in the structure, and a few chambers in the north end of the main building. The round tower is still standing nearly to the height of the first story. In its present condition it was impossible to make a ground-plan showing the several chambers, or to determine with certainty which side was the front of the structure, assum- ing that it was constructed in the terraced form. It is situated upon a ver- tical bluff of yellowish sandstone rock about twenty feet high, and about four miles below Mr. Mitchell’s ranch in the direction of the Ute Mountain and near its northeastern base. The bluff is broken through to the bottom MORGAN.] RUINS OF STONE PUEBLO NEAR UTE MOUNTAIN. 191 in one place about twenty feet wide. Here there are some evidences that a spring of water was inclosed in a reservoir by means of masonry. The building is in two sections, separated by this break, of which the main one is five hundred and ten feet long, and the smallest one hundred and twenty feet, forming a nearly continuous front. They stand back ten or fifteen feet from the verge of the bluff, and are built of tabular pieces of sandstone and adobe mortar. Numerous pit-holes in each structure indi- cate the chambers and the line of the inclosing walls. The removal of the loose material would doubtless disclose the ground-plan, but it would involve immense labor. With the Ute Mountain rising majestically in the background, and the broad valley in front, the situation of the pueblo is remarkably fine. The Round Tower is the most singular feature in this structure. While it resembles the ordinary estufa , common to all these structures, it differs from them in having three concentric walls. No doorways are visible in the portion still standing, consequently it must have been entered through the roof, in which respect it agrees with the ordinary estufa The inner chamber is about twenty feet in diameter, and the spaces between the en- circling walls are about two feet each; the walls are about two feet in thick- ness, and were laid up mainly with stones about four inches square, and, for the most part, in courses. There is a similar round tower, having but two concentric walls, at the head of the McElmo Canon, and near the ranch of Mr. Mitchell. It is shown in Fig. 44, and stands entirely isolated. The diameter of the tower is thirty-four feet, of which the inner chamber is twenty-three feet; the space between the two walls is about six feet, and the thickness of the walls about two feet six inches. It is laid up in the same manner as the one last named, witli stones about the same size, and the walls still standing are about five feet in height. Partition walls divide the outer space, one of which measured twenty inches in thickness. Several hundred feet from the pueblo last named, further down the valley, is another pueblo of large extent, and in a very ruined condition. A mile or more below the ranch of Mr. Mitchell, in the bordering walls of the McElmo Canon, are two cliff houses. The walls of the bluff are here about twenty feet high, with large cavities formed in them here 192 HOUSES AND HOUSE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. and there. These houses, each of which consists of but two or three small chambers, are built of stone, and stand but a few feet above the bottom of the canon. They are narrow, and not very high, as the cavity in the rock is not very deep. Corrals for some kind of domestic animals are found by the side of these houses in the same hollows in the rock. This is proved by a mass of excrement, about a foot in depth, still there, whether of the goat or sheep cannot be stated, but this fact shows that they were inhab- ited subsequent to the period of European discovery, although they may have been built and used before. The canon, at this point, is from three hundred to live hundred feet wide. I wish to call attention again to the San Juan district, to its numerous ruins, and to its importance as an early seat of Village Indian life. These ruins and those of a similar character in the valley of the Chaco, together with numerous remains of structures of sandstone, of cobblestone, and adobe in the San Juan Valley, in the Pine River Valley, in the La Plata Valley, in the Animas River Valley, in the Montezuma Valley, on the Ilovenweep, and on the Rio Dolores, suggest the probability that the remark- able area within the drainage of the San Juan River and its tributaries has held a prominent place in the first and most ancient development of Village Indian life in America. The evidence of Indian occupation and cultivation throughout the greater part of this area is sufficient to suggest the hypoth- esis that the Indian here first attained to the condition of the Middle Status of barbarism, and sent forth the migrating bands who carried this advanced culture to the Mississippi Valley, to Mexico, and Central America, and not unlikely to South America as well. Indian migrations are gradual outflows from an overstocked area, fol- lowed by organization into independent tribes, and continuing through cen- turies of time, until the ethnic life of each tribe is expended, or a successful establishment is finally gained in a new and perhaps far distant land. They planted gardens and constructed houses as they advanced from district to district, and removed as circumstances prompted a change of location. Since the cultivation of maize and plants precedes or is synchronous with this stage of development, it leads to the supposition that maize must have been indigenous in this region, and that it was here first brought under MORGAN.] MOUND-BUILDERS. 193 cultivation. There are some facts that seem to favor this hypothesis. * 1 At present I wish to call attention to such existing evidence as points to the San Juan district as the anterior home of a number of historic Indian tribes. 1. The Mound-Builders . — Although these tribes had disappeared at the epoch of European discovery, and cannot be classed with any known Indian stock, their condition as horticultural tribes, their knowledge of some of the native metals, and the high character of their stone implements and pottery place them in the class of Village Indians. The nearest region from which they could have been derived is New Mexico. There is no reason for referring them to the San J uan region more than to the nearer country of the Rio Grande, unless it should appear probable that the inhabitants of the latter valley were themselves migrants from the same region But there are good reasons for deriving the Mound- Builders from the Village Indians in some part of New Mexico. 1 Where maize was indigenous is unknown, except that it was somewhere upon the American continent. It is the only cereal America has given to the world. At the period of European discovery, it was found cultivated and a staple article of food in a large part of North America and in parts of South America. There were also found beans, squashes, and tobacco, with the addition in some areas of peppers, tomatoes, cocoa, and cotton.. The problem of the place of the origin of maize is probably insoluble, but speculations are legitimate, and such are all that I have to offer. The fecundity of plant-life in the Rocky Mountains is remarkable, particularly on the southern slopes, where they subside into the mesa, or table-land formation, north of the San Juan River. The continental divide is in the eastern margin of this region. The tirst suggestion I wish to make is that all cereals and cultivated plants must have originated in the great continental mountains of the two hemispheres, and have propagated themselves along the water courses of the mountain valleys down to the plains traversed by the great rivers formed by these mountain tributaries. All the cereals belong to the family of the Grasses (Gramiueuj), and each of them, doubtless, is the last of a series of antece- dent forms. I saw rye, barley, and oats growing wild by self-propagation iu the mountain valleys of Colo- rado the present season; also the wild pea, whose stunted seeds had the taste of the cultivated pea. Turnips, onions, tomatoes, and hops are found growing wild in the Pine River Valley, and the pie-plant or rhubarb is said to grow luxuriantly in the Elk Mountain valleys. I also saw wild flax and the gourd growing by self-propagation in the valley of the Animas. Currants, gooseberries, raspberries, and strawberries are found in the mountain valleys in numerous places, together with flowering plants of many species and varieties. Tiny forms of flowering plants are to be seen above patches of snow in places where the snow had recently melted. This fecundity of plant-life from ten to twelve thousand feet above sea level, and the relation of these mountain tributaries to the San Juan, which runs from east to west, not remotely from the base of these mountains, in such a manner as to invite and receive into its lap, so to express it, the vegetable wealth developed in these mountain chains, are facts that force themselves upon the attention of the observer. The altitude of the San Juan Valley ranges from seven thousand feet at Pagosa Springs to five thousand nine hundred and seventy feet at the mouth of the Animas, and diminishing to four thousand four hundred and forty-six feet near the point where it empties into the Colorado (Hayden’s Atlas of Colorado, Sheet 111). The altitude at Conejos is seven thousand eight hundred and eighty feet (lb.,) which is about as great an elevation as admits of the successful cultivation of maize. I noticed in a field of maize growing at Conejos that the stalk grew only about three feet high, and the fact that the 13 194 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THF AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 2. The Mexican Tribes . — The seven principal tribes of Mexico, called collectively the Nahuatlacs, spoke dialects of the same language, and all alike had a tradition that their ancestors came from the north, and that the separate tribes came into Mexico at long intervals apart They arrived in the following order as to time: 1, Socliomilcos; 2, Chalcas; 3, Tepanecans; 4, Tescucans; 5, Tlatluicans; 6, Tlascalans; 7, Aztecs or Mexicans. They settled in different parts of Mexico The Cholulans, Tepeacas, and Huexatsin- cos spoke dialects of the Nahuatlac language, and were severally subdivisions of one or the other preceding tribes. They had the same tradition of a northern origin. These several tribes were among the most prominent in Mexico at the period of Spanish discovery. Some of the tribes of Yucatan and Central America also had similar traditions of an original migration of their ancestors from the north. Acosta, who visited Mexico in 1585, and whose work was published at Seville in 1589, states the order of the migration of the Mexican tribes as above given, and further says that they “come from other far countries which lie toward the north, where now they have discovered a kingdom they call New Mexico. There are two provinces in this country, the one called Aztlan , which is to say, a place of Herons [Cranes], and the other Teculhuacan, which signifies a land of such whose grandfathers were divine. The Navatalcas [Nahuatlacs] point their beginning and first territory in the figure of a cave, and say they came forth of seven caves to come and people the land of Mexico.” 1 The same tradition, substantially, is given by ear grew out of it but six inches from the ground. Specimens of the ear we obtained showed that it was about five inches long, witli the kernel small and flinty. The ear is in four colors, white, red, yellow, and black, each being one or the other of these colors. In a few cases two colors were inter- mixed in the same ear. It seemed probable that this was the primitive maize of the American aborigines, from which all other varieties have been developed. A few cobs which we found at a cliff house on the Mancos River corresponded with the Conejos ear in size, and were probably the same variety. After- wards at Taos I found the same ear in white, red, yellow, and black; the staple maize now cultivated at this pueblo, but much larger. 1 brought away several tine ears saved for seed. Oue black ear measured twelve inches in length, with twelve rows of kernels, while the white variety, both at Conejos and Taos, had each fourteen rows. Finally, a dry country, neither excessively hot nor moist, like the San Juan region, would seem to be most favorable for the development and self-propagation of maize as well as plants until man ap- peared for their domestication. These are but speculations, but if they should prompt further investi- gations concerning the place of nativity of this wonderful cereal, which has been such an important factor in the advancement of the Indian family, and which is also destined to prove such a support to our own, these suggestions will not have been made in vain. ‘The Natural and Moral History of the East and West Indies, London ed., Ifi04, Grimstone’s Trans., pp. 4'.)?, 504. MORGAN.] SANDHILL CRANES. 195 Herrera, 1 and also by Clavigero. 2 If by the word Aztlan was intended “place of Cranes”, and on the supposition that these tribes migrated from the San Juan region, the reasons for the designation are justified. The Sandhill Crane ( Grus Canadensis ) is one of the largest and most conspicuous of American birds, and is still found from the British Possessions to New Mexico, and winters in the latter. I saw a pair of these great birds in 1878, in the valley of the Animas River. Dr. Coues remarks that “thousands of Sandhill Cranes repair each year to the Colorado River Valley, flock succeeding flock along the course of the great stream from their arrival in September until their departure the following spring. Taller than the Wood Ibises or the largest Herons with which they are associated, the stately birds stand in the foreground of the scenery of the valley. * * * Such ponderous bodies moving with slowly-beating wings give a great idea of momentum from mere weight, a force of motion without swiftness; for they plod along heavily, seeming to need every inch of their ample wings to sustain themselves.” 3 It is an Indian trait to mark localities by some con- spicuous feature or fact, and the selection of the Sandhill Crane to indicate their home country would have accorded with Indian usages. Again, Herrera, who presents the current traditions, observes, that “these peoples painted their original in the manner of a cave, and said they came out of seven caves to people the country of Mexico. * * * After the six above mentioned races departed from their country, and settled in New Spain, where they were much increased, the seventh race being the Mexican nation, a warlike and polite people, who adoring their god Vitsil- puztli, he commanded them to leave their own country, promising them they should rule over other races in a plentiful country, and much wealth.” 4 It is worthy of remark that the cave dwellings or cliff houses are in the San Juan district, the most of them being on the Mancos River, and on the western portion of the San Juan. These traditions may in fact refer to these cave dwellings as the original homes of their ancestors, and at the same time without precluding the supposition that they also constructed ‘General History of America, London eel., 1725, Stevens’s Trans., Ill, 188. 2 History of Mexico, Cullen’s Trans., 1, 119. 3 Birds of the Northwest, 1H74, p. 534. 4 History of America, iii, p. 188, 190. 196 HOUSES AND HOUSE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. and inhabited some of the pueblo structures now in ruins in other parts ol the same area. All the early accounts concur in representing the Aztecs or Mexicans, when they first arrived in Mexico, as subsisting by the cultiva- tion of maize and plants, as constructing houses of stone, and with a religious system which recognized personal gods. These statements are probably true. They had attained to the status of Village Indians. This again ren- ders New Mexico their probable original home as the only area in the north where ruins of structures of tribes so far advanced have been found. The San Juan district is remarkably situated in its geographical rela- tions. This river, rising in the crests of the high mountains forming the water-shed or divide between the Atlantic and Pacific, flows southward until it enters the table-land formation, through which it flows in a southwesterly and then northwesterly direction, making a long, sweeping curve in New Mexico and Arizona, after which it runs westerly to its confluence with the Colorado. It receives from the north the following tributaries, rising like itself in the high mountains, the Piedra, Pine River (Los Pinos), the Animas, the La Plata, the Mancos, the McElmo, now dry, and the Hovenweep and Montezuma creeks, now nearly dry. Its southern tributaries are the Navajo, Chaco, and I)e Clielly. With such evidences of ancient occupation, here and elsewhere in the San Juan country, we are led to the conclusion that the Village Indians increased and multiplied in this area, and that at some early period there was here a remarkable display of this form of Indian life, and of house architecture in the nature of fortresses, which must have made itself felt in distant parts of the continent. On the hypothesis that the valley of the Columbia was the seed-land of the Ganowanian family, where they depended chiefly upon a fish subsistence, we have in the San Juan country a second center and initial point of migrations founded upon farinaceous subsistence. That the struggle of the Village Indians to resist the ever continuous streams of migration flowing southward along the mountain chains has been a hard one through many centuries of time, is proved by the many ruins of abandoned or conquered pueblos which still mark their settlements in so many places. At the present moment there is not a Village Indian in the San Juan district It is entirely deserted of this class of inhabitants. MORGAN.] INDIAN MIGRATIONS. 197 That the original ancestors of the principal historic tribes of Mexico once inhabited the San Juan country is extremely probable. That the «y L ancestors of the principal tribes of Yucatan and Central America owe their remote origin to the same region is equally probable. And that the Mound Builders came originally from the same country, is, with our present knowl- edge, at least a reasonable conclusion. Indian migrations have occurred under the influence, almost exclusively, of physical causes, operating in a uniform manner. These migrations, involving the entire period of the existence here of the inhabitants of both American continents, will be found to have a common and connected his- tory A study of all the facts may yet lead to an elucidation and explana- tion of these migrations with some degree of certainty. The hypothesis that the valley of the Columbia River was the seed-land of the Ganowanian family holds the best chance of solving the great problem of the origin and distribution of the Indian tribes. CHAPTER IX. HOUSES OF THE MOUND-BUILDEBS. The general view of the house-life and houses of the Indian tribes thus far presented will tend to strengthen the hypothesis about to be stated concerning the earth-works of the Mound-Builders. Apart from the expla- nation that the long-houses of the Northern Tribes and the joint-tenement house of the Sedentary Indians are capable of affording, they are wholly inexplicable. The Mound-Builders worked native copper, cultivated maize and plants, manufactured pottery and stone implements of higher grade than the tribes of the Lower Status of barbarism ; and they raised earth- works of great magnitude, superior to any works of the former tribes. They fairly belong to the class of Sedentary Village Indians, though not in all respects of an equal grade of culture and development. Their embankments, which inclosed a rectangular space, were in all probability, the foundations upon which they erected their houses. It is proposed to consider these embankments under this hypothesis. Under the name of Mound-Builders certain unknown tribes of the American aborigines are recognized, who formerly inhabited as their chief area the valley of the Ohio and its tributary streams. Traces of their occupation have been found in other places, from the Gulf of Mexico to Lakes Erie and Superior, and from the Alleglianies to the Mississippi, and in some localities west of this river. Without entering upon a discussion of these works, this chapter will be confined to four principal questions: I. The house-life of the American aborigines, in the usages of which the Mound- Builders were necessarily involved. II. The probable center from which the Mound-Builders emigrated into these areas. 198 MORGAN.] MOUND BUILDERS. 199 III. The uses for which their principal earth-works were designed, with a conjectural restoration of one of their pueblos ; and, IV. The probable numbers of the people. The Mound-Builders have disappeared, or, at least, have fallen out of human knowledge, leaving these works and their fabrics as the only evi- dence of their existence. Consequently the proposed questions, excepting the first, are incapable of specific answers ; but they are not beyond the reach of approximate solutions. The mystery in which these tribes are enshrouded, and the unique character of their earth-works, will lead to deceptive inferences, unless facts and principles are carefully considered and rigorously applied, and such deductions only are made as they will fairly warrant. It is easy to magnify the significance of these remains and to form extravagant conclusions concerning them ; but neither will advance the truth. They represent a status of human advancement forming a con- necting link in the progressive development of man. If, then, the nature of their arts, and more especially the character of their institutions, can be determined with reasonable certainty, the true position of the Mound- Builders can be assigned to them in the scale of human progress, and what was possible and what impossible on their part can be known. THE HOUSE -LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES, IN THE USAGES OF WHICH THE MOUND-BUILDERS WERE NECESSARILY INVOLVED. It will be assumed that the tribes who constructed the earth-works of the Ohio Valley were American Indians. No other supposition is tenable. The implements and utensils found in the mounds indicate very plainly that they had attained to the Middle Status of barbarism. They do not fully answer the tests of this condition, since they neither cultivated by irrigation, so far as is known, nor constructed houses of adobe bricks or of stone ; but, in addition to the earth-works to be considered, they mined native copper and wrought it into implements and utensils — acts performed by none of the tribes in the Lower Status of barbarism; and they depended 200 HOUSES AND HOUSE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. chiefly upon horticulture for subsistence. They had also carried the art of pottery to the ornamental stage, and manufactured textile fabrics of cotton or flax, remains of which have been found wrapped around copper chisels. These facts, with others that will appear, justify their recognition as in the same status with the Village Indians of New and Old Mexico and Central America. They occupied areas free from lakes as a rule, and, therefore, the poorest for a fish subsistence. This shows of itself that their chief reliance was upon horticulture. The principal places where their villages were situated were unoccupied areas at the epoch of European discovery, because unadapted to tribes in the Lower Status of barbarism, who de- pended upon fish and game as well as upon maize and plants. A knowledge of the general character of the houses of the American aborigines will enable us to infer what must have been the general character of those of the Mound-Builders. This, again, was influenced by the con- dition of the family. Among the Indian tribes, in whatever stage of advancement, the family was found in the pairing form, with separation at the option of either party. It was founded upon marriage between single pairs, but it fell below the monogamian family of civilized society. In their condition it was too weak an organization to face alone the struggle of life, and it sought shelter in large households, formed on the basis of kin, with communism in living as an incident of their plan of life. While exceptional cases of single families living by themselves existed among all the tribes, it did not break the general rule of large households, and the practice in them of communism in living. These usages entered into and determined the character of their house architecture. In all parts of North and South America, at the period of European discovery, were found com- munal or joint-tenement houses, from those large enough to accommodate live, ten, and twenty families, to those large enough for fifty, a hundred, and in some cases two hundred or more, families. These houses differed among themselves in their plan and structure as well as size ; but a com- mon principle ran through them which was revealed by their adaptation to communistic uses. They reflect their condition and their plan of life with such singular distinctness as to afford practical hints concerning the houses of the Mound-Builders. MORGAN. 1 THEY PROBABLY CAME FROM NEW MEXICO. 201 THE PROBABLE CENTER FROM WHICH THE MOUND-BUILDERS EMIGRATED INTO THESE AREAS. It is well known that the highest type of Village Indian life was found in Yucatan, Chiapas, and Guatemala, and that the standard declines with the advance of the type northward into Mexico and New Mexico, thus tending to show that it was best adapted to a warm climate; but it does not follow that we must look to these distant regions for the original home of the Mound-Builders. The nearest point from which they could have been derived was New Mexico, and that is rendered the probable point from physical considerations, and still more from their greater nearness in con- dition to the Village Indians of New Mexico, below whom they must be ranked. The migrations of the American Indian tribes were gradual move- ments under the operation of physical causes, occupying long periods of time and with slow progress. There is no reason for supposing, in any .number of cases, that they were deliberate migrations with a definite desti- nation. With maize, beans, and squashes (the staples of an established horticulture), the Village Indians were independent of fish and game as primary means of subsistence, and with the former they possessed superior resources for migrating over the wide expanses of open prairies between New Mexico and the Mississippi. The movement of the tribes who con- structed the earth-works in question can be explained as a natural spread of Village Indians from the valley of the Rio Grande, or the San Juan, to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and thence northward to the valley of the ( )hio, which was both easy and feasible. Its successful extension for any considerable distance north of the gulf was rendered improbable, by reason of the increasing severity of the climate. There are some reasons for sup- posing that climate delayed the movement for centuries, and finally defeated the attempt to transplant permanently even the New Mexican type of village life into a northern temperature so much lower during the greater part of the year. A number of archaeologists, who have considered the question of the probable anterior home of the Mound- Builders, are inclined to derive them 202 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. from Central America. The ground for this opinion seems to be the fact that horticulture must have originated in a semi-tropical region, where this type of village life was first developed, and, therefore, that all the forms of this life were derived from thence. It would be a mistake, as it seems to the writer, to adopt the track of horticulture as that of Indian migration. In its first spread horticulture would be more apt to return upon the line of the latter than wait to be carried, by actual migrations, with the people. Moreover it is unnecessary to invoke such an argument, for the reason that New Mexico had been for ages the seat of horticultural and Village Indians, and was necessarily occupied by them long before the country east of the Mississippi. Every presumption is in favor of their derivation from New Mexico as their immediate anterior home, where they were accustomed to snow and to a moderate degree of cold . 1 THE USES FOR WHICH THEIR PRINCIPAL EARTHWORKS WERE DESIGNED, WITH A CONJECTURAL RESTORATION OF ONE OF THEIR PUEBLOS. A brief reference to the character and extent of these works is neces- sary as a means of understanding their uses. The authors of the volume “ The Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley” remark, in their preface, that “the ancient inclosures and groups of works personally exam- ined and surveyed are upwards of one hundred. * * * About two hun- dred mounds of all forms and sizes, and occupying every variety of posi- tion, have also been excavated .” 2 Out of ninety-five earthworks, exclusive of mounds, figured and described in this valuable memoir, and which prob- ably mark the sites of Indian villages, forty-seven are of the same type and may unhesitatingly be assigned to the Mound-Builders; fourteen are groups of emblematical earthworks, mostly in Wisconsin, and may also be assigned to them; but the remaining thirty -four are very inferior as well as different in character. They are not above the works of the Indians in the 1 At a recent meeting of the National Academy of Science at Washington, •where this subject was presented, Prof. O. C. Marsh remarked, in confirmation of this suggestion, that “ in a series of com- parisons of Indian skulls, he had been struck with the similarity between those of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and of the Mound-Builders. As the shape of the Mound-Builder’s skull is very peculiar, the coincidence is a very striking one.” 2 Smithsonian Cont. to Knowledge, Preface, XXXIV. MORGAN.) SIZE OF INDIAN PUEBLOS. 203 Lower Status of barbarism, and, therefore, do not probably belong to the Village Indians who constructed the works in the Scioto Valley. If to those first named are added the emblematical earth-works figured and described by Lapham , 1 and a few other works not known to Squier and Davis, and since described by other persons, there are something more than one hun- dred works, large and small, indicating the sites of Indian villages, of which perhaps three quarters were occupied at the same time . 2 The conical mounds raised over Indian graves, which are numerous, are not included. “A large, perhaps the larger portion of these works,” observe the same authors, “are regular in outline, the square and circle predominating. * * * The regular works are almost invariably erected on level river terraces. * * * The square and the circle often occur in combination, frequently connecting with each other. * * * Most of the circular works are small, varying from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet in diameter, while others are a mile or more in circuit .” 3 These embankments are, for the most part, slight, varying from two feet to six, eight, ten, and twelve feet in height, with a broad base, caused by the washing down of the banks in the course of centuries. These facts are shown by numerous cross-sections furnished with the ground-plans by the authors. But the circular embank- ments are usually about half as high as the rectangular. Some idea of the size of Indian villages, and of their nearness to eacli other, is necessary to form an impression of their plan of life and mode of settlement. The illustrations should be drawn from the Village Indians, to which class the Mound-Builders undoubtedly belonged. Not knowing the use of wells, they established their settlements on the margins of rivers and small streams, which afforded alluvial land for cultivation, and often within a few miles of each other. In the valley of the Rio Chaco, in New Mexico, there were several pueblos within an extent of twelve miles, each consisting of a single joint-tenement house, constructed usually upon three sides of a court; and westward of the Chaco Valley were, and still are, the seven Moki pueblos, within an extent of twenty-five miles. At the present time, in the valley of the Rio Grande, a single pueblo house, accommodating 1 Smithsonian Cont. to Knowledge, Vol. V. 2 When a calamity befalls an Indian settlement it is usually abandoned. 3 Smithsonian Cont. to Knowledge, I, pp. 6 and 8. 204 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. five hundred persons, makes an Indian village. Two or three such houses, as at Taos and Santo Domingo, form a large pueblo ; and a group of several such houses, as at Zuni, a pueblo of the largest size, which once contained perhaps five thousand persons, now reduced to fifteen hundred. There are no reasons for supposing that any pueblo in Yucatan or Central America con- tained as high a number as ten thousand inhabitants at the period of the Spanish conquest, although these countries were extremely favorable for an increase of Indian population. Their villages were numerous and small. Castaneda, who accompanied the expedition of Coronado to New Mexico in 1 540—1542, estimated the population of the seventy villages visited by detach- ments and situated between the Colorado River, Zuni, and the Arkansas at twenty thousand men, which would give a total population in this wide area of a hundred thousand Indians. 1 There were seven villages each of Cibola, Tusayan, Quivira, and Hemes, and twelve of Tiguex; it would give an average of about fourteen hundred and fifty persons to each village. In all probability these are fair samples as to the number of inhabitants of the villages of the Mound-Builders, with exceptional cases, as the village on the site of Marietta, in Ohio, where there may have been five thousand, if an impression may be formed from the extent of the earth- works occupied in the manner hereafter suggested. Where several villages were found near each other on the same stream, as in New Mexico, the people usually spoke the same dialect, which tends to show that those in each group were colo- nists from one original village. The earth-works of the Mound-Builders must be regarded as the sites of their villages. The question then recurs, for what purpose did they raise these embankments at an expenditure of so much labor"? They must have lived somewhere, in, upon, or around them. No answer has been given to this question, and no serious attempt has been made to explain their uses. They have been called “defensive enclosures”; but it is not supposable that they lived in houses within the embankments, for this would turn the places into slaughter-pens in case of an attack. Some of them have been called “sacred enclosures”, but this goes for nothing apart from some knowledge of their uses. They were constructed for a practical, intelligent purpose, l Coll. T r n inn x-Co in p a ns , vol. ix, pp. 181-183. MORGAN.] OBJECT OF EMBANKMENTS. 205 and that purpose must he sought in the needs and mode of life of the Mound-Builders as Village Indians ; and it should he expressed in the works themselves. If a sensible use for these embankments can he found, its acceptance will relieve us from the delusive inferences which are certain to he drawn from them so long as they are allowed to remain in the category of the mysteries. It is proposed to submit a conjectural explanation of the objects and uses of the principal embankments, and to advocate its acceptance on the ground of inherent probability. It will be founded on the assumption that the Mound-Builders were horticultural Village Indians who had immigrated from beyond the Mississippi; that as such they had been accustomed to live in houses of adobe bricks, like those found in New Mexico; that they had become habituated to living upon their roof terraces as elevated platforms, and in large households; and that their houses were in the nature of for- tresses, in consequence of the insecurity in which they lived. Further than this, that before they emigrated to the valley of the Ohio they were accus- tomed to snow, and to a moderate degree of winter cold; wore skin gar- ments, and possibly woven mantles of cotton, as the Cibolans of New Mexico did at the time of Coronado’s expedition. 1 The food of the New Mexicans, at this time, consisted of maize, beans, and squashes, and a limited amount of game, which was doubtless the food of the Mound-Builders. Captain Juan Jaramillo, who accompanied the same expedition, remarks in his relation that the Cibolans “had hardly provisions enough for themselves; what they had consisted of maize, beans, and squashes ( maiz , des haricots, et des colleges). * * * qjie Indians clothe themselves with deer skins, very well prepared. They have also buffalo-skins tanned, in which they wrap themselves.” 2 Although several centuries earlier in time, the Mound- Builders, with habits of life similar to those of the Cibolans, in 1540, would 1 “The snow and cold are wont to he great,” Coronado remarks in liis relation, “for so say the in- liabitants of the country; and it is very likely so to he, both in respect of the manner of the country and of the fashion of their houses, and their furs and other things, which the people have to defend them from cold. * * * They have no cotton-wool growing, because the country is cold, yet they wear mantles thereof, as your honor may see by the show thereof; and true it is that there was found in their houses certain yarn made of cotton-wool. * * * In this country there are certain skins, well dressed, and they dress them and pain t them when they kill their oxen [buffaloes], for so they say themselves.” — Hakluyt’s Coll, of Voyages, Loud, ed., 1600, iii, 377. '- Coll. Ternaux-Compans, ix, 369. 206 HOUSES AND HOUSE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. understand, besides horticulture, the use of’ adobe bricks, and the art of constructing long joint-tenement houses, closed up in the first story for de- fensive reasons, and built in the terraced form two, three, and four stories high, the ascent to the roof of the first story being made by ladders. If, then, a tribe of Village Indians, with such habits and experience, emigrated centuries ago in search of new homes, and in course of time they, or their descendants, reached the Scioto Valle} 7 , in Ohio, they would find it impossible to construct houses of adobe bricks able to resist the rains and frosts of that climate, even if they found adobe soil. Some modification of their house architecture would be forced upon them through climatic reasons. They might have used stone, if possessed of sufficient skill to quarry it and construct walls of stone; but they did not produce such houses. Or they might have fallen back upon a house of inferior grade, located upon the level ground, such as the timber-framed houses of the Minnitarees and Man- dans, in which case there would have been no necessity for the embankments in question. Or, they might have raised these embankments of earth, inclosing rectangles or squares , and constructed long houses upon them , which, it is sub- mitted, is precisely what they did. Such houses would agree in general character and in plan, and in the uses to which they were adapted, with those of the aborigines found in all parts of America The elevated platform of earth as a house-site is an element in Indian architecture which reappears in a conspicuous manner in the solid pyra- midal platforms upon which the great stone structures in Yucatan and Cen- tral America were erected, and which sprang from the defensive and the communal principles in living. This latter principle required large houses for the accommodation of a number of families in the Lower Status of bar- barism, and large enough in some cases, when the people were in the Mid- dle Status, to accommodate an entire tribe. When adobe bricks were used the house was usually a single structure, three or four rooms deep and three or four stories high, constructed in a block, and in the nature of a fortress. The ground story was little used, except for storage, and they lived, prac- tically, upon the roof terraces. When the use of stone came in, the struct- ure often consisted of a main building four or five hundred feet long, and two wings two and three hundred feet in length, inclosing three sides of an MORGAN.] HOUSES OF MOUND BUILDERS. 207 open court, the fourth side being - protected by a low stone wall. Such were the pueblos now in ruins upon the Rio Chaco in New Mexico In the highest form of this architecture in Yucatan and Chiapas, the pyramidal elevation appears faced with dry stone walls. The buildings upon its summit were often in the form of a quadrangle, with an open court in the center; but the buildings were generally disconnected at the four angles, as in the House of the Nuns at Uxmal. All of these forms are parts of one system of indigenous architecture; and the several parts are susceptible of articulation in a series representing a progressive develop- ment of a common thought, that of joint residence, with the practice of communism "in living in large groups in the same house, or in one group consisting of the entire household. Let us, then, inquire whether the principal embankments of the Mound- Builders were adapted, as raised platforms of earth, for the sites of long houses constructed on the communistic principle, and in the general style of the houses of the American aborigines. In the valley of the Scioto, in Ohio, and within an extent of twelve miles, were found the remains of seven villages of the Mound-Builders, four upon the east and three upon the west side of the river. They are among the best of their works, and furnish fair examples of the whole. One of the number, the High Bank Pueblo, is shown in ground-plan in the engraving, Fig. 46. It is the only one in which the inclosure is octagonal instead of square. The remains of each of the seven consist principally of embankments like railway grades several feet high and correspondingly broad at the base, inclosing a square or slightly irregular area, the embank- ment on each of the four sides being about a thousand feet long, witli an opening or gateway in the middle and at the four angles of the square. Attached to or quite near to five of the seven are large circular inclosures, each formed by a similar though lower embankment of earth and inclosing a space somewhat larger than the squares. The respective heights of the embankments, forming four of the rectangles, are given at four, six, ten, and twelve feet; and of three of the circular embankments, at five and six feet, respectively. The embankments inclosing the squares were probably the sites of their 208 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. houses; since, as the highest, and because they are straight, they were best adapted to the purpose. The situations of these pueblos at short distances from each other on the same stream accords with the usages of the Villaere Indians of New and Old Mexico and Central America in locating- their vil- lages These pueblos were probably occupied by Mound-Builders of the same tribe, and were not Unlikely under a common government, consisting of a council of chiefs. It is probable, also, that they were constructed, one after the other, by colonists from an original village. In the engraving, Fig. 46, the form and relations of the embankments are shown, with cross-sections indicating their elevation and present ground- dimensions. It was taken from the work of Squier and Davis. 1 These authors remark that “the principal work consists of an octagon and circle, the former measuring nine hundred and fifty feet, the latter ten hundred and fifty feet in diameter. * * * The walls of the octagon are very bold, and, where they have been least subject to cultivation, are now between eleven and twelve feet in height by about fifty feet base. The wall of the circle is much less, nowhere measuring over four or five feet in alti- tude. In all these respects, as in the absence of a ditch and the presence of the two small circles, this work resembles the Hopeton Works.” 2 Of the latter, which is nine miles above on the Scioto, they remark that “the walls of the rectangular work are composed of a clayey loam twelve feet high by fifty feet base * * * They resemble the heavy grading of a rail- way, and are broad enough on the top to admit of the passage of a coach.” 3 It will be noticed that the octagonal work shown in the engraving con- sists of seven distinct embankments. Six of these are about four hundred and fifty feet long, and the remaining one, which once consisted of two equal sections, as shown by the mound to face an original opening in the center, now forms one continuous embankment facing one side of the inclosed area. If these embankments were reformed, with the materials washed down and now spread over a base of fifty feet, with sloping sides and a level summit, they would form new embankments thirty-seven feet wide at base, ten feet high, and with a summit platform twenty-two feet wide. If a surface coating of clay were used, the sides could be made 1 Smith Con., vol. i, pi. xvi. 2 Ib., p. 50. 3 lb., p. 51. ROSS CO. OHIO. a \ .Vug holeLj- — ^ < f j / ho7cs_ nM Forest. “i iimniiiu , Sections (Oil • 3ZWZ Fig. 46.— Ground plan of High Bank Pueld MORGAN.] EMBANKMENTS FORMED BASE OF HOUSES. * 209 steeper and the summit platform broader. On embankments thus reformed out of their original materials respectable as well as sufficient sites would be provided for long joint-tenement houses, comparted into chambers like stalls opening upon a central passage way through the structure from end to end, as in the long-houses of the Iroquois. Such embankments were strikingly adapted to houses of the aboriginal American model, the charac- teristic feature of which was sufficient length to afford a number of apart- ments. This feature became more marked in the houses of the Village Indians, among whom houses three hundred, four hundred, and even five hundred feet in length have been found, as elsewhere stated. These embankments answered as a substitute for the first story of the house constructed of adobe bricks, which was usually from ten to twelve feet high, and closed up solid on the ground, externally. The gateways entering the square were protected, it may be supposed, with palisades of round timber set in the ground, each row of stakes commencing at the opposite ends of the embankments and contracting after passing each other to a narrow opening on the inside, which might be permanently closed. Indian tribes in a lower condition than the Mound-Builders were familiar with palisades. The inclosed square was thus completely protected by the long-houses standing upon these embankments and the gateways guarding the several entrances. The pueblo, externally, would present continuous ramparts of earth ten feet high, around an inclosed area, surmounted with timber-framed houses with walls sloping like the embankments, and coated with earth mixed with clay and gravel, rising ten or twelve feet above their summits ; the two forming a sloping wall of earth twenty feet high. It seems extremely probable, for the reasons stated, that they raised these embankments as foundations, and planted their long-houses upon them, thus uniting the defensive principle with that of communism in living. Such houses would harmonize with the general plan of life of the American abo- rigines, and with the general type of their house architecture. It is not necessary to know the exact form or internal plan of these houses in order to establish this hypothesis. It is sufficient to show that these embankments as restored were not only adapted, but admirably adapted, to joint-tenement houses of the aboriginal American type. 14 210 HOUSE'S AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. The restoration, Fig. 47, was drawn by my friend James Gr. Cutler, esq., of Rochester, architect, in accordance with the foregoing suggestions. It shows not only the feasibility of occupying these embankments with long houses, but also that each pueblo was designed by the Mound- Builders to be a fortress, able to resist assault with the appliances of Indian warfare. From the defensive character of the great houses of the Village Indian in general, this feature might have been expected to appear in the houses of the Mound-Builders. In this restoration the houses are nearly triangular and of simple con- struction. Indians much ruder than they are supposed to have been, as the Minnitarees and Mandans, walled their houses with slabs of wood stand- ing on a slope, and roofed them at a lower angle, covering both the sloping external walls and the roof with a “concrete of tough clay and gravel,” a foot or more thick. Long triangular houses of the width of the summit of these embankments, with their doorways opening upon the square, and with the interior comparted in the form of stalls upon each side of a central passage way, would realize, with the inclosed court, some of the features and nearly all the advantages of the New Mexican pueblo houses. Occupying to the edge of the embankments, these of the Mound-Builders could not be suc- cessfully assailed from without either by Indian weapons or by tire; and within, their apartments would be as secure and capacious as those of the Village Indians in general at the period of their discovery. The inclosed court, which is of unusual size, is one of the remarkable features of the plan. It afforded a protected place for the villagers and a place of recrea- tion for their children, as well as room for their drying-scaffolds, of which Mr. Cutler has introduced a number of the Minnitaree and Mandan model, and for gardens if they chose to use a part of the area for that purpose. They would also require room for a large accumulation of fuel for winter use. The only assailable points are the gateways, of which the embank- ments show seven. These undoubtedly were protected by rows of round timber set in the ground, and passing each other in such a manner as to leave a narrow opening, with a mound back of each, upon which archers could stand and shoot their arrows over the heads of those between them Fig. 47. — Restoration of Hij>li Bank Pueblo. ■ - Fig. 48. — Ground plan and sections oi house, High Bank Puehlo, MORGAN.] SUPPOSED GROUND SECTION OF HOUSE. 211 and the gateway in front. Such at least is the object which the presence of the mound in each case suggests. In the engraving, Fig. 48, there is a ground plan of a section of one of the long-houses resting upon the restored embankment. It shows eight apartments upon opposite sides of the central passage, each nine feet wide by six feet deep, and surrounded by raised bunks used both for seats and beds. The passage is eight feet wide and runs through the house from end to end, with fire-pits in the center for each four apartments. In interior plan it is an exact transcript of the long-house of the Iroquois, and therefore adapted to the joint habitation of a large number of related families, and to the practice of communism. Another section shows the embankment below the line A-B, which, as stated, is ten feet high upon a base thirty-seven feet wide, and with a sum- mit platform twenty-two feet wide, which forms the floor of the house. Above this is a cross-section of the structure Round posts six inches in diameter are set in the ground upon the lines of the central passage, defin- ing also the several stalls. These posts, which rise eight feet above the level of the floor and are forked at the top, support string-pieces which run the length of the house Against these, planks of split timber are placed so as to form a sloping external wall, and these are covered with clay and gravel a foot or more thick. A simpler method would be the use of poles set close together and sunk in the ground, afterwards coated in the same manner. Cross-pieces of round timber rest upon the stringers over each pair of posts. The roof over the central passage is formed independently of poles bracing against each other at the center from opposite sides. This is also covered with concrete or mud mortar. Openings through the roof are left over the fire-pits for the exit of the smoke. The principle of con- struction adopted is that employed in the dirt lodges of the Minnitarees and Mandans of the Upper Missouri. 1 As thus restored, this pueblo of the Mound-Builders is not superior in the mechanism of the houses to those of the tribes named. An elevation of a portion of one of the houses, on the court side, is also furnished, showing the embankment with a ladder resting upon it used There are some reasons for supposing that the Minnitarees are descendants of the Mound-Builders. 212 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. as steps, and which could be taken up at night; also one of the doors by which the house was entered. It is not necessary, as before suggested, that the actual form and struct- ure of the houses of the Mound-Builders should be shown to establish the hypothesis that these embankments were the veritable sites of their houses. If it is made evident that the summit platforms of these embankments, when reformed from their own materials, would afford practicable sites for houses, which when constructed would have been comfortable dwellings adapted to the climate and to Indian life in the Middle Status of barbarism, this is all that can be required. The restoration of this pueblo establishes the affirmative of this proposition, with the superadded confirmation of that defensive character which marks all the house architecture of the Village Indians in New and Old Mexico and Central America. With their undoubted advancement beyond the Iroquois and Minnita- rees, the Mound-Builders may have constructed better houses upon these platform elevations than the plans indicate. No remains of adobes have been found in connection with these embankments, and nothing to indicate that walls of such brick had ever been raised upon them. The disinte- grated mass would have shown itself in the form of the embankment after the lapse of many centuries. On the contrary, they were found in the pre- cise form they would have assumed, under atmospheric influences, after structures of the kind described had perished, and the embankments had been abandoned for centuries. These embankments, therefore, require triangular houses of the kind described, and long-liouses, as well, covering their entire length. But the interior plan might have been different; for example, the passage way might have been along the exterior wall, and the stalls or apartments on the court side, and but half as many in number; and, instead of one continuous house in the interior, four hundred and fifty feet in length, it might have been divided into several, separated from each other by cross partitions. The plan of life, however, which we are justified in ascribing to them, from known usages of Indian tribes in a similar condition of advancement, would lead us to expect large households formed on the basis of kin, with the practice of communism in living in each household, whether large or small. MORGAN.] HOUSES SAFE AGAINST INDIAN ASSAULT. 213 There is a direct connection in principle between the platform eleva- tions inclosing a large square on which the High Bank Pueblo was con- structed, and the pyramidal platforms in Yucatan, smaller in diameter but higher in elevation, upon which were erected the most artistic houses con- structed by the American aborigines. In the latter cases the central area rises to the common level of the embankments upon which the houses were constructed. The former has the security gained by a house-site above the level of the surrounding ground ; and it represents about all the advance made by the Village Indians in the art of war above the tribes in a lower condition of barbarism. They placed their houses and homes in a position unassailable by the methods of Indian warfare. There is some diversity, as would be expected, in the size of the squares inclosed by these embankments. They range from four hundred and fifty to seventeen hundred feet, the majority measuring between eight hundred and fifty and a thousand feet. Gateways are usually found at the four angles and at the center of each side. A comparison of the dimen- sions of twenty of these squares, figured in the “Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,” gives for the average nine hundred and thirty-seven feet. The aggregate length of the embankments shown in Fig. 46 is three thousand six hundred feet, which, at an average of ten feet for each apart- ment, would give three hundred and sixty upon each side of the passage way, or seven hundred and twent}^ in all. From this number should be deducted such as were used for storage, for doorways, and for public uses. Allowing two apartments for each family of five persons, the High Bank Pueblo would have accommodated from fifteen hundred to two thousand persons, living in the fashion of Indians, which is about the number of an average pueblo of the Village Indians. This result may be strengthened by comparing houses of existing Indian tribes. The Seneca-Iroquois vil- lage of Tiotohatton, two centuries ago, was estimated at a hundred and twenty houses. Taking the number at one hundred, with an average length of fifty feet, and it would give a lineal length of house-room of five thousand feet It was the largest of the Seneca, and the largest of the Iroquois villages, and contained about two thousand inhabitants. A simi- lar result is obtained by another comparison. The aggregate length of the 214 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. apartments in the pueblo of Chetro Kettle, in New Mexico, now in ruins, including those in the several stories, is four thousand seven hundred feet. It contained probably about the same number of inhabitants. The foregoing explanation of the uses of these embankments rests upon the defensive principle in the house architecture of the Village Indians, and upon a state of the family requiring joint-tenement houses communistic in character. To both of these requirements this conjectural restoration of one of the pueblos of the Mound-Builders responds in a remarkable manner. In the diversified forms of the houses of the Village Indians, in all parts of America, the defensive principle is a constant fea- ture. Among the Mound-Builders a rampart of earth ten feet high around a village would afford no protection ; but surmounted with long-houses, the walls of which rose continuous with the embankments, the strength of these walls, though of timber coated with earth, would render a rampart thus surmounted and doubled in height a formidable barrier against Indian assault. The second principle, that of communism in living in joint-tene- ment houses, which is impressed not less clearly upon the houses of the Village Indians in general than upon the supposed houses of the Mound- Builders, harmonized completely with the first. From the two together sprang the house architecture of the American aborigines, with its diversi- ties of form, and they seem sufficient for its interpretation. The Mound- Builders in their new area east of the Mississippi, finding it impossible to construct joint-tenement houses of adobe bricks to which they had been accustomed, substituted solid embankments of earth in the place of the first story closed up on the ground, and erected triangular houses upon them covered with earth. When circumstances compelled a change of plan, the second is not a violent departure from the first. There is a natural con- nection between them. Finally, it is deemed quite sufficient to sustain the interpretation given, that these embankments were eminently adapted to the uses indicated; and that the pueblo as restored, and with its inclosed court, would have afforded to its inhabitants pleasant, protected, and attractive homes. With respect to the large circular inclosures, adjacent to and communi- cating with the squares, it is not necessary that we should know their MORGAN. 1 CIRCULAR EMBANKMENT AROUND GARDEN. 215 object. The one attached to the High Bank Pneblo contains twenty acres of land, and doubtless subserved some useful purpose in their plan of life. The first suggestion which presents itself is, that as a substitute for a fence it surrounded the garden of the village in which they cultivated their maize, beans, squashes, and tobacco. At the Minnitaree village a similar inclosure may now be seen by the side of the village surrounding their cultivated land, consisting partly of hedge and partly of stakes, the open prairie stretching out beyond. We cannot know all the necessities that attended their mode of life; although houses, gardens, food, and raiment were among those which must have existed There is another class of circular embankments, about two hundred and fifty feet in diameter, connected with each other in some cases by long and low parallel embankments, as may be seen in Fig. 46. Undoubtedly they were for some useful purpose, which may or may not be divined cor- rectly, but a knowledge of which is not necessary to our hypothesis respect- ing the principal embankments. It may be suggested as probable that the Mound-Builders were organized in gentes, phratries, and tribes. If this were the case, the phratries would need separate places for holding their councils and for performing their religious observances. These ring em- bankments suggest the circular estufas found in connection with the New Mexican pueblos, two, four, and sometimes five at one pueblo. The circles were adapted to open-air councils, 'after the fashion of the American Indian tribes. As there are two of these connected with each other, and two not connected, it is not improbable that the Mound-Builders at this village were organized in two and perhaps four phratries, and that they performed their religious ceremonies and public business in these open estufas. 1 Practice of Cremation , — Among other works are the conical mounds, which are numerous, found in or near circular embankments. They vary in height from five to ten and twenty feet ; with one, the Grave Creek Mound, seventy feet high. They are classified by Squier and Davis, who 1 The solid rectangular platforms found at Marietta, Ohio, and at several places in the Gulf region, are analogous to those in Yucatan. They are an advance upon the ring inclosures, and were probably designed for religious uses. That the Mound-Builders were at one time accustomed to adobe brick is proven by their presence at Seltzertown, in the State of Mississippi, forming a part of the wall of a mound. (See Foster’s Pre- Iiistoric Paces of the U. S., p. 112.) 216 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. surveyed and examined them, into “Mounds of Sacrifice,” “Mounds of Sepulture,” and “Mounds of Observation” The first kind only, in which the so-called “altars” are found, will be noticed. At the center of each of the mounds of this class, and on the ground- level, there was found a bed of clay, artificially formed into a shallow basin, and then hardened by fire. These basins have been termed “ altars” by Squier and Davis in their work on the “Ancient Monuments of the Missis- sippi Valley.” Mr. Squier remarks in a iTsumd of this work, published separately, that “some are round, others elliptical, and others square or parallelograms. * * * qq ie usual dimensions are from five to eight feet.” 1 At Mound City, on the Scioto River, there is a group of twenty-six mounds in one inclosure, an engraving of one of which, taken from Mr. Squier’s paper, is shown in Fig. 49. It is seven feet high by fifty-five feet base, and contained the artificial clay basin in question. F F is the basin, which is round, and measures from c to d nine feet, and from a to e five feet. The height from h to e is twenty inches, and the dip of the curve, a toe, is nine inches. “The body of the altar,” Mr Squier remarks, “is burned throughout, though in a greater degree within the basin, where it 1 Observalions, etc., Trans. Am. Etli. Soc., ii, 158. MORGAN.] CREMATION BY INDIANS. 217 was so hard as to resist the blow of a heavy hatchet, the instrument re- bounding as if struck upon a rock. The basin, or hollow of the altar, was filled up even full with dry ashes, intermingled with which were some frag- ments of pottery. * * * One of the vases, taken in fragments from the mound, has been very nearly restored. The sketch B presents its outlines and the character of its ornaments. Its height is six, and its greatest diam- eter eight inches * * * Above the deposit of ashes, and covering the entire basin, was a layer of silvery or opaque mica in sheets overlapping each other; and immediately over the center of the basin was heaped a quantity of human bones, probably the amount of a single skeleton, in fragments. The position of these is indicated by 0 in the section. The layer of mica and calcined bones, it should be remarked to prevent mis- apprehension, was peculiar to this individual mound, and not found in any other of the class.” 1 Calcined bones, however, were found in three out of some twenty mounds of this class examined. 2 The question now recurs, what was the use of the basin of clay, and what the object of the mound itself? The terms “altars” and “mounds of sacrifice,” employed in describing them, imply that human sacrifices were offered on these “ altars,” “upon which glowed the sacrificial fires.” 3 There is no propriety, 1 respectfully submit, in the use of either of these terms, or in the conclusions they would force us to adopt. Human sacrifices were unknown in the Lower Status of barbarism; but they were introduced in the Middle Status, when the first organized priesthood, distinguished by their apparel, appears. In parts of Mexico, and, it is claimed, in parts of Central America, these atrocious rites were per- formed ; but they were unknown in New Mexico, and, without better evi- dence than these miscalled altars afford, they cannot be fastened upon the Mound-Builders. Moreover, these clay beds were not adapted to the bar- barous work. Wherever human sacrifices are known to have occurred among the American aborigines, the place was an elevated mound platform, in the nature of a temple, as the Teocalli of Mexico, and the raised altar or sacrificial stone stood before the idol in whose worship the rites were performed. There is neither a temple nor an idol; but a hollow bed of clay Observations, etc., Trans. Am. Eth. Soe., ii, p. 1G1. 2 Anc. Mon., etc., pp. 157, 151). 3 lb., p. 155. 218 HOUSES AND HOUSE LIFE OP THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. covered by a mound raised in honor over the ashes of a deceased chief, for assuredly such a mound would not have been raised over the ashes of a victim. Indians never exchanged prisoners of war. Adoption or burning at the stake was the alternative of capture; but no mound was ever raised over the burned remains. Human sacrifices seem to have originated in an attempt to utilize the predetermined death of prisoners of war in the service of the gods, until slavery finally offered a profitable substitute, in the Upper Status of barbarism. Another use suggests itself for this artificial basin more in accordance with Indian usages and customs, namely, that cremation of the body of a deceased chief was performed upon it, after which the mound in question was raised over his ashes in accordance with Indian custom. Cremation was practiced by the Village Indians only among the Ameri- can aborigines. It was not general even among them, burial in the ground being the common usage; but it was more or less general in the case of chiefs. The mode of cremation varied in different areas, but the full par- ticulars are not given in any instance. In Nicarauga the body of a deceased chief of the highest grade was wrapped in clothes and suspended by ropes before a fire until the body was baked to dryness ; then, after keeping it a year, it was taken to the market-place, where they burned it, believing that the smoke went “to the place where the dead man’s soul was.” 1 From this or some similar conceit the practice of cremation probably originated. THE PROBABLE NUMBERS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS. There are no reasons for supposing, from the number of their villages, that the Mound-Builders were a numerous people. My friend, Prof. Charles Whittlesey, in a discussion of the rate of increase of the human race, esti- mates them at 500, 000. 2 With thanks for the moderateness of the estimate, one-third of that number would have been more satisfactory. Dense popu- lations, an expression sometimes applied to the Mound-Builders, have never “Herrera’s Hist. America, ii, 133. 2 Trans. Am. Ass. for the Adv. of Science, 1873, p. 320. MORGAN.] VOLUNTARY WITHDRAWAL. 219 existed without either flocks and herds, or field agriculture with the use of the plow. In some favored areas, where the facilities for irrigation were unusual, a considerable population has been developed upon horticulture; but no traces of irrigating' canals have been found in connection with the works of the Mound-Builders. Furthermore, it was unnecessary in their areas. Transplanted from a comparatively mild to a cold climate, they must have found the struggle for existence intensified. Like the Cibolans in 1 540, it was doubtless at all times equally true of them, that “they had barely provisions enough for themselves.” And yet there is no cereal equal to maize in the rich reward it returns even for poor cultivation. It grows in the hill, can be eaten green as well as ripe, and is hardy and prolific. At the same time, while it can be made the basis of human subsistence, it is not sufficient of itself for the maintenance of vigorous, healthful life. Vege- tables and game were requisite to complete the supply of food. The diffi- culties in the way of production set a limit to their numbers. These also explain the small number of their settlements in the large areas over which they spread. Although they found native copper on the south shore of Lake Superior, and beat it into chisels and a species of pointed spade, the number of copper tools found is small, much too small to lead to the supposition that it sensibly influenced their cultivation. A pick pointed with a stone chisel, a spade of wood, and a triangular piece of flint set in a wooden handle and used as a knife, were as perfect implements as they were able to command. Horticulture practiced thus rudely was necessarily of limited productiveness. The idea has been advanced that “the condition of society among the Mound-Builders was not that of freemen, or, in other words, that the state possessed absolute power over the lives and fortunes of its subjects.” 1 It is a sufficient answer to this remarkable passage that a people unable to dig a well or build a dry stone wall must have been unable to establish political society, which was necessary to the existence of a state. From the absence of all traditionary knowledge of the Mound-Builders among the tribes found east of the Mississippi, an inference arises that the 'Foster’s Pre-historic Paces, etc., p. 386. 220 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. period of their occupation was ancient. Their withdrawal was probably gradual, and completed before the advent of the ancestors of the present tribes, or simultaneous with their arrival. It seems more likely that their retirement from the country was voluntary than that they were expelled by an influx of wild tribes. If their expulsion had been the result of a pro- tracted warfare, all remembrance of so remarkable an event would scarcely have been lost among the tribes by whom they were displaced. A warm climate was necessary for the successful maintenance of the highest form of Village Indian life. In the struggle for existence in this cold climate Indian arts and ingenuity must have been taxed quite as heavily to provide clothing as food. It is therefore not improbable that the attempt to trans- plant the New Mexican type of village life into the valley of the Ohio proved a failure, and that after great efforts, continued through centuries of time, it was finally abandoned by their withdrawal, first into the gulf region through which they entered, and, lastly, from the country altogether. The Tlascalans practiced cremation, but it was generally limited to the chiefs . 1 It was the same among the Aztecs. “Others were burnt and the ashes buried in the temples, but they were all interred with whatever things of value they possessed . 2 The Mayas of Yucatan came nearer the Romans in the practice, for they preserved the ashes in earthen vessels. “ The dead were much lamented,” remarks Herrera, “in silence by day and with dismal shrieks by night * * * filling their mouths with ground wheat [maize] that they might not want food in the other world. * * * The bodies of their lords were burnt and their ashes put into large vessels, over which temples were built. Some made wooden statues of their parents, and leav- ing an hollow in the necks of them, put in their ashes and kept them among their idols with great veneration .” 3 In New Mexico cremation is occasion- ally practiced at the present time. That the Mound-Builders should have had this custom, in view of its prevalence among the Village Indians, would afford no cause of surprise. I think we may, not without reason, recognize in this artificial basin of clay a cremation bed, upon which the body was placed in a sitting posture, covered with fuel, and then burned — in some cases partially, and in others *Ib., iv, 175. ‘Herrera’s Hist. America, ii, 302. 2 lb., iii, 220. MORGAN.] VO LUNTAEY WITHDRA WAL. 221 until every vestige of the body had been burned to ashes — after which, or even before the burning, a mound was raised over them as a mark of honor and respect. These mounds have yielded a large number of copper and stone implements, pipes, fragments of water jars, and other articles usuall } 7 entombed with the remains of the dead. It seems to have been their method of cremation; and it must be admitted to be quite as respectable as any known form of this strange practice of a large portion of the humaft race. CHAPTER X. HOUSES OF THE AZTECS OE ANCIENT MEXICANS. The first accounts of the pueblo of Mexico created a powerful sensa- tion in Europe. In the West India Islands the Spanish discoverers found small Indian tribes under the government of chiefs; but on the continent, in the Valley of Mexico, they found a confederacy of three Indian tribes under a more advanced but similar government. In the midst of the valley was a large pueblo, the largest in America, surrounded with water, approached by causeways; in fine, a water-girt fortress impregnable to Indian assault. This pueblo presented to the Spanish adventurers the extraordinary spectacle of an Indian society lying two ethnical periods back of European society, but with a government and plan of life at once intelligent, orderly, and complete There was aroused an insatiable curiosity for additional particu- lars, which has continued for three centuries, and which has called into existence a larger number of works than were ever before written upon any people of the same number and of the same importance The Spanish adventurers who captured the pueblo of Mexico saw a king in Montezuma, lords in Aztec chiefs, and a palace in the large joint- tenement house occupied, Indian fashion, by Montezuma and his fellow- householders. It was, perhaps, an unavoidable self-deception at the time, because they knew nothing of the Aztec social system. Unfortunately it inaugurated American aboriginal history upon a misconception of Indian life which lias remained substantially unquestioned until recently. The first eye-witnesses gave the keynote to this history by introducing Monte- zuma as a king, occupying a palace of great extent crowded with retainers, and situated in the midst of a grand and populous city, over which, and much beside, he was reputed master. But king and kingdom were in time found too common to express all the glory and splendor the imagination was 222 MORGAN.] EAELT SPANISH ACCOUNTS. 223 beginning to conceive of Aztec society; and emperor and empire gradually superseded the more humble conception of the conquerors . 1 A psychological fact, which deserves a moment’s notice, is revealed by these works, written as they were with a desire for the truth and without intending to deceive These writers ought to have known that every Indian tribe in America was an organized society, with definite institutions, usages, and customs, which, when ascertained, would have perfectly explained its government, the social relations of the people, and their plan of life Indian society could be explained as completely and understood as perfectly as the civilized society of Europe or America by finding its exact organization This, strange to say, was never attempted, or at least never accomplished, by any one of these numerous and voluminous writers. To every author, from Cortes and Bernal Diaz to Brasseur de Bourbourg and Hubert H Bancroft, Indian society was an unfathomable mystery, and their works have left it a mystery still. Igno- rant of its structure and principles, and unable to comprehend its pecu- liarities, they invoked the imagination to supply whatever was necessary to fill out the picture. When the reason, from want of facts, is unable to understand and therefore unable to explain the structure of a given society, imagination walks bravely in and fearlessly rears its glittering fabric to the skies. Thus, in this case, we have a grand historical romance, strung upon 1 In the Despatches of Cortes the term King “ El rey ” is not used in speaking of Montezuma, hut senor and cacique. The Valley of Mexico, including the adjacent mountain slopes and excluding the area covered by water, was about equal to the State of Ehode Island, which contains thirteen hundred square miles; an insignificant area for a single American Indian tribe. But the confederacy had subdued a number of tribes southward and southeastward from the valley as far as Guatemala, and placed them under tribute. Under their plan of government it was impossible to incorporate these tribes in the Aztec con- federacy ; the barrier of language furnished an insuperable objection ; and they were left to govern themselves through their own chiefs, and according to their own usages and customs. As they were neither under Aztec government nor Aztec usages, there is no occasion to speak of them as a part of the Aztec confederacy, or even as an appendage of its government. The power of this confederacy did not extend a hundred miles beyond the Pueblo of Mexico on the west, northwest, north, northeast, or east sides, in each of which directions they were confronted by independent and hostile tribes. The population of the three confederate tribes was confined to the valley, and did not probably exceed two hundred and fifty thousand souls, including the Moquiltes, Xochomileos, and Chaleans, if it equaled that number, which would give nearly twice the present population of New York to the square mile, and a greater population to the square mile than Ehode Island now contains. The Spanish esti- mates of Indian populations were gross exaggerations. Those who claim a greater population for the Valley of Mexico than that indiealed will be bound to show how a barbarous people, without flocks and herds and without field agriculture, could have sustained in equal areas a larger number of inhabi- tants than a civilized people armed with these advantages. 224 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. the conquest of Mexico as upon a thread ; the acts of the Spaniards, the pueblo of Mexico, and its capture, are historical, while the descriptions of Indian society and government are imaginary and delusive. These picturesque tales have been read with wonder and admiration, as they successively appeared, for three hundred and fifty years; though shown to be romances, they will con- tinue to be read as Robinson Crusoe is read, not because they are true, but because they are pleasing. The psychological revelation is the eager, unde- finable interest aroused by any picture of ancient society. It is felt by every stranger when he first walks the streets of Pompeii, and, standing within the walls of its roofless houses, strives to picture to himself the life and the society which flourished there eighteen hundred years ago. In Mexico the Spaniards found an organized society several thousand years further back of their own than Pompeian society, in its arts, institutions, and state of advancement. It was this revelation of a phase of the ancient life of mankind which possessed and still possesses such power to kindle the imagination and inspire enthusiasm. It caught the imagination and overcame the critical judgment of Prescott, our most charming writer; it ravaged the sprightly brain of Brasseur de Bourbourg, and it carried up in a whirlwind our author at the Golden Gate. The commendation these works have received from critical journals reveals with painful distinctness the fact that we have no science of Ameri- can ethnology. Such a science, resting as it must upon verified facts, and dealing with the institutions, arts and inventions, usages and customs, lan- guages, religious beliefs, and plan of government of the Indian tribes, would, were it fairly established, command as well as deserve the respect of the American people. With the exception of an amateur here and there, Ameri- can scholars have not been willing to devote themselves to so vast a work. It may be truly said at this moment that the structure and principles of Indian society are but partially known, and that the American Indian him- self is still an enigma among us. The question is still before us as a nation whether we will undertake the work of furnishing to the world a scientific exposition of Indian society, or leave it as it now appears, crude, unmean- ing, unintelligible, a chaos of contradictions and puerile absurdities. With a, field of unequaled richness and of vast extent, with the same Red Race MORGAN.] INDIAN SOCIETY UNLIKE EUROPEAN. 225 in all the stages of advancement indicated by three great ethnical periods, namely the Status of savagery, the Lower Status of barbarism, and the Middle Status of barbarism , 1 more persons ought to be found willing to work upon this material for the credit of American scholarship It will be necessary for them to do as Herodotus did in Asia and Africa, to visit the native tribes at their villages and encampments, and study their institutions as living organisms, their condition, and their plan of life. When this has been done from the region of the Arctic Sea to Patagonia, Indian society will become intelligible, because its structure and principles will be under- stood. It exhibits three distinct phases, each with a culture peculiar to itself, lying back of civilization, and back of the Upper Status of barbar- ism, having very little in common with European society of three hundred years ago, and very little in common with American society of to-day. Its institutions, inventions, and customs find no analogues in those of civilized nations, and cannot be explained in terms adapted to such a society. Our later investigators are doing their work more and more on the plan of direct visitation, and I make no doubt a science of American ethnology will yet come into existence among us and rise high in public estimation from the important results it will rapidly achieve. Precisely what is now needed is the ascertainment and scientific treatment of this material. After so general a condemnation of Spanish and American writers, so far as they represent Aztec society and government, some facts and some reasons ought to be presented to justify the charge. Recognizing the obli- gation, I propose to question the credibility of so much of the second vol- ume of “ The Native Races” and of so much of other Spanish histories as relate to two subjects — the character of the house in which Montezuma resided, which is styled a palace ; and the account of the celebrated dinner of Montezuma, which is represented as the daily banquet of an imperial potentate. Neither subject, considered in itself, is of much importance; but if the accounts in these two particulars are found to be fictitious and delusive, a breach will be made in a vital section of the fabric of Aztec romance, now the most deadly encumbrance upon American ethnology. 1 See ante, page 43, note, for a definition of proposed ethnical or culture periods, and Ancient Society, chapter 1, “Ethnical Periods.” 15 226 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. It may be premised that there is a strong probability, from what is known of Indian life and society, that the house in which Montezuma lived was a joint-tenement house of the aboriginal American model, owned by a large number of related families, and occupied by them in common as joint proprietors ; that the dinner in question was the usual single daily meal of a communal household, prepared in a common cook-house from common stores, and divided, Indian fashion, from the kettle; and that all the Span- iards found in Mexico was a simple confederacy of three Indian tribes, the counterpart of which was found in all parts of America. It may be premised further that the Spanish adventures who thronged to the New World after its discovery found the same race of Red Indians in the West India Islands, in Central and South America, in Florida, and in Mexico . 1 In their mode of life and means of subsistence, in their weap- ons, arts, usages, and customs, in their institutions, and in their mental and physical characteristics, they were the same people in different stages of advancement. No distinction of race was observed, and none in fact existed. They were broken up into numerous independent tribes, each under the government of a council of chiefs. Among the more advanced tribes, confederacies existed, which represented the highest stage their gov- ernmental institutions had attained. In some of them, as in the Aztec con- federacy, they had a principal war-chief, elected for life or during good behavior, who was the general commander of the military bands. His powers were those of a general, and necessarily arbitrary when in the field. Behind this war-chief- — noticed, it is true, by Spanish writers, but without explaining or even ascertaining its functions — was the council of chiefs, “the great council without whose authority,” Acosta remarks, Montezuma “might not do anything of importance .” 2 The civil and military powers of the government were in a certain sense co-ordinated between the council of chiefs and the military commander. The government of the Aztec con- federacy was essentially democratic, because its organization and institu- 1 “But among all tlie other inhabitants of America there is sucn a striking similitude in the form of their bodies, and the qualities of their minds, that notwithstanding the diversities occasioned by the influence of climate, or unequal progress in improvement, we must pronounce them to he descended from one source.”— Robertson’s History of America, Law’s ed., p. 69. 2 The Natural and Moral History of the East and West Indies, Lond. ed., 1604, Grimstone’s Trans., p. 485. MORGAN.] HOW SPANISH HISTORIES SHOULD BE REGARDED. 227 tions were so. If a more special designation is needed, it will be sufficient to describe it as a military democracy. The Spaniards who overran Mexico and Peru gave a very different interpretation of these two organizations. Having found, as they supposed, two absolute monarchies with feudal characteristics, the history of American Indian institutions was cast in this mold. The chief attention of Europeans in the sixteenth century was directed to these two governments, to which the affairs of the numerous remaining tribes and confederacies were made subordinate. Subsequent history has run in the same grooves for more than three centuries, striving diligently to confirm that of which confirma- tion was impossible. The generalization was perhaps proper enough, that if the institutions of the Aztecs and Peruvians, such well-advanced Indian tribes, culminated in monarchy, those of the Indian tribes generally were essenthilly monarchical, and therefore those of Mexico and Peru should represent the institutions of the Red Race. It may be premised, finally, that the histories of Spanish America may be trusted in whatever relates to the acts of the Spaniards, and to the acts and personal characteristics of the Indians ; in whatever relates to their weapons, implements, and utensils, fabrics, food, and raiment, and things of a similar character. But in whatever relates to Indian society and gov- eminent, their social relations and plan of life, they are nearly worthless, because they learned nothing and knew nothing of either. We are at full liberty to reject them in these respects, and commence anew ; using any facts they may contain which harmonize with what is known of Indian society. It was a calamity to the entire Red Race that the achievements of the Village Indians of Mexico and Central America, in the development of their institutions, should have suffered a shipwreck so nearly total. The only remedy for the evil done them is to recover, if possible, a knowledge of their institutions, which alone can place them in their proper position in the history of mankind. In order to understand so simple an event in Indian life as Montezu- ma’s dinner, it is necessary to know certain usages and customs, and even certain institutions of the Indian tribes generally, which had a direct bear- ing upon the dinner of every Indian in America at the epoch of the Spanish 228 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. conquest. Although it may seem strange to the reader, it requires a knowl- edge of several classes of facts to comprehend this dinner, such as : 1 . The organization in gentes, phratries, and tribes. 2. The ownership of lands in common. 3. The law of hospitality. 4. The practice of communism in living 1 , f). The communal character of their houses. 6. Their custom of having but one prepared meal each day, a dinner. 7 Their separation at meals, the men eating first, and the women and children afterwards. These several topics have been considered in previous chapters. Not a vestige of the ancient pueblo of Mexico (Tenoehtitlan) remains to assist us to a knowledge of its architecture. Its structures, which were useless to a people of European habits, were speedily destroyed to make room for a city adapted to the wants of a civilized race. We must seek for its characteristics in contemporary Indian houses which still remain in ruins, and in such of the early descriptions as have come down to us, and then leave the subject with but little accurate knowledge. Its situation, partly on dry land and partly in the waters of a shallow artificial pond formed by causeways and dikes, led to the formation of streets and squares, which were unusual in Indian pueblos, and gave to it a remarkable appearance. “There were three sorts of broad and spacious streets,” Herrera remarks ; “one sort all water with bridges, another all earth, and a third of earth and water, there being a space to walk along on land and the rest for canoes to pass, so that most of the streets had walks on the sides and water in the mid- dle.” 1 Many of the houses were large, far beyond the supposable wants of a single Indian family. They were constructed of adobe brick and of stone, and plastered over in both cases with gypsum, which made them a brilliant white ; and some were constructed of a red porous stone. In cut- ting and dressing this stone flint implements were used. 2 The fact that the houses were plastered externally leads us to infer that they had not learned to dress stone and lay them in courses. It is not certainly established that they had learned the use of a mortar of lime and sand. In the final attack and capture, it is said that Cortes, in the course of seventeen days, de- stroyed and leveled three-quarters of the pueblo, which demonstrates the flimsy character of the masonry. Some of the houses were constructed on History of America, ii, 361. 2 Clavigero, ii, 238. MORGAN.] HOUSES USUALLY TWO STORIES HIGH. 229 three sides of a court, like those on the Rio Chaco in New Mexico, others probably surrounded an open court or quadrangle, like the House of the Nuns at Uxmal ; but this is not clearly shown. The best houses were usually two stories high, an upper and lower floor being mentioned. The second story receded from the first, probably in the terraced form. Clavi- gero remarks that “the houses of the lords and people of circumstance were built of stone and lime. They consisted of two floors, having halls, large court-yards, and the chambers fitly disposed; the roofs were flat and ter- raced; the walls were so well whitened, polished, and shining that they appeared to the Spaniards when at a distance to have been silver. The pavement or floor was plaster, perfectly level, plain, and smooth. * * * The large houses of the capital had in general two entrances, the principal one to the street, the other to the canal. They had no wooden doors to their houses .” 1 The house was entered through doorways from the street, or from the court, on the ground-floor. Not a house in Mexico is mentioned by any of the early writers as occupied by a single family. They were evi- dently joint-tenement houses of the aboriginal American model, each occu- pied by a number of families ranging from five and ten to one hundred, and perhaps in some cases two hundred families in a house. Before considering the house architecture of the Aztecs, it remains to notice, briefly, the general character of the houses of the Village Indians within the areas of Spanish visitation. They were joint-tenement houses, usually, of the American model, adapted to communism in living, like those previously described, and will aid us to understand the houses of the pueblo of Mexico. Herrera, speaking of the natives of Cuba, remarks that “they had caciques and towns of two hundred houses, with several families in each of them, as was usual in Hispaniola .” 2 The Cubans were below the Sedentary Indians. In Yucatan, the houses of the Mayas, and of the tribes of Guate- mala, Chiapas, and Honduras, remain in ruins to speak for themselves, and will form the subject of the ensuing chapter. On the march to Mexico, Cortez and his men, “being come down into the plain, took up their quarters in a country house that had many apartments .” 3 “At Iztapalapa he was 1 History of Mexico, ii, '232. - Ib., ii, 15. 3 lb., ii, 320. 230 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. entertained in a house that had large courts, upper and lower floors, and very delightful gardens. The walls were of stone, the timber- work well wrought; there were many and spacious rooms, hung with cotton hangings, extraor- dinary rich in their way.” 1 His accommodations in the pueblo of Mexico will elsewhere be noticed. After the capture of the pueblo, Alvaredo was sent southward with two hundred foot and forty horse to the province of Tututlepec, on the Pacific. “When he arrived, the lord of Tututlepec offered to quarter the Spaniards in his palace, which was very magnificent.” 2 In 1525 Cortez made his celebrated march to Guatemala with one hundred and fifty horse, the same number of foot, and three hundred Indians. “Be- ing well received in the city of Apoxpalan, Cortez and all the Spaniards, with their horses, were quartered in one house, the Mexicans being dispersed into others, and all of them plentifully supplied with provisions during their stay.” 3 The first “palace” described by Herrera was discovered by Balboa somewhere in the present Costa Rica, and Comagre has gone into history as its proprietor. “This palace was more remarkable and better built than any that had been yet seen on the islands, or the little that was then known of the continent, being one hundred and fifty paces in length and eighty in breadth, founded on very large posts, inclosed by a stone wall, with timber intermixed at the top, and hollow spaces, so beautifull} r wrought that the Spaniards were amazed at the sight of it, and could not express the manner and curiosity of it. There were in it several chambers and apartments, and one that was like a buttery and full of such provisions as the country afforded, as bread, venison, swine’s flesh, &c. There was another large room like a cellar, full of earthern vessels, containing several sorts of white and red liquors, made of Indian wheat,” 4 etc. The notice- able fact in this description is the two chambers, containing provisions and stores for the household, which was undoubtedly the case with all of those named. Zempoala, near Vera Cruz, is described as “a very large town, with stately buildings of good timber work, and every house had a garden with water, so that it looked like a terrestrial paradise. * * * The scouts, advancing on horseback, came to the great square and courts where the prime houses were, which having been lately new plastered over, were 1 History of America, ii, 325. 2 lb., iii, 273. 3 lb., iii, 273. * lb., ii, 297. MORGAN.] AZTEC HOUSES NOT FULLY DESCRIBED. 231 very light, the Indians being extraordinary expert at that work ” 1 Herrera further states that the houses were built of “lime and stone.” These pueblos were generally small, consisting of three or four large joint-tenement houses, with other houses smaller in size, the different grades of houses representing the relative thrift and prosperity of the several groups by whom they were owned and occupied. It is doubtful whether there was a single pueblo in North America, with the exception of Tlascala, Cholula, Tezcuco, and Mexico, which contained ten thousand inhabitants. There is no occasion to apply the term “city” to any of them. None of he Spanish descriptions enable us to realize the exact form and strnctnret of these houses, or their relations to each other in forming a pueblo. But for the pueblos, occupied or in ruins, in New Mexico, and the more remark- able pueblos in ruins in Yucatan and Central America, we would know very little concerning the house architecture of the Sedentary Village Indians. It is evident from the citations made that the largest of these joint-tenement houses would accommodate from five hundred to a thousand or more people, living in the fashion of Indians; and that the courts were probably quad- rangles, formed by constructing the building on three sides of an inclosed space, as in the New Mexican pueblos, or upon the four sides, as in the House of the Nuns, at Uxmal. The writers on the conquest have failed to describe the Aztec house in such a manner that it can be fairly comprehended. They have also failed to explain the mode of life within it. But it can safely be said that most of these houses were large, far beyond any supposable wants of a single Indian family; that they were constructed, when on dry land, of adobe brick, and when in the water, of stone imbedded in some kind of mortar, and plastered over in both cases with gypsum, which made them a brilliant white. Some also were constructed of a red porous stone. Some of these houses were built on three sides of a court, like those on the Chaco, but the court opened on a street or causeway. Others not unlikely surrounded an open court or quadrangle, which must have been entered through a gateway; but this is not clearly shown. The large houses were probably two stories high ; an upper and a lower floor are mentioned in some cases, but rarely a third. History of America, ii, 211. 232 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. Communism in living in large households, the communism being confined to the household, was probably the rule of life among the ancient Mexicans at the time of the Conquest. 1 Two of the houses in Mexico were more particularly noted by the soldiers of Cortes than others — that in which they were quartered, and that in which Montezuma lived. Neither can be said to have been described. I shall confine myself to these two structures. Cortes made his first entry into Mexico in November, 1519, with four hundred and fifty Spaniards, according to Bernal Diaz, 2 accompanied by a thousand Tlascalan allies. They were lodged in a vacant palace of Monte- zuma’s late father, Diaz naively remarks, observing that ‘‘the whole of this palace was very light, airy, clean, and pleasant, the entry being through a great court.” 3 Cortes, after describing his reception, informs us that Monte- zuma “returned along the street in the order already described, until he reached a very large and splendid palace in which we were to be quartered. He then took me by the hand and led me into a spacious saloon, in front of which was a court through which we had entered.” 4 So much for the statements of two eye-witnesses. Herrera gathered some additional particu- lars. He states that “they came to a very large court, which was the wardrobe of the idols, and had been the house of Axayacatzin, Montezuma’s father. * * * Being lodged in so large a house, that, though it seems incredible, contained so many capacious rooms, with bedchambers, that one hundred and fifty Spaniards could till lie single. It was also worth observ- ing that though the house was so big, every -part of it to the last corner was very clean, neat, matted, and hung with hangings of cotton and feather work of several colors, and had beds and mats with pavilions over them. No man of whatsoever quality having any other sort of bed, no other being 1 My learned friend, Mr. Ad. F. Bandelier, of Highland, 111., has arrived at the same conclusion, substantially, as stated in the conclusion of his recent “Memoir on the Social Organization and Mode of Government of the Ancient Mexicans,” 12th Annual Report of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology. Cambridge, 1880, p. 699. “ Taking all this together, and addingto it the results of our investigations into the military organ- ization of the ancient Mexicans, as well as of their communal mode of holding and enjoying the soil, we feel authorized to conclude that the social organization and mode of government of the ancient Mexicans was a, military democracy, originally based upon communism in living. ” 3 Diaz Conquest of Mex., ed. 1803, Keatinge’s Trans., i, 181, 189. Herrera says, 300, ii. 327. 3 Diaz, I, 191. 4 Dispatches of Cortes, Folsom’s Trans., p. 86. MORGAN.] JOINT TENEMENT HOUSES. 283 used ” 1 In the tidiness of these rooms we gain some evidence of the char- acter of Aztec women. Joint-tenement houses, and the mode of life they indicate, were at this time unknown in Europe. They belonged to a more ancient condition of society. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Spaniards, astonished at their magnitude, should have styled them palaces, and having been received with a great array by Montezuma, as the general commander of the Aztec forces, should have regarded him as a king, since monarchical government was the form with which they were chiefly acquainted. Suffice, it then, to say that one of the great houses of the Aztecs was large enough to accommodate Cortes and his fourteen hundred and fifty men including Indian allies as they had previously been accommodated in one Cholulan house and elsewhere, on the way to Mexico. From New Mexico to the Isthmus of Panama there was scarcely a principal village in which an equal number could not have found accommodations in a single house. When it is found to be unnecessary to call it a palace in order to account for its size, we are led to the conclusion that an ordinary Aztec house was emptied of its inhabitants to make room for their unwelcome visitors. After their reception, Aztec hospitality supplied them with provisions. Mr. Bandelier has, in the article above referred to, explained this house in a very satisfactory manner as “the tecpan, or official house of the tribe.” He says: “The house where the Spaniards were quartered was the ‘tecpan,’ or official house of the tribe, vacated by the official household for that purpose.” In sallying forth to greet the new- comers at the dike, ‘ ‘ Wrath y chief (Montezuma) acted simply as the representative of the tribal hospitality, extending unusual courtesies to unusual, mysterious, and therefore dreaded guests. Leaving these in pos- session of the ‘tecpan,’ he retired to another of the large communal buildings surrounding the central square, where the official business was, meanwhile, transacted His return to the Spanish quarters, even if compulsory, had less in it to strike the natives than is commonly believed It was a re-in- stallation in old quarters, and therefore the ‘Tlatocan (Council of Chiefs) itself felt no hesitancy in meeting there again, until the real nature of the dangerous visitors was ascertained, when the council gradually withdrew from the snare, leaving the unfortunate ‘chief of men’ in Spanish hands .” 2 History of America, ii, 330. 2 12 Annual Report of Peabody Museum, p. 680. 234 iiouses and house-life of the American aborigines. We are next to consider the second so-called palace, that in which Montezuma lived, and the dinner of Montezuma which these soldiers wit- nessed, and which has gone into history as a part of the evidence that a monarchy of the feudal type existed in Mexico. They had but little time to make their observations, for this imaginary kingdom perished almost im- mediately, and the people, in the main, dispersed. The so-called palace of Montezuma is not described by Diaz, for the reason, probably, that there was nothing to distinguish it from a number of similar structures in the pueblo. Neither is it described by Cortes or the Anonymous Conqueror; Cortes merely remarking generally that “ within the city his palaces were so wonderful that it is hardly possible to describe their beauty and extent; I can only say that in Spain there is nothing equal to them .” 1 Gothic cathedrals were then standing in Spain, the Alhambra in Grenada, and, without doubt, public and private buildings of dressed stone laid in courses. While the comparison was mendacious, we can understand the desire of the conqueror to magnify his exploits. Herrera, who came later and had addi- tional resources, remarks that the palace in which Montezuma resided “ had twenty gates, all of them to the square or market-place, and the principal streets, and three spacious courts, and in one of them a very large fountain. * * * There were many halls one hundred feet in length, and rooms of twenty-five and thirty, and one hundred baths. The timber-work was small, without nails, but very line and strong, which the Spaniards much admired. The walls were of marble, jasper, porphyry, a black sort of stone with red veins like blood, white stone, and another sort that is transparent. The roofs were of wood, well wrought and carved. * * * The rooms were painted and matted, and many of them had rich hangings of cotton and coney wool, or of feather-work. The beds were not answerable to the grandeur of the house and furniture, being poor and wretched, consisting of blankets upon mats or on hay. * * * Few men lie in this palace, but there were one thousand women in it, and some say three thousand, which is reckoned most likely. * * * Montezuma took to himself the ladies that were the daughters of great men, being many in number .” 2 The external walls of the houses were covered with plaster. From the Despatches, p. 121. -History of America, ii, 345. MORGAN.] BANCROFT’S VERSION. 235 description it seems probable that in the interior of the large rooms the natural faces of the stone in the walls were seen here and there, some of the red porous stone, some of marble, and some resembling porphyry, for it is not supposable that they could cut this stone with flint implements. Large stones used on the inner faces of the walls might have been left un- covered, and thus have presented the mottled appearance mentioned. The Aztecs had no structures comparable with those of Yucatan. Their archi- tecture resembles that of New Mexico wherever its features distinctly appear upon evidence that can be trusted. The best rooms found in the latter region are of thin pieces of sandstone prepared by fracture and laid up with a uniform face. Herrera had no occasion to speak of the use of marble and porphyry in the walls of this house in such a vague manner and upon more vague information. The reference to the thousand or more women as forming the harem of Montezuma is a gross libel. Mr. Hubert H. Bancroft, the last of the long line of writers who have treated the affairs of the Aztecs, has put the finishing touch to this picture in the following language : “The principal palace of the king of Mexico was an irregular pile of low buildings enormous in extent, constructed of huge blocks of teteontli, a kind of porous stone common to that country, cemented with mortar. The arrangement of the buildings was such that they enclosed three great plazas or public squares, in one of which a beau- tiful fountain incessantly played. Twenty great doors opened on the squares and on the streets, and over these was sculptured in stone the coat-of-arms of the king of Mexico, an eagle griping in his talons a jaguar. In the interior were many halls, and one in particular is said by a writer who accompanied Cortes, known as the Anonymous Conqueror, to have been of sufficient extent to contain three thousand men. * * * In addition to these were more than one hundred smaller rooms, and the same number of marble baths. * * * qq ie wa q s an q floors of halls and apartments were many of them faced with polished slabs of marble, jasper, obsidian, and white tecali; lofty columns of the same fine stones supported marble balconies and porticos, every inch and corner of which was filled with wondrous ornamental carv- ing, or held a grinning, grotesquely sculptured head. The beams and casings were of cedar, cypress, and other valuable woods profusely carved and put 236 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. together without nails. * * * Superb mats of most exquisite finish were spread upon the marble floors; the tapestry that draped the walls and the curtains that hung before the windows were made of a fabric most won- derful for its delicate texture, elegant designs, and brilliant colors ; through the halls and corridors a thousand golden censers, in which burned precious spices and perfumes, diffused a subtle odor .” 1 Upon this rhapsody it will be sufficient to remark that halls were en- tirely unknown in Indian architecture. Neither a hall, as that term is used by us, has ever been seen in an Indian house, nor has one been found in the ruins of any Indian structure. An external corridor has occasionally been found in ruins of houses in Central America, The great doors open on the squares and streets; aztec window-curtains of delicate texture, marble baths and porticos, and floors of polished slabs of marble, as fig- ments of a troubled imagination, recall the glowing description of the great kingdom of the Sandwich Islands — with its king, its cabinet ministers, its parliament, its army and navy, which Mark Twain has fitly characterized as “an attempt to navigate a sardine dish with Great Eastern machinery”; and it suggested also the Indian chief humorously mentioned by Irving as generously “decked out in cocked hat and military coat, in contrast with his breech clout and leathern leggins, being grand officer at top and ragged Indian at bottom .” 2 Whatever may be said by credulous and enthusiastic authors to decorate this Indian pueblo, its houses and its breech-cloth people, cannot conceal the “ragged Indian” therein by dressing him in a European costume. On the seventh day after the entry into Mexico, Montezuma was induced by intimidation to leave the house in which he lived and take up his quarters with Cortes, where he was held a prisoner until his death, which occurred a few weeks later. Whatever was seen of his mode of life in his usual place of residence was practically limited to the five days between the toming of the Spaniards and his capture. Our knowledge of the facts is in the main derived from what these soldiers reported upon slight and imperfect means of observation. Bernal Diaz and Cortes have left us an extraordinary description, not of his residence, but of his daily 1 Native Races of the Pacific States, ii, 160. J Bonneville, p. 154. MORGAN.] THE AZTEC MKNEK. 237 life, and more particularly of the dinner, which will now be considered. It is worth the attempt to take up the pictures of these and succeeding authors, and see whether the real truth of the matter cannot be elicited from their own statements. There was undoubtedly a basis of facts under- neath them, because without such a basis the superstructure could not have been created. It may with reason be supposed that the Spaniards found Montezuma, with his gentile kindred, in a large joint-tenement house, containing perhaps fifty or a hundred families united in a communal household The dinner they witnessed was the single daily meal of this household, prepared in a com- mon cook-house from common stores, and divided at the kettle. The din- ner of each person was placed in an earthern bowl, with which in his hand an Indian needed neither chair nor table, and, moreover, had neither the one nor the other. The men ate first; and by themselves, Indian fashion ; and the women, of whom only a few were seen, afterwards and by them- selves. On this hypothesis the dinner in question is susceptible of a satis- factory explanation It has been shown that each Aztec community of persons owned lands in common, from which they derived their support. Their mode of tillage and of distribution of the products, whatever it may have been, would have returned to each family or household, large or small, its rightful share. Communism in living in large households composed of related families springs naturally from such a soil. It may be considered a law of their condition, and, plainly enough, the most economical mode of life they could adopt until the idea of property had been sufficiently developed in their minds to lead to the division of lands among individuals with owner- ship in fee, and power of alienation. Their social system, which tended to unite kindred families in a common household, their ownership of lands in common, and their ownership, as a group, of a joint-tenement house, which would necessarily follow, would not admit a right in persons to sell, and thus to introduce strangers into the ownership of such lands or such houses. Lands and houses were owned and held under a common system which entered into their plan of life. The idea of property was forming in their minds, but it was still in that immature state which pertains to the Middle 238 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. Status of barbarism. They bad no money, but traded by barter of com- modities ; very little personal property, and scarcely anything 1 of value to Europeans. They were still a breech-cloth people, wearing this rag of barbarism as the unmistakable evidence of their condition ; and the family was in the syndyasmian or pairing form, with separation at any moment at the option of either party. It was the weakness of the family, its inability to face alone the struggle of life, which led to the construction of joint- tenement houses throughout North and South America by the Indian tribes; and it was the gentile organization which led them to fill these houses, on the principle of kin, with related families In a pueblo as large as that of Mexico, which was the largest found in America, and may possibly have contained thirty thousand inhabitants, there must have been a number of large communal houses of different sizes, from those that were called palaces, because of their size, to those filled by a few families. Degrees of prosperity are shown in barbarous as well as in civilized life in the quarters of the people. Herrera states that the houses of the poorer sort of people were “ small, low, and mean,” but that, “ as small as the houses were, they commonly contained two, four, and six families .” 1 Wherever a household is found in Indian life, be the mar- ried pairs composing it few or many, that household practiced communism in living. In the largest of these houses it would not follow necessarily that all its inmates lived from common stores, because they might form several household groups in the same house; but in the large household of which Montezuma was a member, it is plain that it was fed from common stores prepared in a common cook-house, and divided from the kettle in earthen bowls, each containing the dinner of a single person. Montezuma was supposed to be absolute master of Mexico, and what they saw at this dinner was interpreted with exclusive reference to him as the central figure. The result is remarkably grotesque. It was their own self-deception, with- out any assistance from the Aztecs. The accounts given by Diaz and Cortes, and which subsequent writers have built upon with glowing enthu- siasm and free additions, is simply the gossip of a camp of soldiers sud- denly cast into an earlier form of society, which the Village Indians of 1 History of America, ii, 360. MORGAN.] FIRST DINNER WITNESSED BY THE SPANIARDS. 239 America, of all mankind, then best represented. That they could under- stand it was not to have been expected. Accustomed to monarchy and to privileged classes, the principal Aztec war-chief seemed to them quite nat- urally a king, and sachems and chiefs followed in their vision as princes and lords. But that they should have remained in history as such for three centuries is an amusing commentary upon the value of historical writings in general. The dinner of Montezuma, witnessed within the five days named by the Spanish soldiers, comes down to us with a slender proportion of reliable facts. The accounts of Bernal Diaz and of Cortes form the basis of all subsequent descriptions . 1 Montezuma was the central figure around whom all the others are made to move. A number of men, as Diaz states, were to be seen in the house and in the courts, going to and fro, a part of whom were thought to be chiefs in attendance upon Montezuma, and the remain- der were supposed to be guards. Better proof of the use of guards is needed than the suggestion of Diaz. It implies a knowledge of military discipline unknown by Indian tribes. It was noticed that Indians went barefooted into the presence of Montezuma, which was interpreted as an act of servility and deference, although bare feet must have been the rule rather than the exception in Tenochtitlan. Diaz further informs us that “his cooks had upwards of thirty different ways of dressing meats, and they had earthen vessels so contrived as to keep them always hot. For the table of Montezuma himself above three hundred dishes were dressed, and for his guards above a thousand. Before dinner Montezuma would go out and inspect the preparations, and his officers wonld point out to him which were the best, and explain of what birds and flesh they were composed ; and of these he would eat. * * * Montezuma was seated on a low throne or chair at a table proportionate to the height of his seat. The table was covered with white cloth and napkins, and four beautiful women presented him with water for his hands in vessels which they called xicales, with other vessels under them like plates to catch the water; they also presented him with towels. Then two other women brought him small cakes of bread, and when the king began to eat, a large screen of wood- Tbe Anonymous Conqueror does not notice it. 240 HOUSES AND nOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. gilt was placed before him. so that people should not during that time see him. The women having retired to a little distance, four ancient lords stood by the throne, to whom Montezuma from time to time spoke or addressed questions, and as a. matter of particular favor gave to each of them a plate of that which he was eating. * * * This was served on earthenware of Cholula, red and black. * * * I observed a num- ber of jars, about fifty, brought in filled with foaming chocolate, of which he took some which the women presented to him. During the time Monte- zuma was at dinner, two very beautiful women were busily employed making small cakes, with eggs and other things mixed therein. These were delicately white, and when made they presented them to him on plates covered with napkins. Also another kind of bread was brought to him in long loaves, and plates of cakes resembling wafers. After he had dined they presented to him three little canes, highly ornamented, containing liquid amber mixed with an herb they call tobacco; and when he had suf- ficiently viewed the singers, dancers, and buffoons, he took a little of the smoke of one of these canes and then laid himself down to sleep ; and thus his principal meal concluded. After this was over, all his guards and domestics sat down to dinner, and as near as I can judge, above a thousand plates of these eatables that I have mentioned were laid before them, with vessels of foaming chocolate, and fruit in immense quantity. For his women and various inferior servants, his establishment was a prodigious expense, and we were astonished, amid such a profusion, at the vast regu- larity that prevailed.” 1 Diaz wrote his history more than thirty years after the conquest (he says he was writing it in 1508), 2 which may serve to excuse him for implying the use of veritable chairs and a table where neither existed, and for describing 1 the remainder as sitting down to dinner. Tezozomoc, who is followed by Herrera, says- the table of Montezuma con- sisted of two skins. How they were fastened together and supported does uot appear. The statements in the Despatches of Cortes, as they now appear, are an improvement upon Diaz, the pitch being on a higher key. He remarks that Montezuma “was served in the following manner: Every day, as soon History of the Conquest of Mexico, i, 198-202. -lb., ii, 423. MORGAN.] THE ACCOUNT OF BERNAL DIAZ. 241 as it was light, six hundred nobles and men of rank were in attendance at the palace, who either sat or walked about in the halls and galleries, and passed their time in conversation, but without entering the apartment where his person was. The servants and attendants of these nobles remained in the court-yards, of which there were two or three of great extent, and in the adjoining street, which was also very spacious. They all remained in attendance from morning till night; and when his meals were served, the nobles were likewise served with equal profusion, and their servants and secretaries also had their allowance. Daily his larder and wine-cellar were open to all who wished to eat or drink. The meals were served by three or four hundred youths, who brought in an infinite number of dishes; indeed, whenever he dined or supped the table was loaded with every kind of flesh, fish, fruits and vegetables that the country produced. As the climate is cold, they put a chafing-dish with live coals under every plate and dish, to keep them warm. The meals were served in a large hall in which Montezuma was accustomed to eat, and the dishes quite filled the room, which was covered with mats and kept very clean. He sat on a small cushion, curiously wrought of leather. During the meal there were present, at a little distance from him, five or six elderly caciques, to whom he presented some of the food. And there was constantly in attendance one of the servants, who arranged and handed the dishes, and who received from others whatever was wanted for the supply of the table. Both at the beginning and end of every meal, they furnished water for the hands; and the napkins used on these occasions were never used a second time, and this was the case also with the plates and dishes, which were not brought again, but new ones in place of them; it was the same with the chafing-dishes .” 1 Since cursive writing was unknown among the Aztecs, the presence of these secretaries is an amusing feature in the account. The wine-cellar also is remarkable for two reasons; firstly, because the level of the streets and courts was but four feet above the level of the water, which made cellars impossible; and, secondly, because the Aztecs had no knowledge of wine. An acid beer (pulque), made by fermenting the juice of the maguey, was a common beverage of the Aztecs; but it is hardly supposable that even this 16 Despatches of Cortes, Folsom’s Trans., p. 123. 242 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. was used at dinner. It will be noticed that according to this account the dinner was served to all at the same time, Montezuma and several chiefs eating at one end of the room, but no mention is made of the manner in which the remainder ate. The six hundred men (or less) who remained about the house and courts during the day, we may well suppose, were, with their families, joint residents and joint proprietors with Montezuma of the estab- lishment. Two or three structures are mingled in these descriptions, which were probably entirely distinct in their uses. Herrera gathered up the subsequent growth of the story, which undoubtedly made a great sensation in Europe as a part of the picture of life in the New World; and embellished it from sheer delight in a marvel- ous tale. The few facts stated by Bernal Diaz, expressing the interpre- tation of the Spanish soldiers, were fruitful seeds planted three hundred years ago, which the imaginations of enthusiastic authors have developed into a glowing and picturesque narrative. The principal part of Herrera’s account runs as follows: “Montezuma did always eat alone, and so great a quantity of meat was served up to his table, such great variety, and so richly dressed, that there was sufficient for all the prime men of his household. His table was a cushion, or two pieces of colored leather; instead of a chair, a little low stool, made of one piece, the seat hollowed out, carved and painted in the best manner that could be; the table-cloth, napkins, and towels of very line cotton as white as snow, and never served any more than once, being the fees of the proper officers. The meat was brought in by four hundred pages, all gentlemen, sons of lords, and set down together in a hall; the king went thither, and with a rod, or his hand, pointed to what he liked, and then the sewer set it upon the chafing-dishes that it might not be cold; and this he never failed to do, unless the steward at any time very much recommended to him some particular dishes. Before he sat down, twenty of the most beautiful women came and brought him water to wash his hands, and when seated the sewer did shut a wooded rail that divided the room, lest the nobility that went to see him dine should encum- ber the table, and lie alone set on and took off the dishes, for the pages neither came near nor spoke a word. Strict silence was observed, none daring to speak unless it was some jester, or the person of whom lie asked MOKGAX.] THE ACCOUNT OF HERRERA. 243 a question. The sewer was always upon his knees and barefooted, attending him without lifting up his eyes. No man with shoes on was to come into the room upon pain of death. The sewer also gave him drink in a cup of several shapes, sometimes of gold, and sometimes of silver, sometimes of gourd, and sometimes of the shells of fishes . 1 Six ancient lords attended at a dis- tance,, to whom he gave some dishes of what he liked best, which they did eat there with much respect. He had always music of flutes, reeds, horns, shells, kettle-drums, and other instruments, nothing agreeable to the ears of the Spaniards. * * * There were always at dinner dwarfs, crooked and other deformed persons, to provoke laughter, and they did eat of what was left at the further end of the hall, with the jesters and buffoons. What remained was given to three thousand Indians, that were constantly upon guard in the courts and squares, and therefore there were always three thousand dishes of meat and as many cups of liquor; the larder and cellar were never shut, by reason of their continual carrying in and out. In the kitchen they dressed all sorts of meat that were sold in the market, being a prodigious quantity, besides what was brought in by hunters, tenants, and tributaries. The dishes and all utensils were all of good earthenware, and served the king but once. He had abundance of vessels of gold and silver, yet made no use of them, because they should not serve twice .” 2 Further on, and out of its place, Herrera gives us what seems to have been a call of the scattered household to dinner “When it was dinner- time,” he remarks, “eight or ten men whistled very loud, beating the kettle- drums hard, as it were to warn those that were to dance after dinner; then the dancers came, who, to entertain their great sovereign, were all to be men of quality, clad as richly as they could, with costly mantles, white, red, green, yellow, and some of several colors .” 3 The four women of Diaz who brought water to Montezuma have now increased to twenty; but, as the Spanish writers claimed a wide latitude in the matter of numbers, fivefold is not, perhaps, unreasonable, especially as 1 Solis, thinking a cocoauut shell altogether too plain, embellishes the shell with jewels: “He had cups of gold, and salvers of the same ; and sometimes he drank out of cocoas and natural shells very richly set with jewels.” — History of the Conquest of Mexico, Lond., ed. 1738, Townshend’s Trans., I, 417. 3 History of America, ii, 336. 3 lb., 443. 244 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. it did not occur to Herrera that Diaz may, at the outset, have quadrupled the actual number. The “three or four hundred youths” who brought in the dinner, according to Cortes, settle down under Herrera to “four hun- dred pages, all gentlemen, sons of lords”; and here we must recognize the discrimination of the historian in that he found the highest number stated by Cortes fully adequate to the occasion. Two other things may be noticed: shoes have disappeared from all Indian feet in the face of a terrific penalty, and three thousand hungry Indians stand in peaceful quietude, while their dinner grows cold upon the floor, as Montezuma eats alone in solitary grandeur. No American Indian could be made to comprehend this picture. It lacks the realism of Indian life, and embodies an amount of puerility of which the Indian nature is not susceptible. Europeans and Americans may rise to the height of the occasion because their mental range is wider, and their imaginations have fed more deeply upon nursery tales. Diaz had contented himself with saying that Montezuma “ had two hundred of his nobility on guard in apartments adjoining his own,” 1 in whom may be recog- nized his fellow householders: but Cortes generously increased the number to “six hundred nobles and men of rank,” who appeared at daylight and remained in attendance during the day. Neither number, however, was quite sufficient to meet the conceptions of the historiographer of Spain, and accordingly three thousand, all guards, were adopted by Herrera as a suit- able number to give eclat to Montezuma’s dinner. If any man conversant with Indian character could show by what instrumentality five hundred Indians could be kept together twelve hours in attendance upon any human being from a sense of duty, lie would add something to our knowledge of the lied Race; and could he prove further that they had actually waited, in the presence of as many earthen bowls, smoking with their several din- ners, while their war-chief in the same room was making his repast alone, the verifier would thereby endow the Indian character with an element of forbearance he has never since been known to display. The block of wood hollowed out for a stool or seat may be accepted, for it savors of the sim- plicity of Indian art. That the Aztecs had napkins of coarse texture, woven by hand, is probable; as also that they were white, because cotton is white. History of the Conquest of Mexico, 1, 198. MORGAN.! THE ACCOUNT OF H. H. BANCROFT. 245 Imagination might easily expand a napkin into a table-cloth, provided a table existed to spread it upon; but in this case, without duly considering the relation between the two, the table-cloth has been created, but the table refuses to appear. The napkin business, therefore, seems to have been slightly overdone. Finally, the call of the scattered household to dinner by kettle-drums and whistling savors too strongly of Indian ways and usages to be diverted into a summons to the dancers, as Herrera suggests. This Aztec dinner-call, on a scale commensurate with a large communal household, would have been lost to history but for the special use discerned in it to decorate a tale. It recognizes the loitering- habits of an Aztec house- hold, and perhaps the irregularity of the dinner-hour. Passing over the descriptions of Sahagun, Clavigero, and Prescott, who have kindled into enthusiasm over this dinner of Montezuma, Mr. Hubert H. Bancroft shall be allowed to furnish us with the very latest version. “ Every day,” he remarks, “from sunrise until sunset the ante- chambers of Montezuma’s palace in Mexico were occupied by six hundred noblemen and gentlemen, who passed their time lounging about and dis- cussing the gossip of the day in low tones, for it was considered disre- spectful to speak loudly or make any noise within the palace limits. They were provided with apartments in the palace, and took their meals from what remained of the superabundance of the royal table, as did after them their own servants, of whom each person of quality was entitled to from one to thirty according to his rank. These retainers, numbering two or three thousand, filled several outer courts during the day. The king took his meals alone in one of the largest halls of the palace. * * * He was seated upon a low leather cushion, upon which were thrown various soft skins, and his table was of a similar description, except that it was larger and rather higher, and was covered with white cotton cloths of the finest texture. The dinner-service was of the finest ware of Cholula, and many of the goblets were of gold and silver, or fashioned with beauti- ful shells. He is said to have possessed a complete service of solid gold, but as it was considered below a king’s dignity to use anything at table twice, Montezuma, with all his extravagance, was obliged to keep this costly dinner-set in the temple. The bill of fare comprised everything edible of 24G HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. fish, flesh, and fowl that could he procured in the empire or imported beyond it. Relays of couriers were employed in bringing delicacies from afar. * * * There were cunning cooks among the Aztecs, and at these extravagant meals there was almost as much variety in the cookery as in the matter cooked. Sahagun gives a most formidable list of roast, stewed, and broiled dishes, of meat, fish, and poultry, seasoned with many kinds of herbs, of which, however, that most frequently mentioned is chile. He further describes many kinds of bread, all bearing a more or less close resemblance to the Mexican tortilla, * * * then tamales of all kinds, and many other curious messes, such as frog spawn and stewed ants, cooked with chile. * * * Each dish was kept warm on a chafing-dish placed under it. Writers do not agree as to the exact quantity of food served up at each meal, but it must have been immense, since the lowest number of dishes given is three hundred and the highest three thousand Thev were brought into the hall by four hundred pages of noble birth, who placed their burdens upon the matted floor and retired noiselessly. The king then pointed out such viands as he wished to partake of, or left the selection to his steward, who doubtless took pains to study the likes and dislikes of the royal palate. The steward was a functionary of the highest rank and im- portance; he alone was privileged to place the designated delicacies before the king upon the table; he appears to have done duty both as royal carver and cup-bearer; 1 and, according to Torquemada, to have done it bare- footed and on his knees. Everything being in readiness, a number of the most beautiful of the king’s women entered, bearing water in round vessels called Xicales, for the king to wash his hands in, and towels that he might dry them, other vessels being placed upon the ground to catch the drip- pings. Two other women at the same time brought him some small loaves of a very delicate kind of bread, made of the finest maize flour, beaten up with eggs. This done, a wooden screen, carved and gilt, was placed before him that no one might see him while eating. There were always present five or six aged lords, who stood near the royal chair barefooted and with bowed heads. To these, as a special mark of favor, the king occasionally sent a choice morsel from his own plate. During the meal the monarch 1 Tliu “cup-bearer” agrees reasonably well with the “ wimlow-curtains. MORGAN.] A MESS OF TRASH. 247 amused himself by watching the performances of his jugglers and tum- blers, whose marvellous feats of strength and dexterity I shall describe in another place; at other times there was dancing, accompanied by singing and music. * * * The more solid food was followed by pastry, sweet- meats, and a magnificent dessert of fruit. The only beverage drank was chocolate, of which about fifty jars were provided; it was taken with a spoon, finely wrought of gold or shell, from a goblet of the same material Having finished his dinner, the king again washed his hands in water brought to him, as before, by the women After this, several painted and gilt pipes were brought, from which he inhaled, through his mouth or nose, as best suited him, the smoke of a mixture of liquid amber and an herb called tobacco. This siesta over, he devoted himself to business, and proceeded to give audience to foreign ambassadors or deputations from cities in the empire, and to such of his lords and ministers as had business to transact with him .” 1 In this account, although founded upon those of Diaz and Cortes, and showing nothing essentially new, we have the final growth of the story to the present time, but without any assurance that the limits of its possible expansion have been reached. The purification of our aboriginal history, by casting out the mass of trash with which it is so heavily freighted, is forced upon us to save American intelligence from deserved disgrace. Whatever may be said of the American aborigines in general, or of the Aztecs in particular, they were endowed with common sense in the matter of their daily food, which cost them labor, forethought, and care to provide. The picture of Indian life here presented is simply impossible. Village Indians in the Middle Status of barbarism were below the age of tables and chairs for dinner service; neither had they learned to arrange a dinner to be eaten socially at a common table, or even to share their dinner with their wives and children. Their joint-tenement houses, their common stores, their com- munism in living, and the separation of the sexes at their meals, are genuine Indian customs and usages which explain this dinner. It was misconceived by the Spaniards quite naturally, and with the grotesque results herein Native Eaces of the Pacific States, ii, 174-178. 248 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. presented; but there is no excuse for continuing this misconception in the presence of known facts accessible to all. There is no doubt whatever that Montezuma was treated with great consideration by all classes of persons. Indians respect and venerate their chiefs. As their principal war-chief, Montezuma held the highest official position among them. lie is represented as amiable, generous, and manly, although unnerved by the sudden appearance and the novel and deadly arms of the Spaniards. He had charge of the reception and entertainment of Cortes and his men, who requited him savagely for his hospitality and kindness. But when his home-life is considered, he fared no better than his fellow-householders, sharing with them their common dinner. These accounts, when divested of their misconceptions, render it probable that Montezuma was living with his gentle kinsmen in a house they owned in common; and that what the Spaniards saw was a dinner in common by this household, which, with the women and children, may have numbered from five hundred to a thousand persons. When the scattered members of the household had been summoned, the single daily meal was brought in by a number of persons from the common cook-house in earthen bowls and dishes, and set down upon the floor of an apartment used as a place for dinner in the fashion of Indians. Indians as they were, they doubtless took up these bowls one by one, each containing the dinner of one person divided at the kettle. They ate standing, or it may be sitting upon the floor, or upon the ground in the open court. Indians as they were, the men ate first and by themselves, and the women and children afterwards. After dinner was over, they were diverted, probably, with music and dancing, and made themselves merry, as well-fed Indians are apt to do. That the same dinner, conducted in a similar manner, occurred at all the houses in the pueblo, large and small, once a day, there can scarcely be a doubt The dinner of Montezuma which has gone into history, and been read for three centuries with wonder and admiration, is an excellent illustration of the slender material out of which American aboriginal history has been made. It shows, moreover, as a warning, what results flow from great mis- conceptions through the constructive faculty of authors. A confederacy of three Indian tribes, speaking dialects of the same MORGAN.] GENTES OR CLANS OF ANCIENT MEXICANS. 249 language, was precisely what the Spaniards found in Mexico, and this was all they found. They had no occasion in their accounts to advance a step beyond this simple fact. A satisfactory explanation of this confederacy can be found in similar Indian confederacies. It Avas a growth from the com- mon institutions of the Indian family. Underneath these delusive pictures a council of chiefs is revealed, Avhicli Avas the natural and legitimate instru- ment of government under Indian institutions. No other form of government was possible among them. They had, beside, Avhicli was an equally legiti- mate part of this system, an elective and deposable war-chief (Teuchtli), the power to elect and to depose being held by a fixed constituency ever present, and ready to act when occasion required. The Aztec organization stood plainly before the Spaniards as a confederacy of Indian tribes. Noth- ing but the grossest perversion of obvious facts could have enabled Spanish writers to fabricate the Aztec monarchy out of a democratic organization. Without ascertaining the unit of their social system, if organized in gentes, as they probably Avere, and Avithout gaining any knowledge of the organization that did exist, they boldly invented for the Aztecs a monarchy, Avith high feudal characteristics, out of the reception of Cortes by their principal war-chief, and such other flimsy materials as Montezuma’s dinner. This misconception has stood, through American indolence, quite as long as it deserves to stand. Since the foregoing’ was Avritten, the in A' estimations of Mr. Bandelier “On the Social Organization and Mode of Government of the Ancient Mexicans” have been published. With the new light thus thrown upon the subject, this chapter should have been re-written. He shows that the Aztecs Avere composed of twenty gentes or clans. “ The existence of twenty auton- omous consanguine groups is thus revealed, and we find them again at the time of the conquest, Avhile their last vestiges were perpetuated until after 1690, when Fray Augustin de Vetancurt mentions four chief quarters with their original Indian names, comprising and subdivided into twenty ‘barrios.’ Now the Spanish word ‘ barrio ’ is equivalent to the Mexican term ‘ calpulli .’ Both indicate the kin, localized and settled with the view to per- manence.” 1 This organization, as Avas to have been expected, lies at the 1 Twelfth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum of Archseology and Ethnology, Cambridge, 1880, p. 591. 250 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. foundation of their social system. He names the following as among the rights, duties, and obligations of the kinship: I. The kin claimed the right to name its members. II. It teas the duty of the kin to educate or train its members to every branch of public life. III. The kin had the right to regulate and to control marriage. IV. It was one of the attributes of the kin to enjoy common burial. V. The righ t of the kin to ‘ separate worsh ip ' appears not only established within the kin's territory , but it is also recognized even at the central medicine-lodge of the tribe. VI. The kin teas obligated to protect and defend the persons and property of its members , and to resent and punish any injury done to them , as if it were a crime committed against the kin itself. VII. The kin had the right to elect its officers, as well as the right to re- move or depose them for misbehavior . 1 He also regards the four “brotherhoods” who occupied the four quar- ters of the pueblo as probably phratries . 2 He also shows that the govern- ment was under the control of a council, Tlatocan , composed of a body of chiefs . 3 One of the most interesting results of this investigation is the discovery of a class of persons unattached to any gens, “outcasts from the bond of kinship .” 4 Such a class grows up in every gentile society, when as far advanced as the Aztecs were. It finds its analogue in the Roman Plebeians. This i ■emarkable essay will abundantly repay a careful study. When we have learned to speak of the American Indians in language adapted to Indian life and Indian institutions, they will become compre- hensible. So long as we apply to their social organizations and domestic institutions terms adapted to the organizations and to the institutions of civilized society, we caricature the Indians and deceive ourselves. There was neither a political society, nor a state, nor any civilization in America when it was discovered; and, excluding the Eskimos, but one race of Indians, the Red Race. 1 Twelfth Ami. Kept. Peabody Museum, pp. 615-638. 2 lb., p. 584. 3 lb., p. 646, et seq. 4 lb., p. 608, et seq. CHAPTER XI. 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. Con- federacies 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 con- federacies, however, could not have reached beyond a common language of the tribes confederated. 251 252 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 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 aborig- ines 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 .” 1 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 Quelenes have twenty-five towns .” 2 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 excess- ive. 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 History of America, 1. c., i v, 1G1. *Ib., iv, 189. HOliGAN.] LAS CASAS ON INHABITANTS OF YUCATAN. 253 in a cluster of houses, four or five in number, or in a single house ; and, as may be 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 con- sisting 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, cot- ton, cacao, and tobacco in garden beds, and exercised some care over cer- tain 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.” 1 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 socie- ties 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.” 2 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 inhab- itants 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.” 3 1 History of America, iv., 133. 2 An Account of the First Voyages, etc., in America, Loud, ed., Trans., p. 52. 3 Ib., in 61. 254 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. There are two material questions which require priority of considera- tion : 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 sur- rounded 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.” 1 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 sup- position. 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 sacri- ficed ; but the wars of the Spaniards made them disperse.’’ 2 This last statement is very significant. Mr. Stephens, whose works and whose obser- vations are in the main so valuable, is responsible to no small extent for the delusive inferences which have been drawn from the architecture of Yuca- tan, Honduras, and Chiapas. If he had repressed his imagination and con- fined 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 ‘Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, ii, 348, 375. History of America, iv, 1(18. MORGAN.] HOUSES IN YUCATAN. 255 of Mexico, Yucatan and Central America were overrun by military adven- turers 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 Co- comes of Mayapan, related b}" Herrera , 1 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 exemplifi- cation. 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 .” 1 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 History of America, iv, 162, 163, 165. 1 lb., iv, 162. 256 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 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 con- quest, 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 exac- tions of Spanish masters, whom they were unable to resist. 1 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 inconsider- able size, and one or two pyrimidal elevations unoccupied by structures. Of these, the “ Governor’s House” may have been the Tecpan, 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. Colli, the ordinary dwelling house, of which the “House of the Nuns” is an exam- ple. 2. Ticplantlacalli, the “Stone House,” which contained council halls, etc., of which the “Governor’s House” is an example. 3. Teocalli, “House of God,” such ns 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, History of America, iii, 346. MORGAN.] IDOLS AT COPAN— GEAVE POSTS OF CHIEFS. 257 with the upper half of the exterior walls decorated with grotesque orna- ments cut on the faces of the stone. Foster states that “these structures are composed of a soft coralline limestone of comparatively recent geologi- cal formation, probably of the Tertiary period .” 1 Idle 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. Bv 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 per- sonal 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 oppo- site side. “The stone,” Mr. Stephens observes, “of which all these altars and statues are made, is a soft grit-stone .” 2 Norman had previously described the material used as a “fine concrete limestone .” 3 Elsewhere, with respect to the nature of the tools for cutting this stone, he remarks that “flint was undoubtedly used .” 4 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 paraUelopipeds of about twelve inches in length and six in breadth, the interstices filled up with the same materials of which the terraces are ‘Prehistoric Races of the United States, p. 398. 2 Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, 1-153. 3 Rambles in Yucatan, p. 126. ■‘Ib., p. 184. 17 258 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. composed .” 1 He also speaks of “large blocks of hewn stone used in the doorways .” 2 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 evi- dence of limited advancement in solid stone architecture . 5 These structures, as reproduced in engravings by Stephens and Cather- wood, 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 prog- ress actually made, which was truly remarkable for a people still in barbar- ism, and no further advanced than the Middle Status. Fig. 50. — 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 sug- gested 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 pyra- midal 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 1 Rambles ill Yucatan, p. 127. "Ib., p. 128, MORGAN.] GOVERNOR’S HOUSE AT UXMAL. 259 equal height on the sides and ends, and terminating in a Hat roof. The doorways opened upon the platform area or terrace when the building was single, and where it was carried around the four sides 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 struct- ure. There were, doubtless, pueblos of timber-framed houses with thatched roofs here and there in Yucatan, Chiapas, and Honduras, as there were fur- ther south towards 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 260 HOUSES AND HOUSE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 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 con- structing the terrace had been saved .” 1 The three terraces with their slop- ing 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 command- ing 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 court yard. On each side of this gateway are four doorways ’■Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, i, 128. Fig. 52. — Ground plan of Governor’s House at Uxmal. MORGAN.] HOUSE OE THE NUNS. 201 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 oppo- site, or at the end of the quadrangle, measures two hundred and sixty-four Fig. 53. — Ground-plan of the House of the Nuns. feet. These thuee 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 .” 1 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 apart- 1 Incidents of travel in Yucatan, i, 299. 262 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. ments, 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 front room, is shown in Fig. 54. This number of con- necting 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 triangu- lar 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 remakable 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, after- wards 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 show'll 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. 1 There were orig- inally 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 'Iucidents of Travel, etc., i, 308. Fig. 54. — Section of room in House of tlie Nuns. MORGAN.! TRIANGULA R CEILING OF STONE. 263 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” whifch 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 de- signed 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 sig- nificant 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 win- dows 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 presump- tion 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 apart- ment, 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 204 HOUSES AND HOUSE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 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 suparadd either a regular breakfast or a supper. These belong to the more highly developed house-keeping of the mono- gamian 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 knowl- edge 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.” 1 This is precisely what would have been expected had nothing been said on the subject. 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 commun- ism in living was accidentally discovered by Mr. Stephens, when among them to employ laborers. He remarks as follows: “Their community con- sists 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 History of America, iv, 1?5, MORGAN. 1 CEILING CONSTKUCTED OYEE A COKE OF MASONKY. 265 all the details of their internal economy, but it seemed to approximate that improved state of association which is sometimes heard of among 1 us; and as this 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 .” 1 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 un- likely 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 intogentes 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 oarts of the world, because they alone represented the culture and mode of life of the Middle 1 Incidents of Travel, etc., ii, 14. 266 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. Status of barbarism. The dinner of Montezuma, before considered, is an illustration. Near Uxmal are the interesting ruins of £ayi, 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 aper- tures indicate columns, which are found in this and several other structures. In case of attack, the outer quadrangle was not defensible; but its inhabi- tants 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. 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 tri- angular stone ceiling, which is the striking char- acteristic 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 MORGAN.] UNREMOVED CORE FOUND IN A STRUCTURE. 267 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 unre- moved 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 .” 1 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 build- ing. It shows the rudeness of their mechanical resources as well as the real condition of the art among 1 them, but at the same time increases our o 7 •Incidents of Travel, etc., ii, 22. 268 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 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 construc- tion 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 pyra- midal 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. Asa palace implies a potentate for its occu- pation, a character who never existed and could not exist under their insti- tutions, it has been a means of self-deception with respect to the condition of the Aborigines which ought to be permanently discarded. Several dis- tinct 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 architect- ure. Nearly all the edifices in Yucatan and Central America agree in one MORGAN.] SO-CALLED PALACE AT PALENQUE. 269 particular, namely, in being constructed with three parallel walls with par- tition 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 passage- ways 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. Ste- phens, 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 .” 1 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 fea- ture 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 door- way 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 fash- ion 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 ‘Central America, &c., ii, 310-312. 270 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. a number of families, whose private boundaries were iixed by solid parti- tion 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-tene- ment 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 . 1 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 so- ciety 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 barba- rism 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 speak- ing 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 poten- tates, 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 . 2 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 1 Lieutenant Simpson’s Report, Senate Ex. Doc., 1st Sess. 31st Congress, 1850, p. 81. 2 Central America, &c., ii, 235. MORGAN.] SO-CALLED PALACE AT PALENQUE. 271 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, how- ever, that considering the space now occupied by the ruins as the site of palaces, temples, and public buildings, and supposing the houses of the in- habitants 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 .” 1 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 build- ings, and supposing the houses of the inhabitants * * * 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 1 Incidents of Travel, Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, ii, 355. 272 nOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. support of such au assumption. It is quite probable that small numbers belonging io every pueblo lived a portion of the year in the forests in tem- porary 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,” 1 preferring a return to a lower stage of barbarism rather than a loss of personal freedom. In 1524 Cortez 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.” 2 The inhabitants of Palenque may have been included in this description. The profiles of the Palenque Indians, copied by Stephens from repre- sentations 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 the} 7 flattened their heads and foreheads..” 3 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 Herrera, History of America, iii, 346, cf. 348, 3 lb., iv, 169. 3 Ib., iv, 169. MORGAN.] ARCHITECTURE BELOW SCIENTIFIC STAGE. 273 Greeks. Speaking of tlie Governor’s House, Mr. Stephens remarks, that “the doors are all gone, and the wooden lintels over them have fallen .” 1 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 .” 2 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 build- ings at Kabah, he says: “ The lintels over the doors are of stone .” 3 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, some- what 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 .” 4 The}’ 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 under- stood 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 barba- rism, 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 ; de- stitute 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 substitu- tions of appropriate for deceptive and improper terms, the Indian of the 1 Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, i, 175. -Ib., p. 178. 3 Ib., i,398. 4 Rambles in Yucatan, p. US, 18 274 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. past and present will be presented understanding^ , and placed in liis true position in the scale of human advancement. While the Aryan family has lost nearly 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 develop- ment. The American aborigines had enjoyed a continuous and undisturbed progress upon a great continent, through two ethnical periods, and the lat- ter 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 may be stated as reasonable from the facts presented : 1 1 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 Ceutral 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 evi- dence 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 hardness 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 MORGAN.] HAD INDIANS LEARNED TO QUARRY STONE. 275 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 con- sequence, were broken up into independent tribes, with confederacies here and therefor 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 suppo- sition 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 Pana- ma, namely, that of adaptation to communism in living. When we attempt to understand the “Palace at Palenque” or the Grovernor’s House at Uxmal, as the residences of Indian potentates, they are wholly unintelligible; but as communal joint-tenement houses, embody- maukind before civilization is gained, bat it must commence in rnde form before more effective means are discovered through experience. If any of the American Indian tribes had advanced to this knowl- edge, and possessed the skill and ability to quarry stone, it is important that the fact should be estab- lished, 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 he 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 bow 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. 276 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. ing the social, the defensive, and the communal principles, we can under- stand 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 impos- ing 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 explana- tion 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. INDEX A. Abort, 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, coalesence 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 Page. 136 273 194,226 54, 68, 100, 103 189 177 71 53 216 47 1 234 164 125,130 34 101 23 220 101 226 222, 256 222, 226 B. Bachofen, Professor 121 Bancroft, H. H 223 cited - 235, 245 Bandelier, A. F., cited 84, 186, 232, 233, 249 Barlow, Arthur - . 47 Bartram, John, cited 46,123 Brasseur de Bourbourg, C. E 223, 224 C. Calpulli 81 Caribs, communal dwellings of the 76 houses of the 229 Carver, J., cited 54,72,113 Casa Cerrada or closed house 267 Castafieda, S. de 57., cited 204 Catlin, G-., cited 50, 72, 100, 102 Champlain, S. de, cited ... 124 Chiapas, village of 252 Chickasas, gentes and phratries 6 Chilluckitlequaw, hospitality of the 53 Chimneys, absence of 183 unknown in Yucatan andCentral America 183 Page. Chinooks, houses of the Ill Chocta, gentes and phratries 15 Chopunish, houses of the ... 110 1 Cibola, Seven Cities of 129, 167 site of the 170 Clahclellahs, houses of the Ill Clan, the Scottish 1 Clarke, J. S 124 Clatsops, houses of the Ill Clavigero, F. S., cited 101,178 Columbus, Christopher 76 Communal dwellings 64, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 76, 85 of tribes in Lower Status of bar- barism 113 of tribes in savagery 106 of Village Indians of Hew Mexico 136 Communism among ancient Mexicans 232 in living 63 in relation to dwellings 63 Confederacies, origin of 24 Confederacy confined to a common language 24 Iroquois. See Iroquois Confederacy. of the Aztecs 23, 24 Creek 23 Dakota 23 Moki 23 Ottawa 23 the nearest analogue of nation 18 I Copan grave posts 257 idols 257 Coronado, F. V., cited 129, 135, 167, 205 Core used in the architecture of Yucatan 267 Cortez, F 223,232 cited 59, 240 Cones, E., cited - 195 Creek Confederacy 23 Creek Indians, communal dwellings of the 68 Crees 115 Cremation among Mound-Builders 215 practice of, among the Aztecs 220 Mayas 220 Tlasealans - - . 220 Crossman, Captain, cited 130 Culture periods 43 Curia, the Bom an 14 I Cutler, J. G- 210 277 278 INDEX D. Dakota League lodge described Dakotans, communism of the Dali, W. II., 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 178, 22.?, 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 Yega 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 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. Thlinkit transfer of, between phratries Gentile organization society distinguished from political Gorman, S., cited Page. Government, growth of the idea of 31 plan of, among American aborigines ... 4 stages in the development of ........ . 21 Governor’s House 256 Granganimeo 47 Grave posts of chiefs 257 Greenbalgh 64 cited 119 Grenville, R 115 Grijalva, J., cited 59 Guerra, C., cited 59 Gyneocracy among tbe Iroquois 66, 121 H. Halls unknown in Indian architecture 236 Hayden, F. V . . . 135 Heckewelder, J., cited 49, 73, 100 Heffernan ... 188 Herrera, A. dc, cited 58, 59, 60, 7G, 77, 103, 178, 195, 228, 229, 230, 232, 234, 238, 242, 252, 255 Hiawatha 27 High-Bank puebl. described 207 Hindus, communal customs among the 122 Hospitality general among Indians of America 56, 60, 61 law of 42, 44, 45 of the Aleuts 53 Delawares 46 Indians of California 53 Mexico, Central and South America 58 Ohio 49 South America 5 Carolina 48 the Columbia 52 Northwest 54 Iroquois 45, 119 Mandans 50 Mayas 59 Nez Percds 5 North Carolina Indians 47 Onondagas 46 Pimas 57 Southern Indians 54 tribes of the Missouri 50 Upper Mississippi ... 53 "Village Indians of New Mexico .. 56 House architecture modified by climate 206 Household, number of persons in 73 House life of the Indians 199 of the Dwarf 256 Nuns at Uxmal 207, 231, 256 Old Woman 256 Pigeon 256 Turtle 256 Houses of Central America 236 capacity of the 70 of Indian tribes north of New Mexico 104 the Aztecs 222, 256 California Indians 106 Caribs 229 Chinooks Ill Chopunish 110 Clahelellahs 171 Clatsops Ill Indians of Columbia Valley 112 Page. 23 114 72 53 118 73 100 46 r 48 232, 239 204 213 209 57, 130 250 43 222 98 99 215 123 13 149 76 86 5 3 3 r 6 7 9 6 3 2 2 2 19 10 15 8 11 7 8 16 7 8 8 20 17 11 3 4 74 INDEX. 279 Page. Houses of the Kutchin 109 Makah Indians 112 Mandans and Minnetarees 125 Marieoj>as and Mohaves 130 Nyack Indians 118 Pueblo Taos 182 Hxmal 256 Tillage Indians 104,132 Virginia Indians 115 ruins of, in Yucatan and Central America. . . 251 safe against Indian assault 213 Howitt, A. W.. on Australian customs 70 I. Idols at Copan 257 Indian society unlike European 225 Indians, house life of the 199 of Mexico and Central America, communal dwellings of the 75 tenure of lands 84 New Mexico, communal dwellings of the. 74 land customs of the 82 Northwest coast, communal dwellings of the 70 Peru, communism of the 77 Southern, communal dwellings of the 68 eating customs of the 100 Inheritance, customs of 94 Troquoisfcommunal dwellings of the 64 communion araoDg 65 confederacy 23 cohesive principles of 33 democratic 40 founded on kinship 33 general features of the 28 or igin of the 27 seat of the central tribes 35 Council, annual meeting of the 35 decisions of the 37 objects of tho 35 eating customs of the 99, 102, 121 gens 6 rights, privileges, and obligations 7 gentes, number of the 11 list of the 7 hospitality of the 45 bouses of the, described 120 lands of the 80 Long-House 31, 34, 120 migration of the 25 mother l ights 66 number of, in existence 26 number of the 26 phratries 19 phratry, functions and uses 11 objects of the 11 sachemships of the 29 table of the 30 sachems, names bestowed upon 32 tribal epithets 36 government 32 war chiefs 38 Ives, J. C., cited 56, 141, 144 J. Jackson, W. H 155, 162, 171 cited 158, 164, 165 Page. Jaramillo, Juan, cited 135, 169, 205 Joliet, L 53 Jones, S., cited 109 Jose, J 152 Jus gent ilici urn 7 K. Kern 161 Kinship, rights and duties of, among the Aztecs 250 rights, duties, and obligations of 250 Kin the basis of gentes. , 3 Kootenays 69 Kutchin, houses of the 109 L. Lands, division of 89 of the Iroquois 80 ownership of, in common 79, 85 severalty 81 of Village Indians, rights in 149 tenure of, among ancient Mexicans 84 Languages, stock, number of 20 great number of, among American aborigines 20 verbal, incapable of permanence 19 Lapham, J. A 203 Las Casas, B. de, cited 253 Latin and Sabine gentes, coalescence of 34 Lewis and Clarke, cited 50, 51, 52, 53, 70, 110, 111 Lintels of Pueblos of Mexico . . 181 wood and stone 273 Lolsel , 106 Long-House of the Iroquois described 120 Onondaga described 123 symbol of the Iroquois Confederacy 34 M. Maine 122 Maize- indigenous to America 193 Makah Indians, houses of the 112 Mandan drying scaffolds 128 houses, interior of the 127 ladders 192 Mandans, communal dwellings of the 72 eating customs of the — . — 100 hospitality of the 50 houses of the 125, 210 Marcos, Friar 170 Male labor, first appearance of 128 Maricopas, houses of the 130 Marquette, J., cited — 53, 54 Marsh, O. C 202 Maximilian, Prince - 120 Mayas, communism in living 204 of the - 75 cremation among 220 gentes of tho 8 hospitality of the 59 of Yucatan £20 Meals, customs relating to - 99 separation of the sexes at 102 Mexican houses, size of the 232 usually two stories high 229 land ownership, conclusions concerning . .. 97 Mexicans, ancient inheritance among 95 280 INDEX Page. Mexican tribes, migration of the 194 Mexico, pueblo of 84, 222, 228 council-house 88 largest in America. 238 Migration of the Iroquois 25 Migrations occur through physical causes 196 Miller, I). J., cited 82, 135, 147, 152 Minnetarees, houses of the. 125, 210 Mislionginivi, pueblo of, described 141 Mitchell, H. L 188 Mobaves, houses of the 130 Mohegan gentes and phratries 16 Moki confederacy 23 house, interior 143 Pueblos 141 Montezuma .... 222 a war chief 248 house of 225 Montezuma’s dinner 227, 237 palace 234 Mortal', use of among American Indians 177 Mound-Builders 193 arts and industries of the 200, 219 circular inclosures of the 214 cremation among tho 215 derived from Village Indians of New Mexico 193 earth-works, uses of 202 houses of the 198 in Middle Status of barbarism 199 migrations of the 201 migrations of, affected by climate . - 201 modification of house architecture . 206 probable number of 218 probably derived from New Mexico. 201 social organization of the 215 structures of, in Ohio 207 Mound, Grave Creek 215 Mounds at Mound City 216 Murphy, H. C 118 N. Nation, a coalition of tribes 18 National Assembly, functions of 22 Ncerchokioo 110 Nez Percds, hospitality of the 51 Norman, B. M., cited 179,257,273 Nyack Indians, houses of the 11 O. Ojibwa gentes 8 lodge, description of 113 Omaha gentes 8 Onondaga, Long-House of the, described 123 Onondagas, hospitality of the 46 Onondaga village described 124 Organization, social and governmental 1 Otoes 115, 257 Ottawa confederacy 23 Ownership of lands in severalty 81 P. Palenque architecture 269 so-called palace of the 268 Parker, William, a Seneca chief 65 Page. Peru, tenure of lands in 91 Phrara of the Albanians 1 Phratric organization at funerals 13 Phratries, Chickasa 16 Chocta 15 composed of kindred gentes 11 Mohegan .... 16 of the Iroquois i0 Thlinkit 17 Phratry, existence of the, in Mexico and Central America 14 in tho military organization .. 15 Iroquois, functions and uses 11 objects of 11 marriage in the 10 older than the confederacy 11 the 9 • Pimas, hospitality of the 57 Plant life in the Eocky Mountains 193 Pomeiock, village of, described 115 Powell, J. W 135 Poweis, Stephen, cited 53, 106, 107 Powhatan Indians, communal dwellings of the 67 Prescott. W. H 224 Pueblo of Chetro Kettle, size of the 214 Mexico 84, 222, 228 Pueblos, number of persons in 204 of North America, number of inhabitants. . 231 Yucatan and Central America, popula- tion of 251 size of 203 Q- Quatmozin 59 Quelenes - - 252 E. Ealeigh, Sir Walter 47 Eeligious beliefs 151 seclusion 153 Eights ill lands among the Indians of Taos ... 149 Eobertson, cited 102 Eound towers 119 Euins, east of the Eio Grande 186 in McElmo Canon 189 the San Juan district 192 near base of Ute Mountain 190 in Mexico 186 of houses in Now Mexico 154 the pueblo of Bonito 156,163 llungo Pavie 156, 160 Alto 166 Chetro Kettle 161 Penasc.a Blanca 165 Pintado 156 Una Vida 160 Wegegi 159 Zayi 178 Arroyo 164 on the Animas Eiver 172 outline plan of 185 S. Sachems of the Iroquois, names bestowed upon 32 Sachemships of the Iroquois Confederacy 26 table of 30 INDEX 281 Page. Sahagun, B. do, cited, 103 Sandhill crane 195 San Juan district, ancient occupation of the 192 geographic relations of tho 196 Talley, altitude of 193 Santo Domingo, pueblo of 136 Sauks, communal dwellings of the 73 Schurz, Carl 30 Secotan, village of, described 116 Seneca-Iroquois. See Iroquois. Sen el 193 Sept, the Irish 1 Shawnees, removal of the 81 Shoshones, hospitality of the 53 Sibley tent, aboriginal origin of the 115 Simpson. J. H 171, 184 cited 155,156,162 Sitgreave, L 130 Sluyter, Peter, cited . 118 Smet, P. J. de 69 Smith, John, cited 67, 117 Social and governmental organization 1 Society, organization of 39 Sokulks, commercial dwellings of the 70 Spanish accounts of Aztec society 223 histories, how they should he regarded 227 Squire, E. G., cited 216 Squire and Davis, cited - 202, 208 Steck, M 145 Stephens, J. L., cited 75, 178, 254, 257, 259, 264, 269, 270, 273 Stevenson, J 137 Stevenson, Mrs. J., description of Zufii, by 137 Stones of Pueblo dwellings 179 Swan, C 68 Swan, J. G., cited 112 Symbol of the Iroquois Confederacy 31, 34 Syndyasmian family 5 T. Taos, houses of 182 Indians, organization of 147 pueblo of, described. 144 Tecpan, or official house of the tribe 256 Tenbroeck, cited 56 Teuchtli 14, 249 Thlinkit, gentes and phrates 17 Tiotohatton, size of 213 village of, described 119 Tlascalans, cremation among 220 the four lineages of the 14 Toques 252 Towers, round jl Tribal government of the Iroquois 32 stages of 21 Tribe composed of gentes 18 functions and attributes of 21 the 17 Page. Tribe, the characteristics of 21 Tribes and gentes continually forming 19 formed by natural growth 19 evolved from each other 20 in savagery, communal dwellings of 106 Tribute and tribute lands 90 U. Uxmal, Governor’s House at 258 described 259 House of the Nuns at 260 ground plan 261 room described 262 structures of : 256 V. V6ga, Garcillasso de la, cited 60 Village Indians, houses of the 132 of New Mexico, arts of 135 religious beliefs of 151, 152, 153 Voyage to New York in 1679-80 by Dankers and Sluyter 118 IV. Walker, E. A., on the Iroquois 6 Ward, J., cited. 145 Whittlesey, C 218 Wocoken, island of 47 Wolpi, pueblo of 141 Wright, A 65 Wyth, J., cited 115 Y. Yucatan and Central American agriculture . . . 253 architecture 272 confederacies 251 general condition of the aborigines .... 274 household life in ... . 263 Indians, condition and structures of. 274 languages of 252 population of 251 villages designed as fortresses 270 ruins of houses in. . . 251 village life 251 Maya Indians of 59, 75 Yzaes 255 Z. Zayi, apartment in 266 architecture 266 ground plan of 265 ruins of 266 Zelsales 252 Zempoala described 230 Zufii, pueblo of 137 c ) , V -/■ \ yyv. mMAMJl IWJMMWSySSHEI -Iwlwil rMWlm glE'M