First: That the Family among them was too weak an organization to face alone the struggle of life, and therefore sheltered itself in large households, composed probably of related families.
Second: That they were probably organized in gentes, and, as a consequence, were broken up into independent tribes, with confederacies here and 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 supposition that some of these structures were devoted to religious uses.
Finally: That a common principle runs through all this architecture, from the Columbia River and the Saint Lawrence, to the Isthmus of Panama, namely, that of adaptation to communism in living.
When we attempt to understand the "Palace at Palenque" or the Governor's House at Uxmal, as the residences of Indian potentates, they are wholly unintelligible; but as communal joint-tenement houses, embody-
mankind before civilization is gained, but it must commence in rude form before more effective means are discovered through experience. If any of the American Indian tribes had advanced to this knowledge, and possessed the skill and ability to quarry stone, it is important that the fact should be established, and that they should have credit for the progress in knowledge implied by this skill and ability. Dressed stone from the walls at Uxmal, Palenque, and elsewhere in Yucatan and Central America should be proved by applying the square to find whether a level surface and a true angle were formed upon them. It should also be ascertained whether the walls are truly vertical, and also whether they had learned to make a mortar of quicklime and sand. Before our adventurous writers use in connection with our native tribes and their works such terms as "civilization, great cities, palaces, and temples," and apply such imposing titles as "king, prince, and lord" to Indian chiefs, they should be prepared to show that some at least of their tribes had learned the use of wells and how to dig them, and how to quarry stone; to prepare a mortar of lime and sand; to form a right angle and a level face upon a stone, and lay up vertical walls. These necessary acquisitions precede the first beginnings of civilization.
