Chapter VIII

HOUSES IN RUINS OF THE SEDENTARY INDIANS OF THE SAN JUAN RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES--(Continued.)

Ruins of stone pueblo on Animas River--Ground plan--Each room faced with stone, showing natural faces--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 fire-places nor chimneys--The House a fortress--Second stone pueblo--Six other pueblos in ruins near--The Montezuma Valley--Nine pueblos in ruins in a cluster--Diagram--Ruins of stone pueblos near Ute Mountain--Outline of plan--Round 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.

CHAPTER IX.

HOUSES OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

Area of their 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, to Long Houses--High bank works-- Capacity of embankments--Conjectural restoration of the 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 and 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 explored--Similar to those in New Mexico--Communism in living probable--Cortez in Pueblo of Mexico--His quarters--Explanation of Diaz--Of Herrera--Of Bandolier--House occupied by Montezuma--A communal house--Montezuma's dinner--According to Diaz--to Cortez--to Herrera--To H. H. Bancroft--Excessive exaggerations--Dinner in common by a communal household--Bandelier's "Social Organization and Mode of Government of the Ancient Mexicans."