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."



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 pyramidal
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