nsists in
elevated positions. Sometimes this elevated position was a natural hill,
as at Quemada, Tezcocingo, and Xochicalco. Where no hill was at hand
they formed a terraced pyramidal foundation, as at Copan, Palenque, and
Uxmal. In the highest forms of this architecture this elevation is faced
with stone, or even composed throughout of stone, as in the case of the
House of Nuns at Chichen-Itza. In the construction of houses progress
seems to have taken place in two directions. The rooms increased in
size. In some of the oldest pueblo structures in Arizona the rooms were
more like a cluster of cells than any thing else.<9>

They grow larger towards the South. In the house at Teotihuacan M.
Charney found a room twenty-seven feet wide by forty-one feet long. Two
of the rooms in the Governor's House at Uxmal are sixty feet long. But
the buildings themselves diminish in size. In Mexico the majority of the
houses were but one story high, and but very few more than two stories.
In Yucatan but few instances are recorded of houses two stories high.
We must remember that throughout the entire territory we are considering
the tribes had no domestic animals, their agriculture was in a rude
state, and they were practically destitute of metals.<10> They could
have been no farther advanced on the road to civilization than were the
various tribes of Europe during the Bronze Age. Remembering this, we can
not fail to be impressed with the ingenuity, patient toil, and artistic
taste they displayed in the construction and decoration of their
edifices.

It may seem somewhat singular that we should treat of their architecture
before we do of their system of government, but we were already
acquainted with the ruins of the former. When we turn to the latter
we find ourselves involved in very great difficulties. The description
given of Mexican society by the majority of writers on these topics
represent it as that of a powerful monarchy. The historian Prescott,
in his charming work<11> draws a picture that would not suffer by
comparison with the despotic magnificence of Oriental lands. At a later
date Mr. Bancroft, supporting himself by an appeal to a formidable list
of authorities, regilds the scene.<12> But protests against such views
are not wanting. Robertson, in his history, though bowing to the weight
of authority can not forbear expressing his conviction that there had
been some exaggeration in the splendid description of their gover