children and any
other pleasure, as if the only end and aim of life was to secure a crop
of corn."[14-1]

In their days of heathenism, all the labors of the field were directed
by the observance of superstitious rites. For instance, the men, who
always did a large share of the field work, refrained from approaching
their wives for some days before planting the seed. Before weeding the
patch, incense was burned at each of the four corners of the field, to
the four gods of the winds and rains; and the first fruits were
consecrated to holy uses.[14-2] Their fields were large and extremely
productive.[14-3] In this connection it is worth noting, in passing,
that precisely Guatemala is the habitat of the _Euchlaena luxurians_,
the wild grass from which, in the opinion of botanists, the Zea Mais is
a variety developed by cultivation.

Cotton was largely cultivated, and the early writers speak with
admiration of the skill with which the native women spun and wove it
into graceful garments.[15-1] As in Yucatan, bees were domesticated for
their wax and honey, and a large variety of dye-stuffs, resins for
incense, and wild fruits, were collected from the native forests.

Like the Mayas and Aztecs, they were a race of builders, skillful masons
and stone-cutters, erecting large edifices, pyramids, temples, and
defensive works, with solid walls of stone laid in a firm mortar.[15-2]
The sites of these cities were generally the summits of almost
inaccessible crags, or on some narrow plain, protected on all sides by
the steep and deep ravines--_barrancas_, as the Spaniards call
them--which intersect the plateau in all directions, often plunging down
to a depth of thousands of feet. So located and so constructed, it is no
wonder that Captain Alvarado speaks of them as "thoroughly built and
marvelously strong."[15-3]

In the construction of their buildings and the measurements of their
land, these nations had developed quite an accurate series of lineal
measures, taking as their unit certain average lengths of the human
body, especially the upper extremity. In a study of this subject,
published during the present year, I have set forth their various terms
employed in this branch of knowledge, and compared their system with
that in use among the Mayas and the Aztecs.[16-1] It would appear that
the Cakchiquels did not borrow from their neighbors, but developed
independently the system of mensuration in vogue among them. This bears
out