isade ran a trench in which
the defenders could securely skulk, while through the narrow chinks
between the timbers they could shoot arrows fast enough to keep their
assailants at a distance. This purpose was further secured by rude
bastions, and considering the structure as a whole one cannot help
admiring the ingenuity which it exhibits. It shows a marked superiority
over the conceptions of military defence attained by the Iroquois or any
other Indians north of New Mexico. Besides the communal houses the
village contained its "medicine lodge," or council house, and an open
area for games and ceremonies. In the spaces between the houses were
the scaffolds for drying maize, buffalo meat, etc., ascended by
well-made portable ladders. Outside the village, at a short distance on
the prairie, was a group of such scaffolds upon which the dead were left
to moulder, somewhat after the fashion of the Parsees.[87]

[Footnote 85: Morgan, _Houses and House-life_, pp. 126-129;
Catlin's _North Amer. Indians_, i. 81 _ff._]

[Footnote 86: Catlin, i. 83.]

[Footnote 87: Catlin, i. 90.]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: The Indians of the pueblos,--in the middle status of
barbarism.]

We are now prepared to understand some essential points in the life of
the groups of Indians occupying the region of the Cordilleras, both
north and south of the Isthmus of Darien, all the way from Zuni to
Quito. The principal groups are the Moquis and Zunis of Arizona and New
Mexico, the Nahuas or Nahuatlac tribes of Mexico, the Mayas, Quiches,
and kindred peoples of Central America; and beyond the isthmus, the
Chibchas of New Granada, and sundry peoples comprised within the domain
of the Incas. With regard to the ethnic relationships of these various
groups, opinion is still in a state of confusion; but it is not
necessary for our present purpose that we should pause to discuss the
numerous questions thus arising. Our business is to get a clear notion
in outline of the character of the culture to which these peoples had
attained at the time of the Discovery. Here we observe, on the part of
all, a very considerable divergence from the average Indian level which
we have thus far been describing.

This divergence increases as we go from Zuni toward Cuzco, reaching its
extreme, on the whole, among the Peruvians, though in some respects the
nearest approach to civilization was made by the Mayas.