A Botanical and Economic Study. 113 



sedentariness to which our Indians, as a rule, had not 

 attained, and an amount of steady labor without immediate 

 return which was peculiarly irksome to them. Moreover, the 

 imperfect methods pursued in clearing, planting and cultivat- 

 ing sufficiently prove that the Indians, though agriculturists, 

 were in the early stages of development as such, a fact also 

 attested by the imperfect and one-sided division of labor 

 between the sexes, the men, as a rule, taking but a small 

 share of the burdensome tasks of clearing land, planting and 

 harvesting. It is certain that by no tribe in the United 

 States was agriculture pursued to such an extent as to free 

 its members from the practice of the hunter's or fisher's art." 

 The facts collected in these few pages indicate that the 

 tribes to the east of the Mississippi borrowed their agricul- 

 ture from the west, for along the Mexican border the Indians 

 were more sedentary and farther advanced in the arts. 

 Again, the culture along the Mexican border had one or two 

 probable centres of distribution, the one, the Keres, the 

 other, the Pimas, who both derived it from farther south. 



The Nahuas formed by far the most important branch of 

 the Shoshonean family. They occupied the territory from the 

 Rio Grande south to Nicaragua, and possessed, as it went in 

 America, a comparatively high grade of culture. They had 

 an elaborate government, presided over by a Montezuma ; 

 they were skillful as builders; their utensils were of copper 

 and tin; gold and silver were worked into ornaments; their 

 religious system was elaborate and minute, and the litera- 

 ture, preserved on parchment of maguey plant, in the ikono- 

 matic characters, was large and important; they had a calen- 

 dar; they tilled the soil, as was necessary for a dense popula- 

 tion, raising maize, beans, pepper, gourds and other fruits. 

 Finally, they had organized armies. Each king was absolute 

 in his own country (Mexico, Tezcuco, Tlacopan) until war 

 broke out, when they acted jointly. The country was so 

 densely populated that floating gardens, or chinampas, were 

 constructed. All the agricultural products of the country, 

 particularly maize, chile and beans, were sown in abundance 

 on the chinampas, constructed of logs, with brush and earth 



