188.5.] -^tlD [Brlnton. 



length, or was one of the multiples, of their metrical stand- 

 ard.* 



Moreover, fifty-seven per cent of all the lines were divisible 

 without remainder by ten feet. How much of this may have 

 been owing to the tendency of hurried measurers to average on 

 fives and tens, I cannot say, but leaving this out of the question, 

 there is a probability that a ten foot-length rule was used by the 

 " mound-builders " to lay out their works. 



It may not be out of place to add a suggestion here as to the 

 applicability of the methods of inductive metrology to Ameri- 

 can monuments. The proportions given above by Ixtlilxochitl, 

 it will be noted, are strikingly irregular (4 11 J, .'52 6). Was this 

 accident or design ? Yery likely the latter, based upon some 

 superstitious or astrological motive. It is far from a solitary 

 example. It recurs everywhere in the remarkable ruins of 

 Mitla. "Careful attention," says Mr. Louis H. Ayme, "has 

 been paid to make the whole asymmetrical. * * * This 

 asymmetry of Mitla is not accidental, I am certain, but made 

 designedly. M. De'sire Charnay tells me he has observed the 

 same thing at Palenque." These examples should be a warning 

 against placing implicit reliance on the mathematical pro- 

 cedures for obtaining the lineal standards of these forgotten 

 nations, f 



Whatever the lineal standard of the Aztecs may have been, we 

 have ample evidence that it was widely recognized, very exact, 

 and officially defined and protected. In the great market of 

 Mexico, to which thousands flocked from the neighboring coun- 

 try (seventy thousand in a day, says Cortes, but we can cut this 

 down one-half in allowance for the exaggeration of an enthusiast), 

 there were regularly appointed government officers to examine 

 the measures used by the merchants and compare them with the 

 correct standard. Did they fall short, the measures were broken 

 and the merchant severely punished as an enemy to the public 

 weal. I 



* The Metrical Standard of the Mound- Huildcrs. Reduced by the Method of 

 Even Divisors. By Col. (Jlias. Whittlesey (Cleveland, 1883). 



+ Notes on Mitla, in Proceedings of the Americ m Antiquarian Society, April, 1882, 

 p. 97. 



t See Herrera, Decafias de Jjidia.?, Dec. ii, Lib. vii, cap. xvi, and Dec. iii, Lib. 

 iv, cap. xvii. " Castigaban mueho alque falseaba medidas, diciendo que era 

 enemigo de todos 1 ladron publico," etc. 



