MORGAN.) TRIBES OF YUCATAN. 15 
intelligently investigated. It is to be hoped that some one will undertake 
this work. 
The Spanish writers do not mention the practice of communism in 
living as existing among the Village Indians of Mexico or Central America. 
They are barren of practical information concerning their mode of life; 
but we have the same picture of large households composed of several 
families, whose communism in the household may reasonably be inferred. 
We have also the striking illustration of ‘‘ Montezuma’s Dinner,” here- 
after to be noticed, which was plainly a dinner in common by a communal 
household. Beside these facts we have the ownership of lands in common 
by communities of persons. Moreover, the ruins of ancient houses in Cen- 
tral and South America, and in parts of Mexico, show very plainly their 
joint tenement character. From the plans of these houses the communism 
of the people by households may be deduced theoretically with reasonable 
certainty. 
Yucatan, when discovered, was occupied by a number of tribes of 
Maya Indians. The Maya language spread beyond the limits of Yucatan. 
This region, with Chiapas, Guatemala, and a part of Honduras, contained 
and still contains evidence, in the ruins of ancient structures, of a higher 
advancement in the arts of life than any other part of North America The 
present Maya Indians of Yucatan are the descendants of the people who 
occupied the country at the period of the Spanish conquest, and who occu- 
pied the massive stone houses now in ruins, from which they were forced 
by Spanish oppression. 
We have a notable illustration of communism in living among the 
present Maya Indians, as late as the year 1840, through the work of John 
L. Stephens. At Nohcacab, a few miles east of the ruins of Uxmal, Mr 
Stephens, having occasion to employ laborers, went to a settlement of Maya 
Indians, of whom he gives the following account: ‘‘ Their community con- 
sists of a hundred labradores, or working men; their lands are held and 
wrought in common, and the products are shared by all. ‘Their food is pre- 
pared at one hut, and every family sends for its portion, which explains a 
singular spectacle we had seen on our arrival, a procession of women and 
children, each carrying an earthen bowl containing a quantity of smoking 
