90 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
further growth thereof by converting, as we have seen elsewhere, for the 
purpose of defence, their marshy surroundings into water-sheets, through 
the construction of extensive causeways.’ While the remnants of the origi- 
nal ‘teepantlalli’ and of the ‘tlatocatlalli’ still remained visible in the gar- 
dens, represented to us as purely ornamental, which dotted the pueblo of 
Mexico,” the substantial elements wherewith to fulfill a purpose for which 
they were no longer adequate had, in course of time, to be drawn from the 
mainland. But it was not feasible, from the nature of tribal condition, to 
extend thither by colonization. The soil was held there by other tribes, 
whom the Mexicans might well overpower and render tributary, but whom 
they could not incorporate, since the kinships composing these tribes could 
not be fused with their own. Outposts, however, were established on the 
shores, at the outlets of the dykes, at Tepeyacac on the north, at Iztapala- 
pan, Mexicaltzinco, and at Huitzilopocheo to the south, but these were only 
military positions, and beyond them the territory proper of the Mexicans 
never extended.’ Tribute, therefore, had to furnish the means for sustaining 
their governmental requirements in the matter of food, and the ¢ribute lands 
had to be distributed and divided, so as to correspond minutely to the details 
of their home organization For this reason we see, after the overthrow of 
the Tecpanecas, lands assigned apparently to the head war-chiefs, to the 
military chiefs of the quarters, ‘from which to derive some revenue for their 
maintenance and that of their children* These tracts were but ‘official 
tracts, and they were apart from those reserved for the special use of the 
kinships. The latter may have furnished that general tribute which, although 
1“ Art of War” (pp. 150 and 151). L. H. Morgan (‘‘ Ancient Society,” Part II, cap. VII, pp. 190 
and 191). 
2Humboldt (‘Essai politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne,” Vol. I, Lib. III, cap. VIII, p. 50): 
Nearly all the old authors describe the public buildings as surrounded by pleasure-grounds or orna- 
mental gardens. It is very striking that, the pueblo having been founded in 1525, and nearly a century 
haying been spent in adding sufficient artificial sod to the originally small solid expanse settled, the 
Mexicans could have been ready so soon to establish purely decorative parks within an area, every inch 
of which was valuable to them for subsistence alone! 
3 The Mexican tribe proper clustered exclusively within the pueblo of Tenuchtitlan. The settle- 
ments at Iztapalapan, Huitzilopochco, and Mexicaltzinco were but military stations—outworks, guarding 
the issues of the causeways to the South. Tepeyacac (Guadalupe Hidalgo) was a similar position— 
unimportant as to population—in the north. Chapultepee was a sacred spot, not inhabited by any num- 
ber of people, and only held by the Mexicans for burial purposes, and on account of the springs furnish- 
ing fresh water to their pueblo. : 
4Tezozomoe (Cap. XV, p. 24). 
