MORGAN, ] HOUSES IN YUCATAN. 955 
of Mexico, Yucatan and Central America were overrun by military adven- 
turers whose rapacity and violence drove the harmless and timid Village 
Indians from their pueblos into the forests; thus destroying in a few 
years a higher culture than the Spaniards were able to substitute in its 
place. Nothing can be plainer, I think, than this additional fact, that all 
there ever was of Palenque, Uxmal, Copan, and other Indian pueblos in 
these areas, building for building and stone for stone, is there now in ruins 
There are reasons for believing, from the more advanced condition of 
their house architecture, that Yucatan was inhabited by Village Indians from 
an earlier, and for a much longer, period than the valley of Mexico. The 
traditions of the Yzaes of Chichenisa, possibly Chichen Itza, and of the Co- 
comes of Mayapan, related by Herrera,’ claim a more ancient occupation of 
Yucatan than the Aztec traditions claim for the occupation of the valley of 
Mexico. The type of village life among the American aborigines was 
adapted to a warm climate, and presented in this area its highest exemplifi- 
cation. 
The notices of the great houses in Yucatan are brief and general in 
the Spanish histories. Speaking of its eighteen districts, Herrera remarks 
that ‘in all of them were so many, and such stately stone buildings, that it 
was amazing, and the greatest wonder is, that having no use of any metal, 
5) 
they were able to raise such structures, which seem to have been temples, 
for their houses were always of timber and thatched.”' This last statement 
is not only at variance with a previous one quoted above, but is another of 
the numerous misconceptions which impair so greatly the value of the 
Spanish histories. The people undoubtedly resided in these houses, which 
were adapted to such a use only, and were also in the nature of fortresses, 
thus proving the insecurity in which they lived. Some portion of the tribe 
may have resided in inferior and common habitations in the vicinity of 
these pueblos, and under their protection; but the great houses of stone 
were built for residences and not for temples, and were the homes of the 
body of the people. There were many of these pueblos, nearly all of them 
composed of one or two large structures, sprinkled over the face of the 
