MORGAN.) HAD INDIANS LEARNED TO QUARRY STONE. PATS) 
First: That the Family among them was too weak an organization 
to face alone the struggle of life, and therefore sheltered itself in large 
households, composed probably of related families. 
Second: That they were probably organized in gentes, and, as a con- 
sequence, were broken up into independent tribes, with confederacies here 
and there for mutual protection; and that their institutions were essentially 
democratic. 
Third: That from the plan and interior arrangement of these houses 
the practice of communism in living in households may be inferred. 
Fourth: That the people were Village Indians in the Middle Status 
of barbarism; living in a single joint-tenement house or in several such 
houses grouped together, and forming one pueblo. 
Fifth: That hospitality and communism in living were laws of their 
condition, which found expression in the form of the houses, which were 
adapted to communism in living in large households 
Sixth: That all there ever was of Uxmal, Palenque, Copan, and other 
pueblos in these areas, building for building, and stone for stone, are there 
now in ruins. 
Seventh: That nothing herein stated is inconsistent with the suppo- 
sition that some of these structures were devoted to religious uses. 
Finally: That a common principle runs through all this architecture, 
from the Columbia River and the Saint Lawrence, to the Isthmus of Pana- 
ma, namely, that of adaptation to communism in living. 
When we attempt to understand the “Palace at Palenque” or the 
Governor’s House at Uxmal, as the residences of Indian potentates, they 
are wholly unintelligible; but as communal joint-tenement houses, embody- 
mankind before civilization is gained, but it must commence in rude form before more effective means 
are discovered through experience. If any of the American Indian tribes had advanced to this knowl- 
edge, and possessed the skill and ability to quarry stone, it is important that the fact should be estab- 
lished, and that they should have credit for the progress in knowledge implied by this skill and ability. 
Dressed stone from the walls at Uxmal, Palenque, and elsewhere in Yucatan and Central America 
should be proved by applying the square to find whether a level surface and a true angle were formed 
upon them. It should also be ascertained whether the walls are truly vertical, and also whether they 
had learned to make a mortar of quicklime and sand. Before our adventurous writers use in connection 
with our native tribes and their works such terms as “civilization, great cities, palaces, and temples,” and 
apply such imposing titles as ‘‘ king, prince, and lord” to Indian chiefs, they should be prepared to show 
that some at least of their tribes had learned the use of wells and how to dig them, and how to quarry 
stone; to prepare a mortar of lime and sand; to form aright angle and a level face upon a stone, and 
lay up vertical walls. These necessary acquisitions precede the first beginnings of civilization. 
