538 INDIAN SETTLEMENTS IN CENTRAL AMERICA. 



they differed in the various tribes, hoping that I might thus, if possi- 

 ble, secure some poiuts of contact with the prehistoric migrations and 

 the ethnographic connection of the tribes. I have also tried to show 

 how far the architecture of men depends on the physical and orographic 

 nature of the land and the character of the building material found in 

 the vicinity wherever this could be shown. Under the influence of the 

 above-mentioned views, I have paid but little attention to the ruins 

 alreadyinvestigated by more competent men, and in examining unknown 

 or only imperfectly known ruins of settlements, I have confined myself 

 to simple, rough measurements by the aid of the compass. The ground 

 plans and sectional plans given here must, therefore, not be considered 

 as accurate, but are merely intended to give a generally correct view 

 of the disposition and the structure of the single buildings — more did 

 not seem to be required for my purpose. As I have spoken elsewhere 

 of the old Indian settlements of Guatemala and Chiapas, I need not 

 return to them here. As, however, many ruins have not yet been inves- 

 tigated (like those of Chiapa,Tonala, and Agua Escondida in Chiapas ; 

 of Piedras Eegras, Yaxche, and Jolomax in Peten; of Benque Viejo in 

 British Honduras; of S. Jorge, Aguacatan, Sacapulas, Mixco, Chajul, 

 Canilla, Mita, etc., in Guatemala), and as, moreover, many other ruins 

 have probably never yet been discovered, my material must needs be 

 very imperfect, and the results I have obtained will have to be com- 

 pleted and reexamined, I shall therefore limit myself here to what is 

 most important. 



1. THE DISPOSITION OF OLD INDIAN BUILDINGS WITHIN THE 

 SETTLEMENTS. 



All the Indians of northern Central America have in earlier days 

 lived, as they still do in our day, in wooden huts covered Avith grass 

 or palm leaves, and more durable edifices were raised only for purposes 

 of worship) or of warfare, perhaps also to serve as homes for the highest 

 spiritual and other dignitaries, in which cases earth and stone, and in 

 times of higher refinement, even mortar, were employed. Of such 

 only ruins are in existence, and they will therefore form the principal 

 subject of this work. 



The fact that in our day the majority of Indians live in remote 

 regions, far from Spanish influences and scattered in separate homes, 

 or in small clusters of houses, would seem to justify the presumption 

 that a similar system may have prevailed in pre-Columbian times. 

 Nevertheless, the Indians had besides, in those days, larger centers of 

 population, such as surrounded their places of worship, within carefully 

 fortified localities, or their royal residences, the salines, gold washings, 

 and the like. It must be borne in mind, however, that these centers 

 of population held only at fixed times larger numbers, as at times of 

 religious festivals and devotional meetings; the fortresses only in times 

 of war, the salines in the dry seasons, when alone salt could be made, 



