1880. | Anthropology. gol 
selves appear to be enough to confute the theory according to 
which Palenque, Uxmal, and the other sites of ruins in this por- 
tion of the American continent are only ‘ pueblos,’ groups of 
ew Mexico.” M. Le Plongeon copied many beautiful frescoes 
from the walls of these structures, among them a picture of a frail 
hut of poles with thatched roof, which he supposed to have been 
the residence of some of the lower class of people. M. Charnay, 
who does not scruple to call Bourbourg and Le Plongeon fools, 
will find it difficult to take good care of his own self-control in a 
land that has turned the heads of many smart people. 
Reverting to Mr. Morgan’s paper in the Report of the Arche- 
ological Institute, we find that he bases his interpretation of Mex- 
ican and Central American architecture upon a study of the com- 
munal system of all our aborigines. Commencing with the “ iong- 
house” of the Iroquois, the Mandan circular lodge, and the im- 
mense structures of the Columbia river tribes, he proceeds to 
New Mexico and Arizona, where we have in the pueblo the climax 
of this communal life, and to the works of the Sciota valley, where 
the earthworks stand for embankments on which to erect long- 
houses. The pueblos, the mound structures, and the great stone 
edifices of middle America were joint tenement houses, in the na- 
ture of fortresses, and the plan of life within the last named must 
be sought in the present pueblos, assisted by the light of tradition. 
At the epoch of the Spanish conquest they were occupied, and 
were deserted by the Indians to escape the rapacity of the Span- 
ish military adventurers, by whom they were oppressed beyond 
endurance. Mr. Morgan carefully examines the Casa del Gober- 
nador, and the “House of Nuns,” Uxmal, in the light of his own 
theory. The remarks on the method of constructing vaulted 
ceilings over a solid core of masonry are exceedingly valuable 
p. . At the close of the article he takes Professor Rau to 
task for endorsing the palace and city theory of Mr, Stephens, 
and introduces epithets which we regret to see one American 
anthropologist using with reference to another. The work of the 
Archeological Institute is carried on by means of the subscrip-. 
tions of the members, the annual fee being ten dollars. Those o 
our readers desiring to correspond with the Institute must ad- 
dress Mr. Edward H. Greenleaf, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 
ass, 
We may be allowed to hint that the simultaneity and success- 
ion of the complex elements of civilization are not made out suf- 
ficiently to allow one to be dogmatical. It is within the range of 
possibility that the lines of simultaneity may resemble the iso- 
therms rather than the parallels of latitude. In that case commu- 
nism in living and a gentile system of kinship might coexist with a 
high or a low stage of something else, say the mechanic arts or 
the fabrication of implements. Again, the separation of a people 
