﻿The Village Indians of JYeiv Mexico. 



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7,867. The population of these villages never could have been very large, 

 for the agricultural land in their vicinity could never have furnished 

 means of subsistence for a much larger population in each town. 



Their habits have been much modified by intercourse with the Spanish 

 and American races. In early times they used to dress in garments made 

 of the black seed-cotton, which is indigenous — now they dress chiefly in 

 woolen garments of their own weaving. 



In this paper I purpose to speak chiefly of their architecture. Many 

 of its characteristic features are peculiar to the structures of all semi- 

 civilized people. 



Their buildings have flat roofs, small windows, originally no fireplaces, 

 no openings or doors on the ground floor, ladders to ascend to the second 

 story, communal houses, buildings on the rectangular system, open court- 

 yards, houses on three sides closed in by a wall on the fourth side, towns 

 oriented, "corrals," or circular inclosures near the town for sheltering 

 cattle and sheep. 



These corrals, in the days of the " conquistadores," were used to contain 

 tame buffalo, deer and antelope — which with poultry, consisting of tamed 

 turkeys, partridges and ducks, formed a good part of the subsistence of 

 the Pueblos. 



Their houses are generally but three stories high — three rooms deep on 

 the first floor, two on the second and one on the third floor — so that the 

 cross-section presented the form of a flight of three steps. 



The Pueblo of Taos (Ancient Braba) contained houses five stories high. 

 A small creek divided the town, but the houses were connected by a 

 bridge. 



Of their ruined towns, Hungo Pavie was 300 feet by 144 feet. It 

 contained 144 rooms about 12 feet square, with estufas for religious cere- 

 monies, and possessed a population of 800 souls. 



The Pueblo Bonito contained 641 rooms. 



Castenada, who accompanied the expedition of Francisco Coronado to 

 New Mexico in 1540-42, estimated the population of the fourteen villages 

 of Cibola and Tucayan at four thousand men, probably warriors, and that 

 of the numerous villages on and near the Rio Grande and its tributaries 

 at sixteen thousand souls. 



In the works of Bernal Diez you will find a drawing of a Temple of 

 Mexico, which possesses all the characteristic features of the dwellings of 

 the Pueblo Indians. 



The Temple of Mexico, at Cholula, was four stories high ; the Temple 

 of the Sun 221 feet high; the Temple ot the Moon 144 feet high. The} 



