But he was no great scholar, nor a very exact reasoner. He was convinced that the Aztecs were plain pueblo Indians, like the Zunis of to-day; and that the descriptions of Cortes and Bernal Diaz Were based on sheer misunderstanding and interested exaggeration.
Now let it be granted, to save space, that the Spaniards were mistaken when they recognised the feudal system in Mexico. Let it be granted that "Empire" is a large word to apply to the Aztec confederacy with its sway over neighbouring tribes and its exactions of tribute. Let it be granted that the chief was elected within a dynastic stock like that of the Bacchiadæ of Corinth. Let it be granted that the Aztecs dwelt in huge "house communities," large joint-tenement houses; that they dined together, much after the manner of the Spartan and Cretan Syssitia, and that the women fed apart. And what follows? It does by no means follow that the Aztecs were in the social condition of pueblo or village Indians or Iroquois.
In the first place, the size and beauty of the Aztec cities made them seem to the plain honest Bernal Diaz like the enchanted palaces of romance. No one who has either been in Zuni territory, or seen the sketches of squalid pueblos published by Mr. Cushing in the Century Magazine, will believe that such large communal hovels could have been mistaken for enchanted palaces by Cortes. The Spaniards were accustomed to the aspect of palaces and cathedrals compared with which modern architecture has nothing to show. The interior of the Mexican houses also delighted the Spaniards by the beauty of the carved and polished stonework. Mr. Morgan may not have been able to understand how the stone was wrought by Mexican implements; but in Central America and Yucatan the beauty of the surviving stonework is only equalled by the great extent of those mysterious and highly carved edifices decorated with hieroglyphics of unknown significance. It is absurd to speak of the builders of temples and palaces which throw
