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their white visitors their rule of hospitality among themselves. It tended to equalize subsistence, and while any household possessed a surplus to prevent destitution in any portion of the community. This law of hospitality was universal among the Northern tribes, and it seems to have been universal in the Indian family. It was made possible by their communism in living.

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In every part of America which they visited, the Spaniards, although in numbers as a military force, were assigned quarters in Indian houses emptied of their inhabitants for that purpose, and were freely supplied with provisions. Thus, at Tlascala, Cortes and his men "were generously treated, and supplied with all necessaries."* Again, "they entered Cholula, and went to a house where they lodged altogether in safety, and their Indians with them, although upon their guard, being for the present plentifully supplied with provisions." Although, with their Indian allies, they numbered some two thousand persons, they found accommodations in a single communal or joint tenement-house of the aboriginal American model. Speaking of the Indians of Yucatan, Herrera remarks that "they are still generous and free-hearted, so that they will make everybody eat that comes into their houses, which is everywhere practised in travelling." This is a fair statement of the Iroquois law of hospitality among the Mayas. Pizarro found the same custom among the Peruvians and other tribes of the Andes. When on the coast of Tumbez, and before landing, "ten or twelve floats were immediately sent out with plenty of provisions."§ When he had entered Peru, "Atahuallpa's messengers came and presented the governor with ten of their sheep from the Inca, and some other things of small value; telling him very courteously that Atahuallpa had commanded them to inquire what day he intended to be at Caxamalca, that he might have provisions on the way." These illustrations, which might be multiplied, are sufficient to show the hospitality extended to the Spaniards. It was an active, well-established custom of Indian society, practised among themselves, and towards strangers from other *Herrera, Hist. of Amer., II. 279. + Ib. IV. 171.

† Ib. II. 311.

§ Herrera, III. 399..

|| Ib. IV. 244.

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tribes, and therefore naturally extended to the people who now for the first time appeared among them. Considering the numbers of the Spaniards, and another fact which the aborigines were quick to notice, namely, that a Spaniard consumed and wasted five times as much as an Indian required, their hospitality in many cases must have been grievously overtaxed.* Attention has been called to this law of hospitality, and to its universality, for two reasons, because it implies the existence of common stores which supplied the means for its practice, and because, wherever found, it also implies communistic living in large households. It must be evident that supplies could not have been furnished by the Iroquois, and other Northern tribes, to visitors and to strangers; much less by the Village Indians of Mexico, Central and South America, to the Spanish forces, with such uniformity, if the custom had depended in each case upon the contributions of single families. In that event it would have failed oftener than it would have succeeded. The law of hospitality, as administered by the American tribes, indicates a plan of life among them which has entirely escaped historical notice. Its explanation must be sought in the ownership and cultivation of lands in common, and in the distribution of their produce to households in which communism was practised. Common stores for large households, and possibly for the village with which to maintain its hospitality, are necessary to explain the practice. It could have been maintained on such a basis; and it is difficult to see how it could be maintained on any other.

4. The Practice of Communism in Living.

This, again, may be illustrated by Iroquois usages. In their villages they constructed houses, fifty, eighty, and a hundred feet in length, with a hall through the centre, a door at each end, and with the interior partitioned off at intervals of about seven feet. Each apartment or stall thus formed was open on the hall side. Such houses would each accommodate from ten to thirty families. These households were made up on the principle of kin. The married women and their children be

*"The appetite of the Spaniards appeared to the Americans insatiably voracious, and they affirmed that the Spaniards devoured more food in a day than was sufficient for ten Americans." - Robertson's History of America, p. 72.

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longed to the same gens, the symbol of which was often painted upon the house, while their husbands belonged to several other gentes. It was thus made up, in the main, of gentile kindred, and presents a general picture of Indian life in all parts of America. Whatever was gained by any member of the household on hunting or fishing expeditions, or raised by cultivation, was made a common stock. Within the household they lived from common stores. After the daily meal was cooked at the several fires, the matron of the household was summoned, and it was her duty to divide the food from the kettle to the several families according to their respective needs. What remained was placed in the custody of another person until it was required by the matron.

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Mr. Caleb Swan, who visited the Creek Indians in 1790, remarks that "the smallest of their towns have from twenty to forty houses, and some of the largest from a hundred and fifty to two hundred that are tolerably compact. These houses stand in clusters of four, five, six, seven, and eight together; each cluster of houses contains a clan or family, who eat and live in common.' ""* Lewis and Clarke, speaking of the tribes of the Columbia, observe that "their large houses usually contain several families, . among whom the provisions are common, and whose harmony is scarcely ever interrupted by disputes." The Spanish writers do not mention the practice of communism among the Village Indians of Mexico and Central America. They are barren of practical information concerning their mode of life. A direct modern illustration of the practice among the Mayas of Yucatan is given by Mr. Stephens. At Nohacacab, a short distance east of the ruins. of Uxmal, there is a settlement of Maya Indians, whose communism in living was noticed by Mr. Stephens when among them to employ laborers. He remarks that "their community consists of a hundred labradores or working-men; their lands are held in common, and the products are shared by all. Their food is prepared at one hut, and every family sends for its portion; which explains a singular spectacle we had seen on our arrival,—a procession of women and children, each

*Schoolcraft, Hist. Cond. and Pros. of Indian Tribes, V. 262. Travels, p. 443.

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carrying an earthen bowl containing a quantity of smoking hot broth, all coming down the same road, and disappearing among the different huts. . . From our ignorance of the language we could not learn all the particulars of their internal economy, but it seemed to approximate that improved state of association which is sometimes heard of among us; and as this has existed for an unknown length of time, and can no longer be considered experimental, Owen and Fourier might perhaps take lessons from them with advantage." * A hundred working-men indicate a total of five hundred persons depending for their daily food upon a single fire, the provisions being supplied from common stores, and divided from the kettle. It is probably a truthful picture of the life of their forefathers in the House of the Nuns and in the Governor's House at Uxmal at the period of European discovery. The communism of the Aztecs is illustrated by Montezuma's dinner.

5. The Communal Character of Indian Houses.

This important subject can only be glanced at. In an article prepared for Johnson's Cyclopædia on the "Architecture of the American Aborigines," to which reference is made, I have presented the ground-plans of the houses of the principal Indian tribes for the purpose of showing that the principle of communism in living entered into and determined their character. From the houses of the Northern Indians, each large enough for several families, to the adobe and stone houses of the Village Indians of New Mexico, each containing from fifty to five hundred apartments, and to the houses of dressed stone on elevated platforms at Uxmal, Chichen-Itza, and Palenque, all alike were joint-tenement houses. These ground-plans show that they were designed to be occupied by groups, composed, probably, of related families, whose sections were separated from each other by solid partition walls. Whenever Indian families are gathered in large households, the latter practice communism.

The houses of the Aztecs were no exception to the rule. Their size led the Spaniards to describe the largest of them as palaces, and thus they have formed a part of the staple of

* Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, II. 14.

Aztec romance. On the march to Mexico, Cortes and his four hundred men, with some hundreds of Indian allies, found accommodations in single houses of the kind described. Thus, having "come down into the plain, they took up their quarters in a country house that had many apartments."* “At Iztapalapa he was entertained in a house that had large courts, upper and lower floors, and very delightful gardens. The walls were of stone, the timber work well wrought. There were many and spacious rooms, hung with cotton hangings extraordinary rich in their way." The house in which Montezuma lived will be elsewhere referred to.

6. The Custom of having but one prepared Meal each Day,

Dinner.

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This again may be illustrated by the usages of the Iroquois, who had but one cooked meal each day. It was as much as their resources and organization for housekeeping could furnish, and was as much as they needed. It was prepared and served before the noonday hour (ten or eleven o'clock), and may be called a dinner. At this time the principal cooking for the day was done. After its division at the kettle, it was served in earthen or wooden bowls to each person. They had neither tables, nor chairs, nor plates, nor any room in the nature of a dining-room or kitchen, but ate as best suited them, the men first, and the women and children afterwards. That which remained was reserved for any member of the household when hungry. Towards evening the women cooked hominy, the maize being pounded into bits the size of a kernel of rice, which, when boiled, was put aside to be used as a lunch in the morning or at evening, and for the entertainment of visitors. They had neither a breakfast nor a supper. Each person, when hungry, ate of whatever food the house contained. This is also a fair picture of Indian life in general in America when discovered.

Although the Village Indians were one ethnical period in advance of the Iroquois, there can be little doubt that their mode of life in this respect was precisely the same. Among the Aztecs we know that a dinner was provided about midday,

*Herrera, II. 320.

† Ib. II. 325.

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