character, or their precise
date, which are in themselves interesting subjects for
discussion. I use them as best symbolizing the state of society
which existed about the northern and eastern shores of the
eastern Mediterranean, several centuries before the
Olympiads.]

[Sidenote: Mr. Morgan's rules.]

It is at this point, I think, that a judicious critic will begin to part
company with Mr. Morgan. As regards the outward aspect of the society
which the Spaniards found in Mexico, that eminent scholar more than once
used arguments that were inconsistent with principles of criticism laid
down by himself. At the beginning of his chapter on the Aztec
confederacy Mr. Morgan proposed the following rules:--

"The histories of Spanish America may be trusted in whatever relates to
the acts of the Spaniards, and to the acts and personal characteristics
of the Indians; in whatever relates to their weapons, implements and
utensils, fabrics, food and raiment, and things of a similar character.

"But in whatever relates to Indian society and government, their social
relations and plan of life, they are nearly worthless, because they
learned nothing and knew nothing of either. We are at full liberty to
reject them in these respects and commence anew; using any facts they
may contain which harmonize with what is known of Indian society."[139]

[Footnote 139: Morgan, _Ancient Society_, p. 186, note.]

Perhaps it would have been better if the second of these rules had been
somewhat differently worded; for even with regard to the strange society
and government, the Spanish writers have recorded an immense number of
valuable facts, without which Mr. Bandelier's work would have been
impossible. It is not so much the _facts_ as the _interpretations_ of
the Spanish historians that are "nearly worthless," and even their
misinterpretations are interesting and instructive when once we rightly
understand them. Sometimes they really help us toward the truth.

[Sidenote: Mr. Morgan sometimes disregarded his own rules: "Montezuma's
Dinner."]

The broad distinction, however, as stated in Mr. Morgan's pair of rules,
is well taken. In regard to such a strange form of society the Spanish
discoverers of Mexico could not help making mistakes, but in regard to
utensils and dress their senses were not likely to deceive them, and
their statements, according to Mr. Morgan, may be trusted. Very good