Elements of the elements of architecture, theft/Mr/ and the arch are the most noteworthy. The pillar was doubtless sug gested by the trunk of the tree, which supports its branching foliage, and the ''roof-tree" was the central object in the halls of our Indo-European ancestors, against which the roof was laid from the walls. Both square and circular pillars, sometimes with developed capitals, were common in Central American architecture, and occurred occasionally in that of Peru, more rarely in Mexico. In ancient Greece, as is well known, the pillar attracted the most earnest attention of builders, and upon its different styles was founded their scheme of the "orders of architecture." The arch was doubtless suggested by the lodge-poles, leaned one against the other and touching at the top. This forms the angular or pointed arch, and in its likeness the most primitive stone arches are formed by laying stones one on another, each slightly overlapping or "corbelling inward," so that ultimately the opposite walls meet at the top. This is the plan of the Eskimo snow-huts, of the "treasuries" of Alyce= and Tiryns, and probably of all the so-called arches of Mexico, Central America, and Peru. The true arch, " a curved structure sup ported by its own curve," was probably not known to any nation of the New World, nor to any extent to the Egyptians, but was a discovery of the ancient Assyrians, from whom it was learned by the Etruscans, and through them passed to the Romans. Its modification by the Lombards into the Gothic arch with its flying buttress and rich decorations led to the construction of the most impressive monuments of man's handiwork.
Influence of Domestic for which term we mean house-architecture—has an ethnological importance far beyond its application to elucidate the history of culture. It stands in intimate relationship to the institutions, usages, and customs of a people, and is powerfully instrumental in deciding upon their status in the scheme of civilization. This has been ably demonstrated by an eminent Ameri can ethnologist, Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, who has set forth his arguments in a work published by the Government entitled Houses and je qf the American Aborigines, but intended in its scope to be explicative of the domestic relations of ancient society in general. His view is that the primitive Family—using this term to include as many persons of both sexes as could live together in friendship—constructed and occupied one large dwelling, in which they resided with a community of goods and often with a promiscuity of sexes. These are called " communal " or " joint-tenant " houses. Good examples of them are offered by the long cabins, sometimes three hundred feet long by twenty wide, of the Indians of New York (Iroquois and Algonkins), of Vancouver Island (the Hai dahs), and of the Babanus (the Arawacks); by the huge adobe structures of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico—sometimes large enough to accom modate five thousand souls; and by the so-called " palace " of the king of Tezcuco, more than twelve hundred feet square. Mr. Morgan even
carries his theory so far as to explain the religious structures of Central America as communal houses.
Although it is probable that in some directions his explanations will not be justified by future research, his suggestions of the relations of domestic architecture to social life are most deserving the attention of the student of early man; for upon these relations depend the notions of property, the system of relationship, the position of the sexes, and the form of government.
Buildings for methods of building for defence began with the rude barricade of branches and logs or of loose earth and stones which the savage drags or throws up for a protection for his house against wild beasts and human foes. Such is the humble origin which is marked on our word town, which meant originally any place enclosed with a hedge or branches; and when we speak of political bodies, we employ a word which means a community protected by a wall of thrown-up earth (Schrader).
Primitive simple forts of the tribes of the eastern coast of North America, as described by early travellers, were circular embank ments of earth a few feet in height, upon which was erected a palisade of upright logs woven together with withes and branches (Ettwein). This description answers also for the " rings " of the Tartar hordes who invaded Europe in the fifth and sixth centuries; and the extensive embankments of the Ohio Valley, containing millions of cubic feet of earth and con structed by some long-extinct nation, are finer examples of the same character. They bespeak for erection the labor of a large body of work men directed to the carrying out of a matured plan of defence.
(Palls of later and more cultivated ages the primitive mound, earth embankment, and external ditch were replaced by the city-wall of cut stone, with its moat, its bastions, and its massive towers and gates. Sometimes such works were of colossal dimensions, as the wall which Adrian built to keep at bay the Picts and Scots, or that great est of all which for centuries protected the northern frontier of China against the hordes of Turanian nomads.
At the period of the introduction of gunpowder defensive architecture was so perfected that many a town and castle could bid defiance to every means of capture save famine. The introduction and improvement of cannon and the art of springing mines, thus shattering the thickest walls, changed all that. Now-a-days the great medimval cities have razed their walls and filled their moats; even the massive fortresses of the last century are perceived to be of no avail against modern ordnance; and, by a curious reversion, the most skilled military engineers have gone back to the low earth embankments of the primitive savage as the surest defences in war.