thomas] MA UDSLA Y 'S ARCHEOLOGICA L WORK 555
heap of stones, out of which a huge ceiba tree was growing. Some portions of the chambers which are shown in the accom- panying plan were excavated. The porches on each side proba- bly extended some distance beyond the line of the walls of the building. The roof and superstructure had entirely disappeared, but the inner wall was in places perfect up to the spring of the vault." It may be assumed that the ceiling was in the form of the triangular or inverted V-shape vault, as at Palenque, al- though it is not shown by Mr Maudslay's figures, as the roofs had fallen.
The first portion of the doorway — a kind of entry or short hall — which he notices, is " a step about eighteen inches high and eighteen feet long, formed of two blocks of stone, projecting in front of the inner doorway ; the face of this step is ornamented with a number of figures seated cross-legged and covered with elaborate breast-plates and other ornaments in sharp and well- preserved carving."
Examining the splendid autotype (Pt. I, pi. 8), it is seen at a glance that the figures on this step are almost exact repetitions of those on the altar found at the same locality, which may be seen by those who do not have Maudslay's figure, in Stephens' plate. 1 The heads are covered by the same turban-like caps, the breast is covered with similarly ornamented breast-plates, the figures sitting cross-legged on hieroglyphics and arranged in two groups facing the middle. On the step are twenty personages in two groups, the ten on the left facing the right, and the ten on the right facing the left. On the altar there are but sixteen figures, four on a side. Between the two groups on the step are two short columns of glyphs.
What the scene is intended to represent we have, at present, no satisfactory means of judging. That the figures do not por- tray warriors or military personages may be assumed from the fact that they bear no arms or military insignia, and that nowhere
1 Travels in Central America , Chiapas, and Yucatan, I, pp. 42, 43.
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