The foundations on which the buildings were raised vary in height from 5 to 50 feet, and are composed of rough irregular blocks and slabs of soft limestone; the interstices were probably filled up with mud, and the surface faced with cement, but the cement facing has almost entirely disappeared. The mud had been washed out by tropical rains, so that now the foundations present the appearance of rough heaps of unworked stone. At the south end of the plain is a natural hill which has been partly terraced, and was probably ascended on the north side by a stone stairway; on the top of it are two foundations supporting the remains of stone houses. From the foot of this hill a sort of roadway, with the remains of a low wall on either side, runs to the principal group of buildings, and is continued on the other side of it to a low hill on which the remains of a few other buildings were found.
I made an excavation on the summit of the mound marked X in the plan, that disclosed the remains of a house or temple, of which a ground-plan is given. Only two walls could be found, but there was almost certainly an outer chamber, which is shown in dotted lines. Near the middle doorway a rough unworked slab of stone was lying, which had probably served as a lintel. The doorway in the back wall had been blocked up after the house was built. The walls still standing are about five feet high, and, from the position of the stone lintel above the blocked-up doorway, I should estimate the original height of the walls at a little over six feet. The cement floor of the house is still in fair condition, and there are traces of a cement-covered platform which ran round the outside of it. Some fragments of rough pottery were found inside the house. No roofing-stones of the type used in Copan, Tikál, and the other great ruins could be found, and I am inclined to think that the very narrow chambers were roofed with flat slabs, and some slabs which would have answered the purpose were found among the debris. There are several carved monoliths which formerly stood on the level ground in front of the buildings, but most of them are overturned and partly destroyed. The only one in a fair state of preservation is shown in the accompanying Plate; but this is one of great importance, and we made a careful mould of it, from which a plaster-cast has been made; this is now in the South Kensington Museum.
Two Maya priests or chieftains with elaborate head-dresses and ornaments stand facing each other above a hieroglyphic inscription, which commences with what I have called an "Initial Sequence," which Mr. Goodman has proved to be a date. In the lower panels are two unadorned crouching human figures, with their necks and arms bound with ropes, evidently meant to represent prisoners trodden under foot by the two gorgeously arrayed figures who stand above them. The marked difference in physiognomy between the Mayas and their captives is clearly shown, and this monument
