IHE TEHPLE OF THE CROSS. ' 19 



expressing their ideas, using in one case letters or alphabetical signs, in the other 

 mysterious symbols. The characters were disposed in horizontal and vertical 

 rows, forming right, but never acute, angles. This is all that I was able to notice. 

 I will add, however, that in both kinds of rows the same figures are sometimes 

 repeated, and also that the human heads, which frequently occur, are always 

 shown in profile and turned to the left. The characters, it thus appears, were, 

 like the Hebrew, written and read from right to left."* 



Reserving my comments on Dupaix's incorrect representation of the tablet, 

 I will now give a translation of Gralindo's observations on the temple and its 

 sanctuary : — 



"Another building conseci-ated to religious purposes stands east of the 

 Palace on a hill still higher than those supporting the structures before described. 

 The building in question consists of two galleries, the front one of which occupies 

 its whole length, while the second is divided into three rooms. The eastern one 

 looks like a dungeon, but its small entrance shows no indication of a door. 

 The western room is a simple apartment ; the middle one has no door ; but as 

 there are supporters (inliers) in the wall, I suppose that it was closed with 

 curtains. This room encloses a small chapel provided with a flat roof. Its front 

 is formed by two slabs of yellow stone, with a wide entrance between them. On 

 the western stone is represented a man facing the door. His head is orna- 

 mented Avith feathers and twigs, one of them supporting a small crane with a fish 

 in its beak. He is clothed with a tippet and with pantaloons reaching to the 

 middle of the leg, the lower part of which is encircled with bands ; and a kind 

 of boot without sole covers only the hind part of the foot. A little human figure 

 of horrible appearance, sitting with its back turned toward the standing person, 

 has no feet, but terminates in a tail. On the same slab are seen eleven inscribed 

 tablets, two and a half square inches in size, above and in fi'ont of the standing 

 human figure. The other stone slab shows an ugly old man, with something like 

 a branch or a pipe in his mouth. Opposite these figures there are projections in 

 the wall, at the upper part as well as at the lower, probably designed for attaching 

 victims or criminals. Within, on the back part of the chapel, are represented 

 among ornamental work [parmi dufiligrane) two human figures, about three feet 

 high, the tallest of which places the head of a man upon the top of a cross, 

 shaped exactly like that of the Christians ; the other figure is apparently that of 

 a child. Both have their eyes fixed upon the offered head. Behind the two 

 figures are small tablets exhibiting well-worked characters. I may be wrong in 

 supposing that human sacrifices were inade in this chapel ; for such, it is believed, 

 were performed within sight of large assemblies of people, while in this place a 



* Antiquites Mexicaines ; Troisieme Expedition du Capitaine Dupaix ; torn, i, p. 26. 



