110 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Vou. VI. 
the Temple of the Sun both have roof structures, which may be described 
as resembling a lattice work of stone.” 
“The most interesting feature of Palenque architecture is the arch, of 
which there are two styles, if one of them may be classed as an arch at 
all; of this we have doubts. The style to which we allude is that which 
has been designated as the Yucatan arch. This so-called arch is nothing 
more than the approach of two walls towards each other in straight lines, 
nearly forming an acute angle at the top. These inclining walls 
are constructed of overlapping stones, with a small surface of exposed 
ceiling produced by a lintel like covering. The principal doorway, which 
is eighteen feet high, is constructed in the form of a trefoil arch, 
while niches or depressions of the same trefoil form are ranged along 
the inclined face of the gallery on each side of the entrance. This arch 
is suggestive of the Moorish pattern, though the latter, probably, is the 
more modern.” 
Lewis Morgan will not allow that the buildings of Palenque were 
palaces and temples. Referring to Palenque as a pueblo, he says: 
“ There are four or five pyramidal elevations at this pueblo quite similar 
in plan and general situation with those at Uxmal. One is much 
the largest, and the structures upon it are called ‘The Palace.’ It has 
generally been regarded as the paragon of American Indian architecture. 
As a palace implies a potentate for its occupation, a character who never 
existed and could not exist under their institutions, it has been a means 
of self-deception with respect to the condition of the aborigines which 
ought to be permanently discarded. Several distinct buildings are here 
grouped upon one elevated terrace, and are more or less connected. 
Altogether they are two hundred and twenty-eight feet long, front and 
rear, and one hundred and eighty feet deep, occupying not only the four 
sides of a quadrangle, but the greater part of what originally was, in all 
probability, an open court. The use of the interior court for additional 
structures shows a decadence of architecture and of ethnic life in the 
people, because it implies an unwillingness to raise a new pyramidal site to 
gain accommodations for an increased number of people. Thus, to appro- 
priate the original court, so essential for light and air, as well as room, 
and which is such a striking feature in the general plan of the archi- 
tecture of the Village Indians, was a departure from the principles of this 
architecture. Nearly all the edifices in Yucatan and Central America 
agree in one particular, namely, in being constructed with three parallel 
walls at intervals, giving two rows of apartments under one roof, 
usually, if not invariably, flat. Where several are grouped together in 
tne same platform, as at Palenque, they are severally under independent 
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