114 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Vou.. VI. 
length, seven feet in depth,’ and represents the tablet as covering the ~ 
entire wall. Galindo states: ‘it was covered with a flat roof’ Charnay 
says that “the altar, which recalls by its form the ark of the Hebrews, 
is a sort of covered box, having for an ornament a small frieze or 
moulding. High above both extremities of this frieze are two wings, 
reminding one of the same kind of ornamentation often seen in 
connection with Egyptian monuments. It is a question whether 
Charnay did not confound the wing ornaments on the temple of the sun 
with what he saw on the temple of the cross, and attribute them to this 
frieze, as no one else has ascribed the wing ornament to the temple of 
the cross. He says in reference to the tablet: ‘In the background of 
the altar are seen three immense slabs, close by, joined, and covered by 
precious sculptures. According to all accounts, we judge that the 
tablet itself was six feet four inches high, and thirteen feet long, as it 
covers the entire wall of the adoratorio.”* 
The tablet was originally composed of three distinct slabs, as repre- 
sented in the illustration. Those on the right and left contained groups 
of hieroglyphics, of which 102 belonged to the right and ninety-nine to 
the left. There are also thirty-nine cartouches of hieroglyphics scattered 
over the central slab, which, so far has been the chief object of interest. 
Down to the time of Du Paix’s visit in 1808 the tablet was complete. 
When Waldeck visited Palenque in 1832, the middle slab was gone. 
The robber was William Brown, an American sea captain who had 
married a wealthy Spanish lady, the owner of a house near Palenque. 
The Indians, whom he employed to remove it and carry it to his house, 
had brought it some distance, when according to one account, the 
priests, according to Waldeck, the governor of Chiapas, compelled them 
to drop their burden. Torn from its original place by a fanatic, who 
saw in it a reproduction of the Christian emblem miraculously employed 
by the ancient inhabitants of these palaces, it was designed to ornament 
the house of a rich widow in the village of Palenque ; but the authorities 
were aroused by this devastation, and prohibited the removal of the 
stone. It was consequently left in the woods, where I unconsciously 
trod on it, until my guide directed my attention to this precious stone. 
It was covered with moss, and the sculptures had become totally 
invisible. When I afterwards concluded to reproduce it, it had to be 
rubbed with branches, and set against a tree. In 1842 the right slab 
was almost all gone, according to Stephens, but, in that same year, Mr. 
Charles Russell, United States consul at Laguna, shipped to Washing- 
ton a number of fragments, which, when pieced together, were found to 
constitute the missing right slab. There has been some controversy 
