PREHISTORIC MAN IN THE NEW WORLD 
splendent trogon, also occur often. Sometimes there ap- 
pear monstrous half-human figures with exaggerated noses 
suggesting the long, flexible snout of the tapir. Priests, 
chieftains, and warriors are shown decked out in the most 
elaborate costumes and feathered decorations imaginable. 
Again we see wretched captives, bound and kneeling, or 
being sacrificed to some god. 
‘The Mayas developed architecture to a point no less 
advanced. The dwellings of the common people, probably 
quite similar to the palm-leaf huts used by their modern 
descendants, have long since disappeared. The great 
structures of dressed stone and concrete that stand, ruined 
and deserted, in the depths of the tropical forests, were 
mainly religious in character, as their nature clearly shows. 
Among them we find huge pyramids, formed of solid masses 
of rubble and earth faced with cut stone or a sort of 
cement. A kind of limestone which can be split rather 
easily into rectangular blocks occurs over much of the 
Maya area, so that the labor involved in quarrying and 
shaping these with nothing better than stone tools was 
not so enormous as it seems at first sight. As the pyra- 
mids were not tombs like those of Egypt, but foundations 
for sanctuaries, they rarely contain passages or rooms. 
Sometimes they are “stepped,” or built in successive ter- 
races, and on at least one side there always appears a 
great ceremonial staircase, often flanked by colossal stone 
serpents. 
On the flat summits of the pyramids stood temples, 
occasionally rising three stories in height, and topped 
sometimes with “‘roof-combs,” or lofty ridges, to make 
them seem more imposing still. There were, too, long 
galieries in which the officiating priests probably had their 
habitations. 
The builders knew the corbeled or “false” arch, but did 
not often use it, the vaults being more commonly of solid 
concrete. Owing to the limitations imposed by the method 
of construction, rooms rarely measured more than twelve 
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