SELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT VI 191 



pillars similarly iDaintecl, therefore probably of the same material, 

 traverse the room. This corresponds exactly to what Juan Bautista 

 (le Pomar tell us of Nezaliualcoyotrs palace at Tezcuco. He says 

 that the buildings stood on raised terraces. The principal room was 

 a hall over 20 ells in length and breadth. In the interior w^ere 

 many wooden pillars standing at intervals on stone bases, the pil- 

 lars in their turn supporting the beams and joists: Son sobre 

 terraplenos de un estado, lo C[ue menos de cinco, ii seis el que mas. 

 Los principales aposentos que tenian eran unas salas de veinte brazas 

 y mas de largo, y otras tantas en ancho, porque eran cuadrados, y 

 en medio dellos muchos pilares de madera de trecho a trecho, 

 sobre grandes brazas de piedra sobre las quales ponian las madres 

 en (jue cargaba la demas madera ("They stand on terraces of one 

 height, five or six. The principal apartments were halls more than 20 

 ells in length and of width as great, because they were square, and 

 in the middle were many wooden columns at intervals upon great 

 stones, upon which pillars rested the beams of the ceilings ") . Pomar's 

 other statements in i*egard to the palace seem also to correspond 

 with what we find draAvn on our fragment. He says the entrance to these 

 halls led from a courtyard, the ground of which was covered with 

 a smooth layer of cement, and which was reached by a flight of steps. 

 Besides these state apartments there were also a great number of 

 special buildings for distinguished guests, for the Avomen, and for the 

 other numerous and various attendants of the palace, kitchens, closed 

 courtyards, etc. Abia en estas casas aposentos dedicados para 

 los reyes de Tacuba donde eran aposentados, quando a esta ciudad 

 A'cnian. Tenian aposentos para los demas sehores inferiores del rey, 

 sin otras nnichas salas en que hacian sus audiencias y juzgados, y 

 otras de consejos de guerra, y otras de la nnisica y cantos ordinarios, 

 y otras en que vivian las mugeres, con otros muchos palacios y grandes 

 cocinas y corrales (''' There were in these houses apartments set 

 apart for the kings of Tacuba, where they w^ere lodged when they 

 came to this city. There Avere apartments for all the other lords, in- 

 ferior to the king, besides many other halls in which they gave audi- 

 ences and delivered judgment, and others for councils of war. and 

 others for music and ordinary singing, and others in which the AVomen 

 liA'ed, Avith many other palaces and great kitchens and courtyards"). 

 We see in fact on our fragment a staircase leading up to these edifices. 

 We see, besides the principal building, five'^maller, straw-thatched 

 houses, and also a small square room, in Avhich posts, but no doors, 

 are indicated, and it might therefore be a closed courtyard (corral). 

 A fcAv similar courtyards, adjacent to each other, ai'e indicated on our 

 fragment, in addition to the main congeries of buildings, the actual 

 palace, in the upper left-hand corner of the plan. 



Around the sides of the main body of the toAvn, as Avell as of the tAvo 



