256 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



tion in raised geometric designs have been frequently depicted and 

 described in former times, few of the authors who have hitherto 

 written about Mitla have paid special attention to the frescoes 

 which were over the middle door of each side of the adjacent courts, 

 and portions of which are still to be seen. A manuscript atlas by 

 the German architect E. Mlihlenpfordt, which is preserved in the 

 Instituto Publico at Oaxaca and has been reproduced in Penafiel's « 

 great illustrated publication, is the only work in which, together 

 with exact ground plans and elevations of the palaces, specimens are 

 to be found of the mural paintings from each of the two courts 

 where these paintings exist. It was Mr Penafiel who called my 

 attention to these paintings, and T devoted eleven days during my 

 stay in Mitla with my wife, in June, 1888, to copying them, as far 

 as they were still visible, so as to rescue, in sketches at least, what 

 was still to be saved. The originals themseh^es will scarcely with- 

 stand much longer the effects of the weather and the consequences of 

 neglect. Just a few montlis before my arrival in Mitla a large and 

 essential part of the paintings was knocked down incident to the 

 important building of a pigsty in the court of the first palace, which 

 has served for a long time and still serves as the stable of the priest's 

 dwelling. The rest of the paintings are everywhere crumbling. 



The paintings are found, as has been mentioned, in the closed 

 courtyards adjoining the palaces, which are accessible only by means 

 of a narrow, angular passageway leading from the main building. 

 Each side of these courts (compare the elevation on plate xxiv) has 

 a doorway in the center and, over it, a narrow, rectangular, recessed 

 panel. Then follow^s a narrow, sunken band which extends the 

 whole length of the wall. Over tliis again there are three broader 

 and shorter recesses cut into the wall, the middle one of which 

 projects beyond the two on the sides. The doors in the center lead 

 to narrow gallaries which surround the court on the four sides. On 

 the south wall of the court, at one side of the principal doorway, is 

 the opening of the angular passageway which joins the principal 

 chamber of the corresponding palace with this closed adjoining 

 court. The north wall of the adjacent court of palace I has three 

 main entrances instead of one, and above these stretches evenly the 

 narrow recessed panel considerably lengthened. The three upper 

 shorter and broader recesses on all four sides of the court are filled 

 with the characteristic geometric designs executed in raised stone- 

 work. The lower narroAv, recessed panels directly over the doorway 

 have a coating of fine stucco, and it is this which is covered with 

 paintings, in which the white figures contrast with the painted red 

 background. 



« Penafiel, Monumentos del Arte Mexicano Antiguo, Berlin, 1890, atlas II, lamina 

 212-227. 



