503 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 



Form : (a) continuous with body or neck, (b) not continuous with body 

 or neck, (c) with constant direction, (d) with varying direction, (e) with 

 re-entry upon vessel. A' Round, B' Flat, C Coiled. 



This is not all of the classification, but probably sufficient- to give an idea 

 of its main principles. 



5. The Ancient Frescoes at Chicken Itza. By Miss A. C. Breton. 



The ruins of Chichen Itza in Yucatan are amongst the most important in 

 Central America, being especially remarkable for the number of coloured portrait 

 sculptures and frescoed walls. The frescoes have been sadly destroyed in the 

 course of centuries, but enough remain to provide striking pictures of the life 

 of the ancient folk. In two of the upper rooms of the building called the Nuns' 

 Palace, the walls and vaulted ceiling were entirely covered with scenes which 

 had backgrounds with thatched houses and trees, also temples with high-pitched 

 roofs enclosed within battlemented walls. There were groups of warriors armed 

 with spears, atlatls (throwing sticks), and round shields, and others seated on the 

 ground, with ornamental tails hanging from their girdles. The drawing was 

 firm and spirited, the colouring vivid and harmonious. 



Stephens observed a row of Maya glyphs painted just below the vaulting in 

 the interior of the small building known as the Iglesia, but they have disap- 

 peared, and there are no signs of any glyphs among the paintings at Chichen 

 Itza. The chambers of the Akaboib have been whitewashed in modern times, 

 and only a blue band along the edge of the vault is now visible. In the narrow 

 corridor of the Caracol, too, very little colour is left. 



The building at the south end of the eastern wall of the great Ball Court, 

 usually called Temple of the Tigers, contains in its upper part the best-preserved 

 paintings yet discovered. The outer chamber having been filled with debris 

 owing to the fall of the roof when the wooden lintels gave way, the inner 

 chamber also became partly blocked and difficult of access, until Dr. Le Plongeon 

 in 1884 cleared away most of the accumulated material, and partly copied the 

 paintings in it. Visitors wrote their names over the frescoes, bats lived at one 

 end, swallows at the other, and bees made tunnels in the plaster. Still it has 

 been possible to secure many of the details and to give some idea of the com- 

 position. The chamber is about 26 feet long, and not quite 8 feet wide, and 22 feet 

 high to the top of the vault, with the door in the middle of the long western 

 side. Each of the long sides is divided into three panels, of which the four 

 end ones represent landscapes full of armed warriors, as do those of the north 

 and south sides, with houses above, and tents and temporary buildings below, 

 where chiefs are consulting and priests perform rites of divination. These panels 

 are divided by a blue band from a dado wiih mythological figures and plants. 



The south-west end is the most complete, and has about 120 figures, almost 

 all of them placed at certain distances and angles from each other. These dis- 

 tances were measured from the point where the nose of each figure appears 

 above the shield, and form the basis of the composition. The position of the 

 shields fixed, the artist then drew the figures according to his fancy, and no 

 two are alike. In this scene the attacking party are distinguished from the de- 

 fenders of the village above by a difference in costume. The former have cotton 

 knee, and ankle bands, small green shields at their backs with hanging streamers, 

 and round green earrings and necklaces. Their headdresses, surmounted by long 

 feathers, are more elaborate than those of the villagers. The latter have a round, 

 stiff headpiece with two or three blue feathers standing up from it, oblong ear 

 ornaments which pass through the elongated lobes, white shirts and round shields, 

 usually with a crescent in the centre as device. All cast their spears from 

 atlatls. The chiefs, who sit in consultation below, have feather mantles like 

 those of the portrait statues which supported the sculptured table in the outer 

 chamber. 



The narrow south end panel also has a scene of attack, with high scaffold 

 towers and a ladder of a notched tree-trunk, on which some of the assailants are 

 perched. Here the men are taller and more athletic than in the previous scene. 

 In the following panel there are more important houses, forming a town, with 

 a forest on both sides, in which- are animals, snakes, and birds. Beyond come 



