KUINS NEAR RABINAL. 



27 



The altars were apparently miniature copies of the foundations of the temples, with 

 steps only 3 or 4 inches in height and width ; but no trace of a miniature house could 

 be seen on the top of them. The masonry is all of the same description: irregular 

 flat stones 2 to 5 inches thick and straight at one edge, placed one over another and 

 faced with plaster. The stones may have been found already apart from each other, 

 or may have been flaked off from the rock with little trouble, and have needed little 

 dressing. The thick plaster coating is in some places still perfectly preserved. 



From the position chosen, and from the fact that the buildings face inwards, it seems 

 probable that each group may have formed a sort of fortress. 



In one of the Plazas I found the remains of a building, of which a rough ground- 

 plan is here given : — 



It is an oblong enclosure with walls 10 feet thick, with recesses at the four 

 corners. The walls are in some parts perfect to the height of 7 feet. I could not 

 find that there had been originally any doorway to this enclosure, but two entrances 

 have been forced in where the walls are narrowest. It agrees in plan and dimensions 

 with the building figured in Bancroft's ' Native Races of the Pacific States,' as a type 

 of Tlachtli courts of Mexico, where a game (which is described by Herrera and others) 

 was played with an indiarubber ball. 



There were numbers of Chaya (obsidian) flakes lying about on the surface of the 

 ground, and I found one chipped arrow-head, one stone axe, and several pieces of stone 

 axes and of mealing-stones. 



An examination of the ruins of the neighbouring hill-tops would doubtless add 

 much to our knowledge, and there still remains as a field for enquiry the whole of the 

 forest-covered range of the Sierra de las Minas, which has not as yet been touched by 

 the archaeologist, and must almost certainly contain interesting ruins. The assertion 

 is not mere guess-work, but is based on the fact that similar ruins are known to exist 

 on the hills above San Geronimo, and that I believe I gained touch of the same style 

 of building at the ruins of Chacujal on the south side of the valley of the Polochic, 

 which was a flourishing town when Cortes visited it in the year 1525 ; it is not 

 probable that the country between these sites was left uninhabited. 



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