UTATLAN AND IXIMCHfi. 37 



apparently intended to support the structure. On the side facing the west there are 

 no steps, but the surface is smooth and covered with stucco, grey from long exposure. 

 By breaking a little at the corners, we saw that there were different layers of stucco, 

 doubtless put on at different times, and all had been ornamented with painted figures. 

 In one place we made out the body of a leopard, well drawn and coloured. 



" The top of the Sacrificatorio is broken and ruined, but there is no doubt that it 

 once supported an altar. ... It was barely large enough for the altar and officiating 

 priests and the Idol to whom the sacrifice was offered." 



I have reproduced Catherwood's sketch and plan which accompanies this description ; 

 the scale given on the plan does not agree with the description, and unfortunately I 

 did not take any detailed measurements of the mound in its present ruined condition ; 

 but in any case it is clear that the building was a small one. The sides of the long 

 mounds, which are just indicated in my plan, are perpendicular, and these foundations 

 may have supported stone-roofed buildings, in which case we know that the chambers 

 could not have been more than nine feet wide, and even on the larger mounds there 

 would not have been room for more than two of such chambers side by side. The 

 small fragment of a stone-vaulted roof in the remains of a half-buried chamber shows 

 that the Quiches understood the art of building stone roofs. But, to judge from 

 Alvarado's statement that it was the intention of the Indians to set fire to the town 

 and burn or smother him and his followers, there can be little doubt that some of the 

 houses must have been built of inflammable material, probably of wood and thatch. 

 But amongst these small and distinct foundation-mounds where is the Palace to be 

 found ? 



The absurdity of Fuentes's oft-copied description at once becomes evident. 

 According to the measurements he gives, the Palace alone would occupy nearly 

 three times the whole space available for building, and with the seminary, the 

 gardens, and the aquatic fowl must be relegated to a dreamland suffused with the 

 afterglow of Oriental splendour from which the Spanish chronicler was so ready to 

 seek inspiration. 



It is hardly worth while to compare the account of Iximche given by Fuentes and 

 Juarros with the facts revealed by an examination of the ruins (Plate LXXIII.) ; it 

 would be to a great extent a repetition of what has already been said with regard to 

 TJtatlan. The sites were similar ; both were peninsulas almost surrounded by deep 

 barrancas, and approachable only by a single neck of land, and each was guarded on 

 -the outer edge of the barranca by a girdle of "atalayas" or watch-towers, which were 

 most probably small truncated pyramids supporting a cue or shrine which served for 

 the religious use of the outlying population. The bird's-eye view given on Plate LXXIII. 

 is taken from Fuentes's MSS. 



All the tribes or nations whom the Spaniards encountered in the subjugation of 

 Guatemala and its neighbourhood appear to have had as their headquarters such 



