CHICHEN ITZA. 15 



seems to have been a common practice, but it has been a great mystery to native and 

 other visitors, who have frequently broken into the " casas cerradas," believing them to 

 contain treasure. 



The chambers were all paved with cement, which, in some parts, is still fairly 

 preserved. The walls and roofs have been coated with plaster and painted with battle- 

 scenes and other designs ; a very few small patches of these paintings still adhere to 

 the walls, and it is just possible to make out figures of warriors 10 to 12 inches high, 

 with shields and lances in their hands. Blue, red, orange, and green were the colours 

 used. 



In the back-wall of each room are a number of recesses nearly equal in height to the 

 doorways. 



The outside wall of this building is divided by the doorways into panels. The six 

 panels on the north and the six on the south side are of similar design, the end panels 

 on each side being somewhat longer than the others. Another design is employed in 

 the decoration of the two panels on the east and the two on the west end. 



The designs are remarkable in being free from the grotesque ornamentation which 

 is such a common feature in the decoration of the other buildings. 



Above this decorated wall-surface the superstructure slopes slightly inwards, and is 

 finished off by a notched cornice. 



The upper storey consists of a single chamber, with one door opening to the north, 

 and is in a very ruinous condition. It is approached by a stairway of eighteen steps 

 similar to the stairway already described, but slightly narrower, and with balustrades 

 decorated with stone trunks in the same manner. 



A projecting block of masonry, surmounted by a notched cornice, occupies the centre 

 of this stairway towards the top, in the face of which is a niche probably intended to 

 hold a sculptured figure. 



On the platform in front of this upper chamber is a stone about 1 foot 6 inches high, 

 with figures, now nearly obliterated, carved on its four sides. 



It seems clear that this upper chamber was added some time after the lower range 

 had been built, for not only was the chamber beneath it blocked up so as to afford it a 

 secure foundation, but the Ornamental panelling of the face of the lower building is to 

 a great extent hidden by the stairway, and now forms the side-wall of the passage which 

 passes under it. 



The cap-stones of the roof of the lower chamber must have been removed in order 

 to allow the builders to fill it up completely ; and when these stones were again fixed 

 in their position, the builders do not seem to have thought it necessary to replace the 

 whole of the masonry above them, and, as a consequence, the floor of the upper chamber 

 is at a somewhat lower level than the coping of the building below. This is well shown 

 in the section (Plate III.), and a dotted line marks what was probably the profile of the 

 lower building before the upper chamber was added. 



