14 PALENQTJE. 



The outer face of each of the piers of the eastern corridor of House A (Plates VII. 

 to XI.) is decorated in raised stucco work, which was afterwards covered with a thin 

 coat of plaster and then coloured. This coloured plaster has been renewed from time 

 to time so that the original stucco is in some places covered with many layers of it. 

 On the southern and probably also on the northern pier the design is an arrangement 

 of glyphs, and on the four other piers are groups of human figures ; in each case the 

 design is enclosed in a border of symbols, and is surmounted by three glyphs. The 

 northern pier has been overturned and is lying face downwards on the slope of debris 

 below. 



Above the lintels and piers there must originally have been laid a wall-plate of large 

 well-wrought slabs of stone about eight inches in thickness, the outer edge of which 

 formed a projecting cornice. As, however, the joints of this wall-plate were usually 

 laid over the wooden lintels, the slabs have almost invariably broken and fallen away 

 as soon as the beams beneath them decayed. Where portions of the wall-plate resting 

 on the piers still remain in position, the projecting part has afforded protection to the 

 face of the pier beneath it, and the plaster work has escaped serious damage. As has 

 been already related, almost the whole surface of each pier was covered with layers of 

 carbonate of lime varying from a thin hard skin to an incrustation some six inches in 

 thickness, and where the crust was thick and could be removed without much difficulty, 

 the colours beneath it retained some of their original brilliancy. The piers of the 

 western gallery facing the court are without ornament. On both sides of the building 

 above the cornice formed by the projecting wall-plate is a receding frieze which has 

 been highly ornamented in stucco. Very few traces of the ornament are now left, but 

 the stone supports on which it was moulded can be seen projecting from the surface 

 of the masonry. Each doorway seems to have been surmounted by a different design, 

 probably a large grotesque mask or face, such as can still be seen on some of the other 

 buildings. Over each device traces of a row of glyphs are still visible. The foiir 

 glyphs over the middle doorway of the western corridor are figured on Plate XII., b, b. 



From the appearance of the debris it seems probable that some ornamental super- 

 structure stood on the top of the roof over the main wall of the building, but no trace 

 of it is now visible, and it was not considered advisable to dig in search of its founda- 

 tions amongst the mass of root-bound stones which now form a compact covering to 

 the roof. 



In the eastern corridor, on the eastern face of the main wall, just below the spring 

 of the roof, are thirteen stucco medallions, seven on the south and six on the north of 

 the doorway. Each medallion is surrounded by a decorative border of snakes' heads 

 and glyphs, and probably in the centre there was a human head. Unfortunately they 

 are all very much dnmaged. (See photographs and drawing on Plate VI.) 



The thickness of the roof above the main wall is perforated by six passages, in shape 

 something like the upper part of the middle doorway. These passages have been 



