PALENQUE. 15 



blocked up on the east side by a partition about three inches thick. On the opposite 

 slope of the roof in each corridor are similar shaped recesses about three inches deep, 

 each facing a recess on the main wall. There are some T-shaped and oblong holes 

 pierced through the main wall, and these too have been subsequently blocked up on 

 the eastern side. 



On the west face of the main wall, on either side of the doorway, are three rect- 

 angular niches, each containing a vertical stone staple ; these may have been used for 

 fastening a door or curtain. Two horizontal rows of wooden roof-struts had formerly 

 spanned the roof of each corridor. 



A flight of steps made of large well-worked blocks of stone leads from the western 

 corridor to the level of the eastern court. (See Plate XII.) This stairway is not, 

 however, placed symmetrically opposite the central doorway. On either side of the 

 steps, placed almost at the same angle as the steps themselves, are some large slabs of 

 stone, on which are carved huge human figures and a few glyphs. (See Plates XII. 

 and XIII.) 



House B. (Plates XIV. to XIX.) 



This house stands on the south side of the eastern court, on a platform of roughly 

 squared stones, which has lost its facing of plaster, and is approached from the court 

 by a range of steps of similar stones to which the plaster covering still adheres. There 

 are three doorways on the north side, and the masonry piers bear traces of having been 

 ornamented with human figures and glyphs moulded in stucco. 



The south wall has two doorways. 



The house is constructed as usual with two parallel corridors divided by a main wall 

 which is pierced in the middle by a large gable-headed doorway. On either side of 

 this doorway transverse walls have been subsequently built across the corridors dividing 

 the house into five separate chambers, the middle chamber extending through the 

 doorway to the south wall. 



It will be noticed that the east wall is not square with the others. The north-west 

 room had a doorway in its west wall which has subsequently been blocked up. 



The two most interesting rooms are those facing the south. There are the remains 

 of human figures moulded in plaster on the jambs of the doorway of the south-west 

 room, and fragments of two large figures can still be traced amongst the broken plaster 

 ornament on the back wall. From the doorway of this room a short flight of steps 

 leads down to the floor of the ' Middle ' court. 



