PALENQUE. 23 



The mouth of the stairway appears to have been at one time partly or entirely 

 covered up by a layer of stone slabs. 



The oval sculptured slab, figured on Plate XLIV., is let into the west face of the 

 main wall facing the middle doorway in the west wall. 



The stone table or altar which stood beneath it was removed by del Rio in 1786. 

 The ornamental border of stucco which surrounds the oval slab has been almost 

 entirely destroyed. 



Above the slab, and extending along the wall just beneath the spring of the roof, a 

 long double line of glyphs had been painted in black on the plaster. This inscription 

 had subsequently been covered over by another layer of plaster which had fallen away 

 in small patches. By carefully chipping away this top layer more of the glyphs were 

 brought to light, and a photograph of a part of the inscription is given on Plate XLIL, b. 



The walls of this house appear to have been ornamented both inside and out with 

 painted signs and inscriptions, and some of this decoration can still be traced on the 

 outside of the western wall. 



All the wall-holes are T-shaped, and some of them had decorated borders moulded 

 in stucco. There are holes showing where the wooden struts have spanned the vault. 



On the west side of the house a few steps descend to the level of the Tower Court ; 

 perhaps similar steps on the east side led down to the level of the narrow Middle 

 Court. 



This building was probably one of the earliest erected on the Palace Mound, as the 

 foundations of Houses B and D have been built up against its walls.. 



Housk P. (Plate XLI.) 



This house differs from the usual plan only in having large gable-headed doorways 

 through each end of the main wall. Nearly all the outer slope of the roof has fallen 

 in. Above the main wall the roof is pierced by large transverse passages differing 

 slightly in shape from those in Houses A and D ; each of these passages is blocked up 

 at one end. 



There are several secondary transverse walls across the two corridors. 



In the western corridor a covered niche or adoritorio has been built against the main 

 wall : it contains nothing now, but may formerly have sheltered some movable figure. 

 From the passage in the roof above this niche there is a vertical shaft which runs up 

 through the roof of the house. 



All the lintels were of wood, and the wall-holes with one exception are ^ -shaped. 



The position of the wooden roof-struts is not given in the plan. 



