542 INDIAN SETTLEMENTS IN CENTRAL AMERICA. 



almost everyone of which might have been most easily defended by 

 itself. The courts B and O are on the same level, while the square 

 marked A is one story higher, and the square D, separated from A by 

 a narrow ravine, lies perhaps 4 meters higher. The stone houses I and 

 II show on the outside only a smooth wall, at the foot of which begins 

 a sheer precipice. The rooms in I and II are accessible from it, but 

 the stone house III has its doors of entrance on the south side, now 

 sadly in ruins, from whence they can easily be reached across a steep 

 parapet. The upper plateau of III continues eastward at the same 

 height, so that the continuation (Ilia) viewed from B looks two-storied, 

 until, at the end of the edifice, it becomes once more one- storied. A 

 narrow passage leads from the southwestern corner of B through Ilia 

 to C. The western termination of B is formed by a wall, which rises 

 as high as the square A; the eastern and northern ends consist simply 

 of stone walls, and in the same way the eastern and western termina- 

 tions of C and E. The walls 4 and 5 are built of cut stone and 3 to 4 

 meters high. On top of the rampart 9 a small much-decayed stone 

 house is standing. Between C and D two tall, strongly-built stone 

 houses are seen, each of which contains but a single room, open to the 

 north, upon high artificially modified eminences. What is very remark- 

 able is that at the foot of the hill, looking toward the northwest, a 

 round hole has been found, barely large enough to let a man pass 

 through. This leads to a subterranean story below, which 1, however, 

 did not dare to examine, as I had neither a rope nor sufficient light. 



In the former Choi territory also similar connections of houses seem 

 to exist, built in the shape of terraces side by side (e. g., Las Quebra- 

 das). Copan, also, otherwise in its disposition perhaps the most 

 remarkable creation of Indian architecture, shows certain features of 

 the same system. 



The ruins in southern Yucatan are inferior in extent to those of the 

 Maya territory. They often display the clearly pronounced character 

 of fortifications, walled-in courtyards on high hills (as in Ixtinta, fig. 2) 

 or extensive stone walls, or buildings on high passes, as upon the 

 height of Oaca de Xkauja, which may have served for the defenses, but 

 may also have been used by travelers for the offering of prayers and of 

 sacrifices (fig. 3). At all events, the type of fortified places is less pro- 

 nounced here than in Peten. The buildings are less crowded, and the 

 houses, built of stone, show much more careful, almost artistic, treat- 

 ment of the outer walls. On the other hand, the structures are still 

 not quite as much scattered as in the towns of northern Yucatan, and 

 they lack the ornamental sculptures of the latter, so that the ruins of 

 southern Yucatan occupy an intermediate position between the edifices 

 of northern Yucatan and those of Peten. 



In like manner we find in Menche Tenamit certain features which 

 connect Tical with Palenque, and Tonina recalls in its buildings the 

 towns of the lowlands, but follows in the arrangement entirely the habits 



