546 INDIAN SETTLEMENTS IN CENTRAL AMERICA. 



I have never been able to trace with any certainty; a careful inves- 

 tigation led me in almost every case, even in apparently round or 

 rounded-off structures, to trace the originally rectangular lines. The 

 steps in the Maya buildings seem always to have been produced by an 

 alteration of horizontal with perpendicular or nearly perpendicular 

 planes; they are at the same time usually of the same height and 

 depth. A very striking difference appears, however, in the structures 

 of the Chiapas and Motozintla tribes, as they ascend sideways and 

 leave only a small space horizontally open (fig. 11a). It is possible that 

 this peculiarity betrays a certain dependence on the building material, 

 as the rolling, rounded-off bowlders of granite which abound in that 

 region can not very easily be piled up perpendicularly, and hence the 

 building would acquire greater durability by steps ascending in a side 

 wise direction. However this may be, the fact is that the method of 

 building here differs essentially, and I feel justified in concluding from 

 it that the districts of Motozintla and Mazapa, where now Maya idioms 

 are in use, were formerly inhabited by a race of foreign origin. What 

 race of men this may have been I can not even guess ; I only believe 

 that they could not even have been Chiapas, partly because the build- 

 ings in the Motozintla district seem to be more carefully arranged than 

 among the Chiapas and partly because in front of several tumuli in 

 Masapa and Motozintla (fig. 2, A, B, and C) carefully wrought pave- 

 ments of flat granite tiles may be seen, such as I have until now never 

 met with in the Chiapas district. 



When we meet with perpendicular or nearly perpendicular walls of 

 cut stone we may assume that this indicates a higher style of architec- 

 ture, even though these walls may be erected without the aid of mor- 

 tar. Such buildings are met with here and there, as in S. Agustiu 

 Acasaguastlan, frequently also in towns, where already stone houses 

 are found standing, e. g., the stone tumuli 4 and 5 in the court C of the 

 ruins of S. Clemente (fig. 9). The most remarkable of such edifices 

 are those of Chacujal (Alta Verapaz), where primitive argillaceous 

 slate, carefully carved on the outside, has been employed without any 

 kind of cement for the purpose of raising perpendicular or very steep 

 walls, and which bear on the upper platform a kind of parapet. The 

 inner kernel of these walls consists of rounded-off river shingles. I 

 have never found this same method of building anywhere else. 



Still greater progress in architecture is seen in those structures on 

 the high table-land of Guatemala, in which the stones forming the walls 

 are held together by an abundant use of mortar. Mortar is, by the 

 way, also found elsewhere (e. g., in Alta Verapaz), but not to such an 

 extent that its use should have essentially influenced architecture. 

 Even in Iximche, mortar seems to have been but of secondary impor- 

 tance. In Kalamte and Comitancillo, in Utatlan and Saculeu, how- 

 ever, many edifices consist simply of walls, and in order to secure steps 

 these walls were erected perpendicularly; but where higher walls had 



