THE PALACE AT PALENQUE. 311 



in the engraving opposite. On the top are three hiero- 

 glyphics sunk in the stucco. It is enclosed by a richly- 

 ornamented border, about ten feet high and six wide, of 

 which only a part now remains. The principal person- 

 age stands in an upright position and in profile, exhibit- 

 ing an extraordinary facial angle of about forty-five de- 

 grees. The upper part of the head seems to have been 

 compressed and lengthened, perhaps by the same pro- 

 cess employed upon the heads of the Choctaw and Flat- 

 head Indians of our own country. The head represents 

 a different species from any now existing in that region 

 of country ; and supposing the statues to be images of 

 living personages, or the creations of artists according 

 to their ideas of perfect figures, they indicate a race of 

 people now lost and unknown. The headdress is ev- 

 idently a plume of feathers. Over the shoulders is a 

 short covering decorated with studs, and a breastplate; 

 part of the ornament of the girdle is broken ; the tunie 

 is probably a leopard's skin ; and the whole dress no 

 doubt exhibits the costume of this unknown people. 

 He holds in his hand a staff or sceptre, and opposite his 

 hands are the marks of three hieroglyphics, which have 

 decayed or been broken off. At his feet are two naked 

 figures seated cross-legged, and apparently suppliants. 

 A fertile imagination might find many explanations for 

 these strange figures, but no satisfactory interpretation 

 presents itself to my mind. The hieroglyphics doubt- 

 less tell its history. The stucco is of admirable consist- 

 ency, and hard as stone. It was painted, and in differ- 

 ent places about it we discovered the remains of red, 

 blue, yellow, black, and white. 



The piers which are still standing contained other fig- 

 ures of the same general character, but which, unfortu- 

 nately, are more mutilated, and from the declivity of 



