4 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE PALACE. 313 



ther by Del Rio or Captain Dupaix, and perhaps we 

 should not have ventured the conclusion but for the 

 wooden lintel which we had seen over the doorway at 

 Ocosingo ; and by what we saw afterward in Yucatan, 

 we were confirmed, beyond all doubt, in our opinion. 

 I do not conceive, however, that this gives any conclu- 

 sive data in regard to the age of the buildings. The 

 wood, if such as we saw in the other places, would be 

 very lasting ; its decay must have been extremely slow, 

 and centuries may have elapsed since it perished alto- 

 gether. 



The building has two parallel corridors running 

 lengthwise on all four of its sides. In front these 

 corridors are about nine feet wide, and extend the 

 whole length of the building upward of two hundred 

 feet. In the long wall that divides them there is but 

 one door, which is opposite the principal door of en- 

 trance, and has a corresponding one on the other side, 

 leading to a courtyard in the rear. The floors are 

 of cement, as hard as the best seen in the remains of 

 Roman baths and cisterns. The walls are about ten 

 tfeet high, plastered, and on each side of the principal 

 entrance ornamented with medallions, of which the 

 borders only remain ; these perhaps contained the 

 busts of the royal family. The separating-wall had 

 apertures of about a foot, probably intended for pur- 

 poses of ventilation. Some were of this form and 

 some of this l ~\f J , which have been called the Greek 

 Cross and the Egyptian Tau, and made the subject of 

 much learned speculation. 



The ceiling of each corridor was in this form jT] , 

 The builders were evidently ignorant of the principles 

 of the arch, and the support was made by stones lap- 

 ping over as they rose, as at Ocosingo, and among the 



Vol. II.— R r 27 



