318 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



having in the centre the elliptical tablet represented in 

 the engraving opposite. It is four feet long and three 

 wide, of hard stone set in the wall, and the sculpture is 

 in bas-relief. Around it are the remains of a rich stucco 

 border. The principal figure sits cross-legged on a 

 ^couch ornamented with two leopards' heads ; the atti- 

 tude is easy, the physiognomy the same as that of the 

 other personages, and the expression calm and benevo- 

 lent. The figure wears around its neck a necklace of 

 pearls, to which is suspended a small medallion con- 

 taining a face ; perhaps intended as an image of the 

 sun. Like every other subject of sculpture we had 

 seen in the country, the personage had earrings, brace- 

 lets on the wrists, and a girdle round the loins. The 

 headdress differs from most of the others at Palenque in 

 that it wants the plumes of feathers. Near the head 

 are three hieroglyphics. 



The other figure, which seems that of a woman, is 

 sitting cross-legged on the ground, richly dressed, and 

 apparently in the act of making an offering. In this 

 supposed offering is seen a plume of feathers, in which 

 the headdress of the principal person is deficient. Over 

 the head of the sitting personage are four hieroglyphics. 

 This is the only piece of sculptured stone about the pal- 

 ace except those in the courtyard. Under it formerly 

 stood a table, of which the impression against the wall 

 is still visible, and which is given in the engraving in 

 faint lines, after the model of other tables still existing 

 in other places. 



At the extremity of this corridor there is an aperture 

 in the pavement, leading by a flight of steps to a plat- 

 form ; from this a door, with an ornament in stucco 

 over it, opens by another flight of steps upon a narrow, 

 dark passage t terminating in other corridors, which run 



