A CURIOUS BAS-RELIEF. 



351 



The interior, again, is divided into two corridors, 

 about nine feet wide each, and paved with stone. The 

 engraving opposite represents the front corridor, with 

 the ceiling rising nearly to a point, and covered at the 

 top with a layer of flat stones. In several places on 

 each side are holes, which are found also in all the 

 other corridors ; they were probably used to support 

 poles for scaffolding while the building was in process 

 of erection, and had never been filled up. At the ex- 

 treme end, cut through the wall, is one of the windows 

 before referred to, which have been the subject of spec- 

 ulation from analogy to the letter Tau. 



The back corridor is divided into three apartments. 

 In the centre, facing the principal door of entrance, is 

 an enclosed chamber similar to that which in the last 

 building we have called an oratory or altar. Its- 

 shadow is seen in the engraving. The top of the 

 doorway was gorgeous with stuccoed ornaments, and 

 on the piers at each side were stone tablets in bas-re- 

 lief. Within, the chamber was four feet seven inches 

 deep and nine feet wide. There were no stuccoed 

 ornaments or paintings, but set in the back wall was a 

 stone tablet covering the whole width of the chamber, 

 nine feet wide and eight feet high. 



The tablet is given in the frontispiece of this volume, 

 and I beg to call to it the particular attention of the 

 reader, as the most perfect and most interesting monu- 

 ment in Palenque. Neither Del Rio nor Dupaix has 

 given any drawing of it, and it is now for the first time 

 presented to the public. It is composed of three separ- 

 ate stones, the joints in which are shown by the blurred 

 lines in the engraving. The sculpture is perfect, and 

 the characters and figures stand clear and distinct on 

 1 the stone. On each side are rows of hieroglyphics. 



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