360 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
column of glyphs and sometimes two on its narrow sides, unless of course the 
sides are left plain, as in the early stele of Classes 1 and 2. Instead, the 
sides are covered with the ramifications of the feather-work of the head-dress 
and clothing. 
The next stela, M (9.16.5.0.0), has this same peculiarity, although here 
the excuse of full-figure glyphs is lacking. It seems as though the fashion of 
extending the head-dress and clothing of the main figure around on the two 
adjacent sides in such a way as to completely cover them may have origin- 
ated with Stela D, because the full-figure glyphs of its inscription required 
more space than was available on the sides; and further, that once the 
fashion was introduced, it proved sufficiently popular to persist in the next 
monument (Stela M), even though the necessity for it (the use of full-figure 
glyphs) was wanting. 
In the decoration of Stela M there was also introduced another new 
feature, the feather tassels with rosette tops, which was destined to become 
the most popular decorative element (so far as stele are concerned) of the 
Great Period. ‘The glyph-panel on the back of this monument is bordered 
at the top and on the sides by a design of feather-work tassels of great beauty. 
Another factor, which doubtless contributed to crowding the inscrip- 
tion from the sides to the back, was the increasingly free treatment of the 
figure, which in Stela D for the first time stands out from, and free of, the 
plinth. This was not accomplished, however, without a corresponding loss 
of space on the sides, which eventually became too narrow for the necessary 
textual matter to be carved there. 
Stela N (9.16.10.0.0), the next stela in the chronologic and stylistic 
sequence, has two human figures, one on each of the broad faces; and since 
there was no other place to put the inscription except on the sides, it appears 
there. Even this is hardly an exception to the fashion introduced in Stela D 
and continued by Stela M, however, since the head-dress and clothing of the 
two figures of Stela N extend around on the narrow sides, leaving room for 
only a single column of glyph-blocks between them, and we may conclude 
that the presence of glyph-blocks on the sides of this stela was only due to 
the fact that there was no other place to put them, and indeed so great was 
the necessity for additional space for the inscription that a band of glyphs 
was carved in the stone paving around the bottom of the stela, the only case 
of its kind in the Corpus Inscriptionum Mayarum. Feather-work tassels 
and rosettes again appear on Stela N, though more sparingly than on Stela M. 
Stela N seems to have served as the model for Stela C (9.17.12.0.0), 
probably the next monument in the stylistic sequence. Again there are 
two main figures, one on each of the broad faces; and again the freeing of the 
figure from the plinth has crowded the inscription into a single column of 
glyphs on the sides, which is bordered by a rope design. Feather-work 
tassels and rosettes are used in the decoration of the figures on Stela C some- 
what more freely than on Stela N. 
