rom another
within of equal width. The "Palace" has four interior courts, the
largest being 70 by 80 feet in extent. These are surrounded by
corridors, and the architectural work facing them is richly decorated.
Within the building were many rooms. From the north side of one of the
smaller courts rises a high tower, or pagoda-like structure, thirty feet
square at the base, which goes up far above the highest elevation of the
building, and seems to have been still higher when the whole structure
was in perfect condition. The great rectangular mound used for the
foundation was cased with hewn stone, the workmanship here, and every
where else throughout the structure, being very superior. The piers
around the courts are "covered with figures in stucco, or plaster,
which, where broken, reveals six or more coats or layers, each revealing
traces of painting." This indicates that the building had been used so
long before it was deserted that the plastering needed to be many times
renewed. There is some evidence that painting was used as a means of
decoration; but that which most engages attention is the artistic
management of the stone-work, and, above all, the beautifully executed
sculptures for ornamentation.

Two other buildings at Palenque, marked by Mr. Stephens, in his plan of
the ruins, as "Casa No. 1" and "Casa No. 2," views of which are shown in
Figures 27 and 28, are smaller, but in some respects still more
remarkable. The first of these, 75 feet long by 25 wide, stands on the
summit of a high truncated pyramid, and has solid walls on all sides
save the north, where there are five doorways. Within are a corridor and
three rooms. Between the doorways leading from the corridor to these
rooms are great tablets, each 13 feet long and 8 feet high, and all
covered with elegantly-carved inscriptions. A similar but smaller
tablet, covered with an inscription, appears on the wall of the central
room.

[Illustration: Fig. 27.--Casa No. 1, Palenque--Front View and Ground
Plan.]

"Casa No. 2" consists of a steep and lofty truncated pyramid, which
stands on a terraced foundation, and has its level summit crowned with a
building 50 feet long by 31 wide, which has three doorways at the south,
and within a corridor and three rooms. This edifice, sometimes called
"La Cruz," has, above the height required for the rooms, what is
described as "two stories of interlaced stucco-work, resembling a high,
fanciful lattice." Here, too, in