The ancient cities of the New World : being travels and explorations in Mexico and Central America from 1857-1882 . refused to part with them ; but after their death the Municipalitydeclared them public property, and had them put up in thechurch fa9ade, where they are now to be seen ; one of them,however, is broken into three pieces. Their dimensions are 6 feetby about 3 feet. The left slab represents a young man mag-nificently arrayed ; he wears a richly-embroidered cape, a collarand medallion round his neck, a beautiful girdle to his waist ; theends of the maxtli are hanging down front and b
The ancient cities of the New World : being travels and explorations in Mexico and Central America from 1857-1882 . refused to part with them ; but after their death the Municipalitydeclared them public property, and had them put up in thechurch fa9ade, where they are now to be seen ; one of them,however, is broken into three pieces. Their dimensions are 6 feetby about 3 feet. The left slab represents a young man mag-nificently arrayed ; he wears a richly-embroidered cape, a collarand medallion round his neck, a beautiful girdle to his waist ; theends of the maxtli are hanging down front and back, cothurnicover his feet and legs up to the knee. On the upper end ofhis head-dress is the head of a stork, having a fish in his bill,whilst others are ranged below it. The cross on the altar justifies our seeing in this gorgeously- Las Plavas and Palenque. 217 attired young man another personification of the god of rain, ofspring, of verdure and water, symbolised by the fishes and thestorks head, attributes which are found also on the basement ofthe Tlaloc of Tacubaya. The other slab represents an old man,. Left Pillar. Right Pillar. SCULPTURED STONES, TEMPLE OF THE CROSS NO. I. clothed in a tigers skin, blowing out air, with a serpent roundhis waist, whose tail curls up behind and coils in front, the well-ascertained attributes of Ouetzalcoatl, god of wisdom. Tlaloc andOuetzalcoatl are often seen side by side ; and we shall meet them 2i8 The Ancient Cities of the New World. in the Temple of the Cross, when we shall be in a position toadvance with some show of truth that the same was dedicatedto both deities.* After much disagreeable and unavoidable delay, we foundourselves at Palenque, some six and a half miles east of ; we start immediately for the ruins, which are madeaccessible by a path through the woods opened by DonRodriguez. El Rio Michol, to the north, seems the limit of theancient city on that side ; to the right and left, starting from theRio, mounds, h
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