and before which a priest is sometimes represented standing (Pl. XX; p. 224). It may be noted in passing that the board, or, more likely, cloth with the footsteps marked on it, laid upon the ladder, is paralleled in the Dresden MS. by the streamer with similar markings attached to the tree which represents the god (see Fig. 58; p. 264, lower register). The exact relations of Piedras Negras are difficult to determine. On the one hand certain points in connection with costume, notably the voluminous turban-like head-dresses seen on many of the figures, recall the art of Copan (e.g. Fig. 81); on the other hand many of the flatter reliefs bear a distinct resemblance to those of Naranjo, without attaining the perfection of those at Menché. An interesting fragment represents a figure seated in profile with a colossal jaguar towering behind him; unfortunately only the feet and legs of the latter remain, but sufficient to show that the whole scene must have been almost a replica of one of the wooden lintels of 'Tikal. Jaguar figures, or men with jaguar masks and claws, or claws alone, also occur on stelæ at Seibal and Quirigua.
Palenque stands alone. Architecturally it is by far the most advanced of the cities of the central area, while the artistic qualities of the stucco reliefs, and the low relief stone carvings (Figs. 49 and 52), the technique of which appears to be based on stucco-work, place them in a category by themselves. It was, in fact, only at Copan and Quirigua that the Maya showed anything like mastery over stone. The deficiency lay no doubt not so much in the artistic faculties of the mason, as in the lack of suitable tools, but it is a fact that only at the southern sites he displayed definite signs of modifying the technique borrowed from wood-carving to suit a less tractable material. Even the fine reliefs of Menché are wood-carvings translated into stone, and the same applies to the reliefs at other sites, except perhaps to the figures in niches at Piedras Negras, which in other re-
