As regards habitations, no doubt the early inhabitants of the Maya country lived, for the most part, in huts constructed of perishable materials, and reserved the more permanent buildings for the service of the gods and the use of the tribal chiefs. So close a similarity does the present-day native house of Yucatan bear to the typical form of Maya room as exemplified in the ruins, that it seems probable that the early habitations did not differ essentially from those of later times. The Yucatec house is a rectangular structure of wood and leaves, with a gabled roof supported by a ridge-pole; it is usually constructed on a raised foundation, which renders it considerably cooler than if built upon the ground level, and the floor is mortared. Like the early structures, it contains no windows. Landa describes the houses of Yucatan in much the same terms, stating that the building was divided by a longitudinal wall, pierced with doorways giving access to small rooms used as sleeping apartments. The front was open, and constituted the living and reception room, and in the houses of chiefs, the walls, which were plastered, were ornamented with frescoes. A certain amount of building in stone was carried on right up to the conquest, though the buildings erected do not seem to have been either as important or as ornamental as those of earlier date. Diaz mentions stone-built habitations in Yucatan, and waxes enthusiastic over the towns of Chiapas, which were of no great importance, a fact which goes far to prove that the great sites such as Palenque were never visited by the conquerors, and must have been even then deserted. The Quiché and Kakchiquel were good builders in stone and lime, and an early and somewhat high-flown description exists of their chief towns, Utatlan and Iximché, though the ruins in that locality show clearly that the chronicler’s imagination has completely run away with him. But on the whole it may be concluded that the Maya, like the Mexicans, dedicated their architectural masterpieces to the purposes of religion, and lived for the most part in dwellings of a more temporary nature. The population seems to have moved about a great deal, probably around the religious centres distinguished by the more extensive ruins, and the construction of elaborate dwellings would have been rather a waste of time. [Illustration: FIG. 64.--Objects of flaked stone; British Honduras. (_British Museum_)] [Illustration: FIG. 65.--Stone mask from Benque Viejo, British Honduras.]