Palenque and its group of sister cities now claim our notice. Of the latter Men-ché particularly arrests our attention on account of its name, the second part of which means tree and by extension, tribe. The word _men_ is of particular interest, for it is not only the name of a dog in the Maya Calendar but signifies precisely the same as the Mexican word toltecatl, namely, master-builder, artificer or artisan, an adept in manufacture. The habitual form of employing the word would be ah-men, meaning he who is a master builder, etc.; while men-ah or men-yah signifies work or production of manual labor. The first part of the Nahuatl word aman-teca, signifying artisan, artificer, seems to be a corrupt rendering of the Maya ah-men. That Men-ché, which is also known as Lorillard City, was a centre of the highest development of native-sculpture and art seems proven by the truly admirable and exquisitely fine workmanship of the bas-reliefs obtained there by Mr. Maudslay, and now exhibited at the British Museum. In execution and finish they undoubtedly surpass any specimens of ancient American art I have ever seen. A search for the possible derivation of the word men leads to mehen, the name for “sons or nephews in the male line,” mehen-ob, the descendants, mehen-tzilaan=genealogy and parentage (a word which sheds some light on the meaning of the ancient capital Tzilan in Yucatan). Mehen is also employed as meaning something little, small or minute. From the above data it may be inferred that Men-ché may have originally signified “the tree or tribe of the sons or nephews in the male line,” and that these people may have so identified themselves with the arts of building and working in precious metals and stone, etc., that their title was used as a designation for these industries. It is certainly remarkable that, situated at an easy distance on the same river Usumacinto, there is the great ruined city of Palenque(66) (pronounced by the natives Pa-lem-ke) which seems also to have originally terminated in ché=tree or tribe and to be derived from palil, pal or palal=vassal, servant, subject, also small child. Let us see how far the monuments of Palenque justify and support this translation of its name. Referring the reader to Mr. Maudslay’s Biologia, and to Mr. Holmes’ Archæological Studies, Pt. II, and other well-known works on the ruins of Palenque, I shall confine myself to a cursory examination of the four principal isolated pyramid-temples, known, respectively, as the temples of the Inscriptions, of the Sun, of the Cross and of the Cross No. 2. Although the orientation of these edifices is not accurate they may be roughly said to face the cardinal points as follows:—