silver, or fashioned of beautiful shells. He is said to have possessed a complete service of solid gold, but as it was considered below a king's dignity to use anything at table twice, Montezuma with all his extravagance, was obliged to keep this costly dinner-set in the temple. The bill of fare comprised everything edible of fish, flesh, and fowl, that could be procured in the empire or imported from beyond it. Relays of couriers were employed in bringing delicacies from afar, and as the royal table was every day supplied with fresh fish brought, without the modern aids of ice and air-tight packing, from a sea-coast more than two hundred miles distant, by a road passing chiefly through a tropical climate, we can form some idea of the speed with which these couriers traveled. There were cunning cooks among the Aztecs, and at these extravagant meals there was almost as much variety in the cooking as in the matter cooked. Sahagun<a name="FNanchor_55" id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> gives a most formidable list of roast, stewed, and boiled dishes of meat, fish, and poultry, seasoned with many kinds of herbs, of which, however, the most frequently mentioned is chile.<a name="FNanchor_56" id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> He further describes many kinds of bread, all bearing a more or less close resemblance to the modern Mexican tortilla,<a name="FNanchor_57" id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> and all most tremendously named; imagine, for instance, when one wished for a piece of bread, having to ask one's neighbor to be good enough to pass the totanquitlaxcallitlaquelpacholli; then there were tamales of all kinds,<a name="FNanchor_58" id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a>
and many other curious messes, such as frog-spawn, and stewed ants cooked with chile, but more loathsome to us than even such as these, and strangest of all the strange compounds that went to make up the royal carte, was one highly seasoned, and probably savory-smelling dish, so exquisitely prepared that its principal ingredient was completely disguised, yet that ingredient was nothing else than human flesh.<a name="FNanchor_59" id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> Each dish was kept warm by a chafing-dish placed under it. Writers do not agree as to the exact quantity of food served up at each meal, but it must have been immense, since the lowest number of dishes given is three hundred,<a name="FNanchor_60" id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> and the highest three thousand.<a name="FNanchor_61" id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> They were brought into the hall by four hundred pages of noble birth, who placed their burdens upon the matted floor and retired noiselessly. The king then pointed out such viands as he wished to partake of, or left the selection to his steward, who doubtless took pains to study the likes and dislikes of the royal palate. This steward was a functionary of the highest rank and importance; he alone was privileged to place the designated delicacies before the king upon the
table; he appears to have done duty both as royal carver and cup-bearer, and, according to Torquemada, to have done it barefooted and on his knees.<a name="FNanchor_62" id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> Everything being in readiness, a number of the most beautiful of the king's women<a name="FNanchor_63" id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> entered, bearing water in round vessels called xicales, for the king to wash his hands in, and towels that he might dry them, other vessels being placed upon the ground to catch the drippings. Two other women at the same time brought him some small loaves of a very delicate kind of bread made of the finest maize-flour, beaten up with eggs. This done, a wooden screen, carved and gilt, was placed before him, that no one might see him while eating.<a name="FNanchor_64" id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> There were always present five or six aged lords, who stood near the royal chair barefooted, and with bowed heads. To these, as a special mark of favor, the king occasionally sent a choice morsel
