BOI-BKE.] DOUGH IDOLS. 525 



&quot;bledos and_ Jjnaiz &quot; were different things. 1 A few lines farther on 

 Dtirau tells us that this cake, or bread, was made by the nuns of the 

 temple, &quot;las mozas del recogimiento de este templo,&quot; and that they 

 ground up a great quantity of the seed of bledos, which they call 

 huauhtly, together with toasted maize. &quot;Molian mucha cantidad de 

 semilla de bledos quo ellos llamau huauhtly juntamente con maiz 

 tostado.&quot; 2 He then shows that the honey&quot; (iniol) spoken of by the 

 other writers was the thick juice of the maguey. &quot; Despues de molido. 

 amasabanlo con miel negra de los magueis.&quot; 



Acosta describes a Mexican feast, held in our mouth of May, in which 

 appeared an idol called Huitzlipotchli, made of &quot;mays rosty,&quot; &quot;se- 

 meiice de blettes,&quot; and &quot;amassoient avec du miel. 1;l 



In the above citations it will be seen that huauhtly or yuuuhtli and 

 tzoally were one and the same. We also find some of the earliest if not 

 the very earliest references to the American popped corn. 



That the Mexicans should have had such festivals or feasts in honor 

 of their god of battles is no more extraordinary than that in our own 

 country all military reunions make it a point to revert to the &quot; hard 

 tack issued during the campaigns in Virginia and Tennessee. Many 

 other references to the constant use as a food, or at least as a sacrificial 

 food, of the bledos might be supplied if needed. Thus Diego Dtirau 

 devotes the twelfth chapter of his third book to an obscure account of 

 a festival among the Tepanecs, in which appeared animal gods made 

 of &quot; masa de semilla de bledos,&quot; which were afterwards broken and 

 eaten. 



Torquemada speaks of such idols employed in the worship of snakes 

 and mountains. 4 In still another place this authority tells us that sim 

 ilar figures were made aud eaten by bride and groom at the Aztec 

 marriage ceremony. 5 



The ceremonial manner in which these seeds were ground recalls the 

 fact that the Zufii regard the stones used for grinding kunque as sacred 

 and will not employ them for any other purpose. 



Idols made of dough much after the fashion of the Aztecs are to be 

 found among the Mongols. Meignan speaks of seeing &quot; an idol, quite 

 open to the sky and to the desert, representing the deity of travelers. 

 It was made of compressed bread, covered over with some bituminous 

 substance, and perched on a horse of the same material, and held in its 

 hand a lance in Don Quixot-e attitude. Its horrible features were sur 

 mounted with a shaggy tuft of natural hair. A great number of offer 

 ings of all kinds were scattered on the ground all around. Five or six 

 images, formed also of bread, were bending in an attitude of prayer 

 before the deitv.&quot; 6 



See notes already given from Buckingham Smith s translation of Vaca. 



Dii-go Uuran. vol.3, p. 195. 



Jo8- Acosta, Hist, dos Indes, ed. of Paris, 1600, liv. 5, cap. 24, p. 250. 



Mouarchia Indiana, lib. 10, cap. 33. 



Ibid., lib. 6. cap. 48. 



From Paris to Pekin. London, 188i. pp.312. 313. 



