Mexican Maize Fields 39 



not to relish, the peculiar cooking of the Aztecs/'* It is not 

 to be supposed that the emperor gave his guests fewer dishes 

 or less carefully prepared ones than graced his own banquet 

 floor. Bernal Diaz has given us a few items of the royal menu. 

 The first cover was a fricassee of infants. This was followed by 

 game from the royal preserves and fish, caught only the day 

 before in the Gulf of Mexico two hundred miles away and 

 carried by relays of swift runners to the emperor's kitchen. 

 After these solid courses came sweetmeats and pastry made of 

 maize flour, eggs and the rich sugar of the aloe. "Two girls 

 were occupied at the further end of the emperor's dining hall 

 in preparing fine rolls and wafers which were set before him 

 from time to time. He took no other beverage than chocolate, 

 flavored with vanilla and other spices, and so prepared as to be 

 reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which gradu- 

 ally dissolved in the mouth. This was served in golden goblets 

 with spoons of the same metal, or of tortoise shell finely 

 wrought." 



No less than fifty pitchers of this beverage were prepared 

 for the Montezuma's daily consumption! 



In the market place of the capital, the Spaniards stood 

 amazed at the varieties of wares offered, and the traders from 

 all parts of the empire: "the goldsmiths of Azcapozalco, the 

 potters and jewelers of Cholula, the painters of Tezcuco, the 

 hunters of Xilotepec, the fishermen of Cuitlahuac, the fruit- 

 erers of the warm countries and the florists of Xochimilco."* 

 And everywhere the "unfailing maize." Everywhere were 

 booths where tortillas were baked and sold, where tamales, 

 hot with pepper and sweet from the corn husks in which they 

 were wrapped, were offered. From all quarters of the city, over 

 the painted drawbridges, came peasants with baskets and 

 sacks of maize. 



And in and out of the temples dedicated to Coatlicue and 

 to Cinteotl, and to Chicomene Coatl, a harvest divinity called 



* See The Conquest of Mexico, William H. Prescott. 



