SEED-FOOD. 31 



tensive cultivation by Columbus and his followers. 

 Cacao l was largely used, and so highly prized that 

 the seeds served as money. The peanut, now 

 widely cultivated in many parts of the world, is 

 in all probability a native of tropical America, and 

 the fact that seeds of the plant have been found in 

 ancient Peruvian tombs at Ancon, gives evidence 

 of use in quite early times. In these same tombs 

 have been found seeds of the Lima-bean and our 

 common pole-bean. By far the most important of 

 American vegetable products is the maize or Indian 

 corn, and we have abundant proof of its very 

 ancient and widespread cultivation. Aboriginal 

 burial mounds, the tombs of the Incas, and the 

 catacombs of Peru have been found to contain 

 ears or grains of maize. Just as the ancient Greeks 

 offered the first fruits of their grain harvest to the 

 goddess Ceres, so the Aztecs brought to their 

 goddess Cinteuil the first ears from their maize 

 fields. Although this old Mexican custom may 

 not antedate the Christian era, still the develop- 

 ment of such a ceremony must have been preceded 

 by a long period of widespread use. 



With many plants provision is made for defend- 



1 More commonly but less correctly written "cocoa." See Im- 

 perial Dictionary. 



