BOURKE. ] TZOALLI. 523 
show that the bledos meant a definite kind of plant, although exactly 
what this plant was they fail to inform us. It can not be intended for 
the sunflower, which is mentioned distinctly by a number of writers as 
an article of diet among the Indians of the Southwest.! 
TZOALLI. 
An examination of the Spanish writers who most carefully transmit- 
ted their observations upon the religious ceremonies of the Aztecs and 
other nations in Mexico and South America brings out two most inter- 
esting features in this connection. The first is that there were 
commemorative feasts of prehistoric foods, and the second that one or 
more of these foods has played an important part in the religion of 
tribes farther north. The first of these foods is the “ tzoalli,” which was 
the same as “ bledos,” which latter would seem beyond question to have 
been hoddentin or yiauhtli. Brasseur de Bourbourg’s definition sim- 
ply states that the tzoalli was a compound of leguminous grains pecul- 
iar to Mexico and eaten in different ways: “Le Tzohualli était un 
composé de graines légumineuses particuliéres au Mexique, qu’on man- 
geait de diverses manieéres.” ? 
In the month called Tepeilhuit] the Aztecs made snakes of twigs and 
covered them with dough of bledos (a kind of grain or hay seed). 
Upon these they placed figures, representing mountains, but shaped 
like young children.’ This month was the thirteenth on the Mexican 
calendar, which began on our February 1. This would put it Octo- 
ber 1, or thereabout. 
Squier cites Torquemada’s description of the sacrifices called Eeato- 
tontin, offered to the mountains by the Mexicans. In these they made 
figures of serpents and children and covered them with “dough,” 
named by them tzoalli, composed of the seeds of bledos.‘ 
A dramatic representation strongly resembling those described in 
the two preceding paragraphs was noted among the Tusayan of Ari- 
zona by Mr. Taylor, a missionary, in 1881, and has been mentioned at 
length in The Snake Dance of the Moquis. Clavigero relates that 
the Mexican priests “all eat a certain kind of gruel which they call 
Btzalli.”* 
Torquemada relates that the Mexicans once each year made an idol 
or statue of Huitzlipotchli of many grains and the seeds of bledos and 
other vegetables which they kneaded with the blood of boys who were 
sacrified for the purpose. “Juntaban mnchos granos y semilla de 
d 
' Among others consult Cronica Serdfica y Apostolica of Espinosa, Mexico, 1746, p. 419, speaking 
of the Asinai of Texas in 1700: “Siembran tambien cantidad de Gyrasoles que se dan muy corpu- 
lentos y la flor muy grande que en el centro tienen la semilla como de pifiones y de ella mixturada con 
el maiz hacen un bollo que es de mucho sabor y sustancia.” 
? Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nations Civilisées, quoted by Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 3, p. 421. 
$Sahagun, in book 7, Kingsborough, p. 71. 
*Squier, Serpent Symbol, p. 193, quoting Torquemada, lib. 7, cap. 8. 
6 History of Mexico, Philadelphia, 1817, vol. 2, p. 79. See the additional note from Clavigero, which 
would seem to show that this etzalli was related to the espadaiia or rush. 
