240 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
gilt was placed before him, so that people should not during that time see 
him. The women having retired to a little distance, four ancient lords 
stood by the throne, to whom Montezuma from time to time spoke or 
addressed questions, and as a matter of particular favor gave to each of 
them a plate of that which he was eating. * * * This was served 
on earthenware of Cholula, red and black. * * * I observed a num- 
ber of jars, about fifty, brought in filled with foaming chocolate, of which 
he took some which the women presented to him. During the time Monte- 
zuma was at dinner, two very beautiful women were busily employed 
making small cakes, with eggs and other things mixed therein. These were 
delicately white, and when made they presented them to him on plates 
covered with napkins. Also another kind of bread was brought to him in 
long loaves, and plates of cakes resembling wafers. After he had dined 
they presented to him three little canes, highly ornamented, containing 
liquid amber mixed with an herb they call tobacco; and when he had suf- 
ficiently viewed the singers, dancers, and buffoons, he took a little of the 
smoke of one of these canes and then laid himself down to sleep; and thus 
his principal meal concluded. After this was over, all his guards and 
domestics sat down to dinner, and as near as I can judge, above a thousand 
plates of these eatables that I have mentioned were laid before them, with 
vessels of foaming chocolate, and fruit in immense quantity. For his 
women and various inferior servants, his establishment was a prodigious 
expense, and we were astonished, amid such a profusion, at the vast regu- 
larity that prevailed.” Diaz wrote his history more than thirty years after 
the conquest (he says he was writing it in 1568), which may serve to 
excuse him for implying the use of veritable chairs and a table where 
neither existed, and for describing the remainder as sitting down to dinner. 
Tezozomoc, who is followed by Herrera, says the table of Montezuma con- 
sisted of two skins. How they were fastened together and supported does 
not appear. 
The statements in the Despatches of Cortes, as they now appear, are 
an improvement upon Diaz, the pitch being on a higher key. He remarks 
that Montezuma “was served in the following manner: Every day, as soon 
‘ History of the Conquest of Mexico, i, 198-202. 2Tb., li, 423. 
