246 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES, 
fish, flesh, and fowl that could be procured in the empire or imported 
beyond it. Relays of couriers were employed in bringing delicacies from 
afar. * * * here were cunning cooks among the Aztecs, and at these 
extravagant meals there was almost as much variety in the cookery as in 
the matter cooked. Sahagun gives a most formidable list of roast, stewed, 
and broiled dishes, of meat, fish, and poultry, seasoned with many kinds of 
herbs, of which, however, that most frequently mentioned is chile. He 
further describes many kinds of bread, all bearing a more or less close 
resemblance to the Mexican tortilla, * * * then tamales of all kinds, 
and many other curious messes, such as frog spawn and stewed ants, cooked 
with chile. * * * Each dish was kept warm on a chafing-dish placed 
under it. Writers do not agree as to the exact quantity of food served up 
at each meal, but it must have been immense, since the lowest number of 
dishes given is three hundred and the highest three thousand ‘They were 
brought into the hall by four hundred pages of noble birth, who placed 
their burdens upon the matted floor and retired noiselessly. The king then 
pointed out such viands as he wished to partake of, or left the selection to 
his steward, who doubtless took pains to study the likes and dislikes of the 
royal palate. The steward was a functionary of the highest rank and im- 
portance; he alone was privileged to place the designated delicacies before 
the king upon the table; he appears to have done duty both as royal carver 
and cup-bearer;’ and, according to Torquemada, to have done it bare- 
footed and on his knees. Everything being in readiness, a number of the 
most beautiful of the king’s women entered, bearing water in round vessels 
called Xicales, for the king to wash his hands in, and towels that he might 
dry them, other vessels being placed upon the ground to catch the drip- 
pings. Two other women at the same time brought him some small loaves 
of a very delicate kind of bread, made of the finest maize flour, beaten up 
with eggs. This done, a wooden screen, carved and gilt, was placed before 
him that no one might see him while eating. There were always present 
five or six aged lords, who stood near the royal chair barefooted and with 
bowed heads. To these, as‘a special mark of favor, the king occasionally 
