34 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. 



my stomach fainty. And with this custome 

 I lived twelve years in those parts healthy, 

 without any obstructions, or oppilations, 

 not knowing what either ague or feaver 



M. Ferdinand Denis, in " La Legende 

 du Cacahuatl," makes the following inter- 

 esting statement in regard to the prepara- 

 tion of chocolate in ancient Mexico : 



" Torquemada, the learned historian, 

 and Thomas Gage, the conscientious trav- 

 eller, agree in telling us that hot chocolate 

 was an invention of the Castilians. The 

 first of these writers, who lived at the end 

 of the sixteenth century, says so positively ; 

 in his time it had been used for only a few 

 years. 



" Would you know now what chocolate 

 was when the learned Antonio Colmenero 

 de Ledesma gave his receipt? I copy it for 

 you here : 



" 'Take a hundred cacao kernels, two 



