[58] The tamale is another very favorite modern Mexican dish. The natives generally make them with pork; the bones are crushed almost to powder; the meat is cut up in small pieces, and the whole washed; a small quantity of maize paste, seasoned with cinnamon, saffron, cloves, pimento, tomatoes, coarse pepper, salt, red coloring matter, and some lard added to it, is placed on the fire in a pan; as soon as it has acquired the consistency of a thick gruel it is removed, mixed with the meat, some more lard and salt added, and the mass kneaded for a few moments; it is then divided into small portions, which are enveloped in a thin paste of maize. The tamales thus prepared are covered with a banana-leaf or a corn-husk, and placed in a pot or pan over which large leaves are laid. They are allowed to boil from one hour and a half to two hours. Game, poultry, vegetables, or sweetmeats are often used instead of pork.
[59] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 229, regrets that certain persons, out of the ill-will they bore the Mexicans, have falsely imputed to Montezuma the crime of eating human flesh without its being well seasoned, but he admits that when properly cooked and disguised, the flesh of those sacrificed to the gods appeared at the royal board. Some modern writers seem to doubt even this; it is, however, certain that cannibalism existed among the people, not as a means of allaying appetite, but from partly religious motives, and there seems no reason to doubt that the king shared the superstitions of the people. I do not, however, base the opinion upon Oviedo's assertion, which smacks strongly of the 'giant stories' of the nursery, that certain 'dishes of tender children' graced the monarch's table. Hist. Gen., tom. iii., p. 501. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 68, also cannot withstand the temptation to deal in the marvelous, and mentions 'carnes de muchachos de poca edad;' though it is true the soldier-like bluntness the veteran so prided himself upon, comes to his aid, and he admits that perhaps after all Montezuma was not an ogre.
[60] Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 68.
[61] Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iii., p. 501.
[62] Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 229.
[63] Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 68, says there were four of these women; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 229, says there were twenty.
[64] 'E ya que començaua á comer, echauanle delante vna como puerta de madera muy pintada de oro, porque no le viessen comer.' Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 68. 'Luego que se sentaba à la Mesa, cerraba el Maestre-Sala vna Varanda de Madera, que dividia la Sala, para que la Nobleça de los Caballeros, que acudia à verle comer, no embaraçase la Mesa.' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 229. 'Tosto che il Re si metteva a tavola, chiudeva lo Scalco la porta della Sala, acciocchè nessuno degli altri Nobili lo vedesse mangiare.' Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i., p. 270.
[65] 'A potation of chocolate, flavored with vanilla and other spices, and so prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which gradually dissolved in the mouth.' Prescott's Mex., vol. ii., p. 125. 'This was something like our chocolate, and prepared in the same way, but with this difference, that it was mixed with the boiled dough of maise, and was drunk cold.' Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., [Lockhart's translation Lond., 1814, vol. i., note, p. 393]. 'La bebida es agua mezclada con cierta harina de unas almendras que llaman cacao. Esta es de mucha sustancia, muy fresca, y sabrosa y agradable, y no embriaga.' Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxi.
[66] 'Entonces no mirauamos en ello; mas lo que yo vi, que traian sobre cincuenta jarros grandes hechos de buen cacao con su espuma, y de lo que bebia.' Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 68. Oviedo, as usual, is content with no number less than three thousand: 'É luego venian tres mill xícalos (cántaros ó ánforas) de brevage.' Hist. Gen., tom. iii., p. 501. Las Casas makes it three hundred: 'A su tiempo, en medio ò en fin de los manjares segun la costumbre que tenian, entravan otros trescientos pajes, cada uno con un vaso grande que cabia medio azumbre, (about a quart), y aun tres quartillos de la bebida en el mismo, y servia el un vaso al rey el maestresala, de que bebia lo que le agradava.' Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxi.
[67] 'Vnas yervas que se dize tabaco.' Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 68.