Great Lord! and when they had finished, he
always dismissed them in few words; on which they retired with their faces
towards him, keeping their eyes fixed on the ground. I observed likewise,
that all the great men who waited upon him on business, always entered the
palace barefooted and in plain habits, never entering the gate directly,
but making a circuit in going towards it.
The cooks of the palace had above thirty different ways of dressing meats,
which were served up in earthen vessels of a very ingenious construction
for keeping their contents always hot. For Montezumas own table above
three hundred dishes were dressed every day, and more than a thousand for
his guards. Montezuma sometimes went before dinner to inspect the
preparations, on which occasions his officers pointed out to him which
were the best, explaining what birds or flesh they were composed of. It is
said that the flesh of young children was sometimes dressed for his table;
but after Cortes had spoken to him respecting the barbarity of this
inhuman custom, it was no longer practised in the palace. The ordinary
meats were domestic fowls, pheasants, geese, partridges, quails, venison,
Indian hogs or _pecaris_, pigeons, hares, rabbits and many other animals
and birds peculiar to the country; the various meats being served up on
black and red earthen-ware made at Cholula. In the cold weather while at
his meals, a number of torches were lighted up, of the bark of a tree
which has an aromatic smell and gives no smoke; and to prevent the glare
and heat of those from being troublesome, rich screens ornamented with
gold and paintings of their idols were interposed between Montezuma and
the torches.
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