black pigment covered with iron pyrites, others prolonged the stripe to the ears, and others again painted stripes from the base of the ear to the mouth.” Feathers of course, whether applied to textiles or worn by themselves, constituted an extremely important article of adornment, and even the Otomi women wore them on their feet and legs during dancing, a custom found also among the Toluca. Sandals of hide with straps ornamented according to the rank of the wearer were in universal use. The Mexicans enjoyed considerable variety in food, and though famines were not uncommon, yet the attention paid to agriculture in the valley and the extensive trade-system made the supply plentiful under normal circumstances. The Chichimec hunters lived on game, wild roots and fruits, and honey, but most of the remaining tribes practised cultivation, especially of maize, though the Otomi were said to have been improvident in the use of the crop. To speak generally, maize was the staple food, though free use was made of other grain, yams and beans. From maize a large variety of “bread” was manufactured, mostly in the form of thin cakes differing greatly in quality. The grain was thrown into boiling water, into which a little lime had been sprinkled, to remove the husk; when cool, it was washed, ground on the grinding-stones, called metatl, and kneaded into dough which was cooked in pots, or wrapped in leaves and steamed. Certain flowers were often added to give it a flavour. Maize-meal was often boiled in water, the liquor being strained and reboiled until it was reduced to a kind of gruel, called atolli, which was consumed in large quantities. Venison, rabbits, hares, quails, partridges, ducks, turkeys and geese, provided the most common flesh-foods; the two latter birds were domesticated and were bred almost as much for their feathers as for their flesh, especially in Culiacan, Jalisco and Michoacan; eggs were not eaten. The hairless Mexican dog was also bred as a food-animal in some places, such as Jalisco. Meat was cooked wrapped in dough or plainly roasted, and pepper was consumed in great quantities as a condiment, just as in Peru. Fish too formed an important article of diet, and the courier-system in the later days of the Empire was so excellent that it could be brought fresh from the coast for the use of the royal house. Certain marshflies which appear in veritable clouds on the lake were pounded and made up into balls and boiled, and their eggs were collected from the reeds and eaten as a kind of caviare; frogs too were not despised, and the Otomi were credited with eating snakes and rats. A peculiar food seen by the conquerors consisted of “cakes made from a sort of ooze which they get out of the great lake, which curdles, and from this they make a bread having a flavour something like cheese.” Honey, both that of bees and that made from the sap of the maguey, was used to sweeten atolli and in many