placed before him, that no one might see him while eating. Then the young women stood at a distance. Four elderly men of high rank came to his table, whom he addressed from time to time or asked them some question. Sometimes he would offer them a plate of his food, which was considered a mark of great favor. The gray-haired, aged men, that were so highly honored, were, as we subsequently learned, his nearest relatives, his most trustworthy counsellors, and chief justices. Whenever he ordered any viands to be given them, they ate standing with the greatest reverence, not daring to look at him full in the face. The dishes in which the food was served were of variegated and black porcelain, made at Cholula. While the monarch was at table his courtiers and those who were waiting in the adjoining halls maintained strict silence.... “Sometimes during dinner he had ugly humpbacked dwarfs to act as buffoons and perform antics for his amusement. At other times he had jesters to enliven him with their witticisms. Others again danced and sung before him. Montezuma took great delight in these entertainments, and ordered the broken victuals and pitchers of cacao-liquor (chocolate) to be distributed among the performers. When he had dined the four women took away the cloths and brought him water to wash his hands. During this interval he conversed a little with the four old men, and then left the table to enjoy his afternoon-sleep. “After the monarch had dined, dinner was served for the men on duty and the other officers of his household. I often counted more than one thousand dishes on the table of the kinds already mentioned. Then followed, according to the Mexican custom, the frothing jugs of cacao-liquor, as many as two thousand, after which came different kinds of fruit in great abundance. Then the women dined who superintended the baking department, and those who made the cacao-liquor, with the young women who waited upon the monarch.... “Besides these servants were many butlers, house-stewards, treasurers, cooks, and superintendents of maize-magazines.... I had almost forgotten to mention, that while the monarch dined two other young women of great beauty brought him small cakes, as white as snow, made of eggs and other nourishing ingredients, on plates covered with clean napkins; also a long-shaped loaf made of very substantial things, and _pachol_ (a wafer-cake). They then brought him three beautifully painted and gilded tubes filled with liquid-amber and an herb called by the Indians _tabaco_. After the dinner had been removed and the singing and dancing ended, one of these tubes was lighted. The monarch drew the smoke into his mouth, and after he had done this a short time he would fall asleep.