Some Of These Were Hump-Backed, Ugly, And Deformed, Who Played
Various Tricks Of Buffoonery, And We Were Told That
Others were jesters,
besides which there were companies of singers and dancers in which he was
said to take great
Delight; and to all these he ordered vases of chocolate
to be distributed. When the repast was ended, the four female attendants
already mentioned, after removing the cloths, presented him again with
water to wash his hands, during which he continued his conversation with
the four old nobles, who then took their leaves with much ceremony. He was
then presented with three small hollow canes highly ornamented, containing
an herb called tobacco mixed with liquid amber; and when he was satisfied
with the buffoons, dancers, and singers, he smoked for a short time from
one of these canes, and then laid himself to sleep. I forgot to mention in
its proper place that, during the time of dinner, two beautiful women were
employed in making certain small delicately white cakes, of eggs and other
ingredients, which they presented on plates covered with napkins to
Montezuma; and then another kind of bread was brought to him in long
loaves, as likewise plates of a kind of cakes resembling wafers or
pancakes. When Montezuma had concluded his meal, all his guards and
domestics sat down to dinner, and as well as I could judge, above a
thousand dishes of the various eatables already mentioned were served up
to them, with immense quantities of fruit, and numerous vessels of foaming
chocolate.
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