A Little of what you Fancy

To some a poison, to others an elixir, chocolate was an important source of nourishment for the ancient tribes of America, including the great Aztec civilization, in which it was highly valued for its sustaining properties. The Aztecs would march all day on a single cup of xocolatl.

In his book Native Races of the Pacific States, published in 1875, the historian H. H. Bancroft wrote about the Aztecs, and other Native American peoples who used chocolate as a medicine. There is a fascinating account of how the Aztecs, . . dug up the bones of giants at the foot of the mountains, and collected by their dwarfish successors, ground to powder, mixed with Cocoa, and drunk as a cure for diarrhoea and dysentery.’ This seems to echo the Chinese tradition of digging up ‘dragon’ bones, to be ground and mixed with other herbs as a medicine, adding weight to the theory that the early settlers of America originally came from Asia. A bit later Bancroft writes: ‘Scalding hot Cocoa mixed with chilli is the favourite stimulant, of which very large quantities are imbibed, until the perspiration starts from every pore.’