Page:The food of the Gods - A Popular Account of Cocoa.djvu/154

Rh But this was not the only medicinal property attributed to "the food of the gods," for the Aztecs used to prescribe as a cure for diarrhœa and dysentery a potion prepared of cacao mixed with the ground bones of their giant ancestors, exhumed in the mountains. Such a very active principle was sure to make its enemies too, and several amusing attacks have survived to witness their own refutation. It was regarded by some as a violent inflamer of the passions, which should be prohibited to the monks; for, as one writer puts it, "if such an interdiction had existed, the scandal with which that holy order has been branded might have proved groundless." As late as 1712, after its use had become established in this country, the mentor of the Spectator writes: "I shall also advise my fair readers to be in a particular manner careful how they meddle with romances, chocolates, novels, and the like inflamers, which I look upon as very dangerous to be made use of during this great carnival" (the month of May).

Some accounted for the assumed ill-effects of