IBN BATUTA IN MELLE 137 On occasions of public festivities these ceremonials were immensely increased, the whole crowd wearing only fine white clothes, public prayers and thanksgivings being offered up, and magnificent gifts presented by subjects to the Sultan and by the Sultan to subjects whom he wished to honour. On the breaking of the fast of the Ramadan, it was the custom to present arms to the Sultan in a more literal sense than that usually conveyed by the term ; and on the occasion of that ceremony when Ibn Batuta was present, "squires" offered to the Sultan for his acceptance arms which are described as ** magnificent." "They were," Ibn Batuta says, "swords ornamented in gold, with scabbards of the precious metal ; spears of gold and silver ; quivers made of gold and silver ; and clubs made of crystal." On these occasions there were dramatic displays, including dancing, fencing, and gymnastic performances, which Ibn Batuta, having experience of similar performances in India, declared to be extremely good. There were also poetic recitations of an apparently comic kind.

Poets wearing masks and dressed like birds were allowed to speak their opinion to the monarch. Ibn Batuta states that this practice was of great antiquity, long anterior to the introduction of Islam amongst these people. The description which he gives in some detail can hardly fail to recall similar practices inherited from the Tezcucans by the Aztecs, who in nearly the same latitude on the American continent were at this very moment, in the middle of the fourteenth century, making good their position upon the Mexican plateau.- Ibn See likeness to Aztec performance at contemporary date. Prescott, in his account of Aztec literature and civilisation previous to the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, says : " They are said to have had also something like theatrical exhibitions of a pantomimic sort, in which the faces of the performers were covered with masks, and the figures of birds or animals were frequently represented." — Conquest of Mexico vol. i. p. 98. For a fuller account of these mummeries Prescott refers his readers to Acosia lib. 5, cap. 30 ; and also Clavigero, Stor-del-Messico. See also for Aztec customs, Toribio, Hist, de las Indies MS., parte 3, cap. 7.