The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1902-01-17
BALL GAME OF MoNTEzUMAs.
How the Ancient Aztecs Amused
Themselves with Their Quaint
Games.

In the ruins of UXmal and Chichen
liza, Yucatan, there are the remains
of walls that are supposed to have in
closed immense gymnasiums or apart
ments where many kinds of games
were played. Inserted in the longer
walls, midway between the ends and
20 feet from the ground, were sculp-
tured stone rings that for long time
bafled archaeologists as to even a con
jectural use. The hole in the ring at
Chichen is one foot seven inches in
diameter, the two great openings ex-
actly face each other, and the walls
in which they are inserted are 30 feet
thick, 274 feet long and 100 feet apart.
Some of the explorers have claimed
that this great building was an unfin-
ished temple, since it undoubtedly
contained idols set in inches, but it is
reasonable to assume that all build
ings of such size and Importance con-
tanned idols, and that they were wor-
SHIPPED and propitiated with gifts in
all sports, as well as at times of more
serious undertakings, says Modern
Mexico. The scholars who claim that
this structure was once a great tennis
court and ball grounds are supported
by Herrera in his account of the di-
versions of Montezuma. He says:
''The king took much delight in see
ing sport at ball, which the Span
iards have since prohibited because
of the mischief that often happened at
it, and was called by them 'tlachtli,
being like our tennis. The ball was
made of the gum of a tree that grows
in hot countries, which, having holes
made in it, distills great white drops
that soon harden, and, being nodded
and worked together, turn as black
as pitch. The balls made thereof,
though hard and heavy to the hand,
did bound and fly as well as our foot
balls, there being no need to blow
them; nor did they use chases, but
We'd to drive the adverse party that
is to hit the ball; the others were
to make good or strike it over. They
struck it with any part of the body,
as it happened, or they could most
conveniently, and sometimes he lost
that touched it with any other part
but his hip. They might strike it every
time it rebounded, which it would
do several times, one after another,
insomuch that it looked as if it had
been alive.
''They played in parties, so many on
a side, for a load of mantles, or what
the gamesters could afford, at so many
scores. They also played for gold and
leatherwOrk, and sometimes they
played themselves away, as has been
said before. The place where they
played was a ground room, long, mar
row and light, but wider above than
below and higher on the sides than
the ends, and they kept it very well
plastered and smooth, both the walls
and the floor. On the side walls they
fixed certain stones, like those of a
mill, with hole quite through the
middle just as big as the ball, and
he that could strike it through there
won the game; and in token of its be-
ing an extraordinary success, which
rarely happened, he had a right to
the cloaks of all the lookers-on by an
cient custom and the law among the
gamesters, and it was very unpleasant
to see that as soon as ever the ball
was in the hole the standers-by took
to their heels, running away with all
their might to save their cloaks,
laughing and rejoicing, others scour-
ing after them to secure their cloaks
for the winner, who was obliged to
offer some sacrifice to the idol of the
tennis court and the stone through
whose hole the ball passed. Every
tennis court was temple, having two
idols, the one of gaming, the other
of the ball. On a lucky day at mid
night they performed certain cere-
monies and enchantments on the two
lower walls and on the midst of the
floor. singing certain songs or ballads,