MOCHE: A PERUVIAN COASTAL COMMUNI-n'— GILLIN 



85 



50 onlookers. The sport is handicapped by the lack 

 of a permanent field, and play and practice have to 

 take place on fields which happen to be out of cultiva- 

 tion at a given moment, such as cornfields awaiting 

 the next plowing, and the like. The sport owes a 

 good deal of its impetus to one of the jorasteros. a 

 plaver of some regional renown in his younger days. 

 At present he is the operator of one of the salones 

 in the town. Si.K football clubs are in existence and 

 are named as follows: Atenas, Olimpico, Once 

 Amigos, Alianza Moche, Esport Boys, Santa Cruz 

 de Chorobal. The expenses for shoes, uniforms, foot- 

 balls, and the like, are paid from the membership 

 dues and contributions. Games are played among 

 the Moche clubs and also with teams from the 

 haciendas of the region. 



Basketball (usually called simply "basquet") is 

 played by only one team, representing the Club 

 Atletico Espartano (Spartan Athletic Club). It is 

 said to be played on the court which exists in the 

 patio of the Government school for boys, the only one 

 available. During my stay in Moche this court had 

 only one basket in position and no games were played. 

 Tcjos is thought of as the distinctive Moche sport, 

 and in its present form, at least, is claimed to have 

 been invented and elaborated in Moche itself. The 

 prime stimulus of the tejos movement has been Don 

 Manuel L. Briceiio y Vazquez. Don Manuel is a 

 man of many and real talents, who, with Don 

 Victor Razuri and Don Jose Eulogio Garrido, is one 

 of the three jorasteros who have lived for many 

 years in Moche, have taken a hearty and sympathetic 

 interest in the community, and have won the complete 

 confidence of the true Mocheros. Sefior Briceno is 

 a water-colorist of recognized accomplishment, an 

 architectural engineer, and a practical archeologist. 

 For many years he has been employed by the Larcos 

 of Chiclin and, among his other accomplishments, has 

 made a definitive study of Mochica architecture, 

 which has been embodied in a large portfolio of all 

 the known types of Mochica constructions, shown in 

 floor plan, elevation, and also reconstructed in the 

 form of water-color paintings in perspective. These 

 documents, if the money and opportunity to publish 

 them can ever be found, will doubtless prove to be 

 of immense value to the entire public interested in 

 the north coast of Peru. 



Senor Briceno has w-ritten a monograph embody- 

 ing his evidence concerning the origin of the tcjos 

 game and setting forth the rules as standardized by 

 himself. Although this work has not been printed. 



it is circulated in typed form among the various tcjos 

 clubs of the region. 



The word tcjos means "quoits," and the game is 

 played with brass disks 2 cm. in diameter which are 

 supposed to weigh 80 gm. Sefior Briceiio suggests 

 that certain unperforated disks found in the Mochica 

 and Chimu archeological material may show that a 

 similar game was played in ancient times. Various 

 games involving the throwing of small disks are 

 played throughout modern Peru, but, except for the 

 Trujillo region, in my own travels in provincial parts 

 of the country I do not happen to have discovered 

 any conforming to the Moche game in details. The 

 most common quoits game throughout Peru is that 

 sometimes called sapo. which consists of throwing 

 a disk about the size of a silver dollar at a brass frog 

 sitting with his mouth open on a box top that is 

 perforated with a number of holes slightly larger 

 than the disk. The player scores according to the 

 hole into which his quoit falls. The highest scoring 

 play is to throw the disk into the frog's mouth. This 

 apparatus is found in chicherias and loafing places in 

 almost all parts of the country. 



In Moche the tcjos game is played on the ground, 

 and it is a sport well adapted to shady arbors with 



so 



10 < 



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FiGL'RE 6. — Left, scale diagram of standard quoits court (tejos); 

 right, three additional designs of targets. 



