IN THE OLDEN TIME. 
257 
We know but little of the games and amusements of 
the Indios in ancient times ; but Torquemada has described 1 
for us one national game, which seems to have required 
more skill and agility than the game of court-tennis (I 
do not speak of the effeminate lawn-tennis). The court 
consisted of two parallel walls very thick, and about one 
hundred feet apart. These walls were thirty feet high, 
and in each, at a height of from twenty to twenty-four 
feet, was a stone ring usually sculptured in some careful 
manner. At the 
open ends of the 
court were two little 
temples. A ball of 
rubber, large and 
very hard, was used 
by the players, who 
received the coming 
ball, not on a bat or 
racket, but on the 
padded buttock, 
from which the play¬ 
er endeavored to 
throw it through the 
ring, but without touching it with his hands. As the 
hole was only about eighteen inches in diameter, this 
was a most difficult feat, requiring great flexibility of 
the pelvic and thigh muscles. The victor was allowed 
to take the clothes of any of the spectators; so it may 
be supposed these went to the game in scant garb. 
Eemains of these ball-grounds are found in many cities, 
and the stone ring of the illustration is at Chichen Itza; 
1 Monarquia Indiana, lib. ii. ch. xii. 
17 
