The Rules and Objectives of a Maya Ball Game

Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (1549–1626) was the chief chronicler of Castile and the Americas during the reigns of Philip II and Philip III of Spain. Herrera was a prolific writer who produced some of the most important early histories of Spanish exploration and conquest of the New World. While he drew on numerous sources and made a genuine effort at objectivity, it is important to note that Herrera never actually visited the Americas. As a historian, he saw his task as comparing various firsthand accounts and synthesizing them into the most complete and accurate retelling of events possible. Thus, his emphasis was on description, not interpretation. Keep this in mind as you read Herrera’s explanation of tlachtli. What did he include in his account? What did he leave out?

The game was called “Tlachtli,” which is the same as “Trinquete” in Spanish. The ball was made of the gum from a tree which grows in the hot country. This tree, when tapped, exudes some large white drops, which soon congeal and when mixed and kneaded become as black as pitch: of this material the balls are made, and, although heavy and hard to the hand, they bound and rebound as lightly as footballs, and are indeed better, as there is no need to inflate them. They do not play for “chases” but to make a winning stroke — that is, to strike the ball against or to hit it over the wall which the opposite party defend. The ball may be struck with any part of the body, either such part as is most convenient or such as each player is most skillful in using. Sometimes it is arranged that it should count against any player who touches the ball otherwise than with his hip, for this is considered by them to show the greatest skill, and on this account they would wear a piece of stiff raw hide over the hips, so that the ball might better rebound. The ball might be struck as long as it bounded, and it made many bounds one after the other, as though it were alive.

They played in parties, so many on each side, and for such a stake as a parcel of cotton cloths, more or less, according to the wealth of the players. They also played for articles of gold and for feathers, and at times staked their own persons. The place where they played was a court on the level of the ground, long, narrow, and high, but wider above than below, and higher at the sides than at the ends. So that it should be better to play in, the court was well cemented, and the walls and floors made quite smooth. In the side walls were fixed two stones like millstones, with a hole pierced through the middle, through which there was just room for the ball to pass, and the player who hit the ball through the hole won the game; and as this was a rare victory, which few gained, by the ancient custom and law of the game, the victor had a right to the mantles of all the spectators. . . .

To those who saw the feat performed for the first time it seemed like a miracle, and they said that a player who had such good luck would become a thief or an adulterer, or would die soon. And the memory of such a victory lasted many days, until it was followed by another, which put it out of mind.

Alfred Percival Maudslay, A Glimpse at Guatemala (London: John Murray, 1899), 205–206.

READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS