Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/206

Michoacan were generally associated with temples. The ground-plan of a tlaxtli-court resembled a double T, as may be seen from Fig. 30, which is taken from a manuscript. The game was played with a rubber ball, and the end walls constituted the goals which were protected by opposing teams of players. At the centre of each side wall, near its upper edge, was fixed a stone ring, the aperture a little greater than the diameter of the ball, and if the latter could be hit so as to pass through the ring, a victory was claimed. The walls were forty or fifty feet long, and twenty or thirty feet apart, and the whole court was carefully plastered. The area was divided by a line, which the ball had to cross for the throw to count; it is not stated whether this line was longitudinal or transverse, but probability seems to favour the latter. The MSS. often show the two ends of the court distinguished by different colours, though it is only fair to state that they almost as often show it quartered. The players wore special gauntlets, but the most esteemed variety of the game was that in which they were not allowed the use of their hands at all, but struck the ball with their hips, protected by means of a leather shield attached to the girdle. A variety of gods are pictured in association with the tlaxtli-court, principally Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Xochiquetzal and Xochipilli, and in the court connected with the great temple to Uitzilopochtli stood the statues of the gods Oappatzan and Amapan to which sacrifices were made. Seler conjectures that the flight of the ball in its esoteric significance referred to the movements of the moon. 'The game was usually played for stakes, which often ran very high, and it also served to settle disputed questions, as in the case where Montecuzoma, differing from Nezahualpilli as regards the interpretation of certain omens, challenged him to a game of tlaxtli and was defeated. The origin of the game is discussed later (pp. 302-303).