[Aztlan] Zapotec ball court, ball games

[E.P. Grondine]

Buenos dias, listeros

Simon Le Page du Pratz provided us with a detailed account of the Natchez harvest ball game, which  without doubt parallels that of the Huastecans, and which may provide some insight into the meso-american ball games held by other peoples elsewhere in the region:

THE SACRED BALL GAME

"Day having come, no one appears in the open space until the Great Sun comes out of his house toward 9 o'clock in the morning. He walks some moments alone with the Great War Chief, and has the drum, or the pot which serves in place of it, beaten against the post. 

Immediately the warriors hasten to come out of their cabins, and form two troops which are distinguished by the color of the feathers with which their heads are adorned. The one has white feathers, and takes the side of the Great Sun; the other has red feathers, and is for the Great War Chief. 

Then begins the game of the pelotte (ball), a little ball of deerskin of the size of a fist filled with Spanish beard. The Great Sun and the Great War Chief throw this ball back and forth for some time from one to the other. The two bands are extremely attentive to all their movements, for at the moment when one least thinks of it, the Great Sun throws the ball into the very thick of the warriors, who are then mingled and confounded together.

This ball must never fall or be carried, as it would then be snatched forcibly from the one who should seize it, and no one would help him: on this point the interdiction is express. As this ball game has two goals, to reach the cabin of the Great Sun or that of the Great War Chief, it is necessary that the ball be pressed and urged by blows given with the palm of the hand toward one of these two cabins. 

It is a real pleasure to see this ball spring sometimes to one side of the open space, sometimes to the other, sometimes remaining in the middle, then appearing decided to touch one of the goals, and at the last moment be repelled by a hostile hand into its first uncertainty. The movement of the warriors, and the innocent passion which they enter into for the honor of the game, is not unaccompanied by noise. Fear, disquietude, and vexation have their different cries. That of joy rises above all the others. 

Ordinarily the ball game lasts two hours, and the warriors sweat great drops. Finally, the ball touches one of the two cabins, and the amusement is at an end. The band which belonged to this cabin having won by this, receives from the Chief of the opposite side a considerable pi'Esent (?)  and the right to wear distinguishing feathers as a mark of victory, until the following year or until the next time they play ball."

Perhaps the remains at the ends of the ball courts may hold some keys to how the games were played elsewhere.

E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas