The balloon or wind-ball resembled the follis of the Romans. The follis was a large ball of leather, blown full of wind, and beaten backwards and forwards with the fist, and seems to have been much played with.
"Folle decet pueros ludere, folle senes." [416]
The balloon-ball, was a large ball made of double leather, which being filled with wind by means of a ventil, says Commenius, [417] was driven to and fro by the strength of men's arms; and for this purpose every one of the players had a round hollow bracer of wood to cover the hand and lower part of the arm, with which he struck the ball. This pastime was usually practised in the open fields, and is much commended for the healthiness of the exercise it afforded. The balloon-ball seems certainly to have originated from the hand-ball, and was, I apprehend, first played in England without the assistance of the bracer; this supposition will be perfectly established if it be granted, and I see no reason why it should not, that the four figures represented below are engaged in the balloon-ball play: the original delineation occurs in a manuscript of the fourteenth century in the Royal Library. [418]
21. Balloon-Ball.—XIV. Century.
The following engraving represents a gentleman and lady playing at hand-ball, and as far as one can judge from the representation, the pastime consisted in merely beating the ball from one to the other.
22. Hand-Ball.—XIV. Century.