Some of the work is crude, other parts exquisitely refined, indicating that it is not all the work of one man. I am told by those well versed in stone-carving and the making of bas-reliefs that even with modern stone-cutting tools it would take one man at least twenty years to accomplish this work. For lack of a better name I always call this wonderful roofless place the Temple of Bas-Reliefs. When first observed, the sculptured walls look merely like a variegated patchwork. In order to see it at its best one should arrive at about ten o’clock in the morning, at which time the shadows cast by the background bring out all the raised parts in strong contrast and the whole procession of priests and warriors marches clearly before one’s eyes. The south wall, however, can be seen at its best only for a short time soon after sunrise and it is well worth the discomfort of early rising. Very probably there was an arrangement of smooth-faced, light-reflecting pillars in this building which caused all the walls to stand out in bold relief.
In the middle of the floor and facing the entrance squats a stone jaguar. Perhaps upon his broad, flat back may have been placed holy offerings to the gods.
The fallen front of this temple was once supported by two finely carved and painted square columns, still majestically erect, and remindful of those other ancient temples of Greece and Egypt.
And now we come to what is perhaps the most curious thing in the whole metropolis. The Tiger Temple, the Temple of Bas-Reliefs, and two other buildings surrounded a great inclosure having a flat paved floor four hundred and twenty feet long, bounded on the sides by smooth, perpendicular walls more than twenty feet high and thirty feet thick.
A hundred feet from the northern extremity of this extraordinary court and facing it is a building consisting of a single chamber. Its front wall is lacking, but arising from the rubbish are two ornamented round columns which were evidently the supports for the wall. The whole interior of the building, from floor to peak, is covered with worn and faded bas-reliefs. In the center of the rear wall is the perfect figure of a man, bearded and with decidedly Hebraic features.
At the opposite end of the court and a hundred feet back from it is a building extending nearly the entire width of the court. The roof of this structure has fallen, but the remains of sculptured square columns are visible.
And on the two side walls of the court, on the precise middle line, were mounted two great carved stone rings, like millstones, twenty feet above the floor. Each ring is beautifully carved with the entwined bodies of serpents. The rings are four feet in diameter and a foot thick, and the hole in each is one foot seven inches in diameter. One of these rings is still mounted in the masonry of the wall, while its counterpart once on the adjacent wall has fallen, but, happily, is unbroken.
A very similar court and similar rings have been found at Uxmal, another ancient Maya city of Yucatan.
Obviously this court was intended for some public game and it has therefore been given the name of the Tennis-court or Gymnasium. In an account of the diversions of Montezuma, given by Herrera, who accompanied Cortes, is the following illuminating description:
The Emperor took much delight in seeing the game of ball which the Spaniards have since prohibited due to the mischief which often happens at the game. By the Aztecs this game was called tlachtli—being like our tennis. The ball was made from the gum of a tree that grows in hot countries, which, after having holes made in it, distills great white drops that soon harden and being worked and molded together, this material turns as black as pitch.[5] The balls made thereof, although quite hard and heavy to the hand, did bound and fly as well as our footballs and there was no need to blow them, nor did they use staves. They struck the ball with any part of the body as it happened or as they could most conveniently. Sometimes he lost who touched it with any other part but his hips, which was looked upon among them as very dexterous and for the purpose that the ball might rebound better they fastened a piece of stiff leather on to their hips. They might strike the ball every time it rebounded, which it would do several times one after another, in so much that it looked as if it had been alive. They played in parties, so many on each side, for a load of mantles or what the gamesters could afford. They also played for gold and feather work and sometimes they played themselves away. The place where they played was a ground room, long, narrow and high and higher at the sides than at the ends. They kept the walls plastered and smooth, also the floor. On the side walls they fixed certain stones like those used in a mill, with a hole quite through the middle. The hole was just as big as the ball and he who could strike it through thereby won the game, and in token of its being an extraordinary success which rarely happened, he had the right to the cloaks of all the lookers-on.
It was very pleasant to see that as soon as ever the ball was in the hole, those standing by took to their heels, running away with all their might to save their cloaks, laughing and rejoicing, while others scoured after them to secure their cloaks for the winner, who was obliged to offer some sacrifice to the idol of the Court and to the stone whose hole the ball had passed.
Every Court had a temple day where at midnight they performed certain ceremonies and enchantments on the two walls and on the middle of the floor, singing certain songs or ballads, after which a priest of the Great Temple went with some of their religious men to bless it. He uttered some words, threw the ball about the court four times (towards the four points of the compass) and then it was consecrated and might be played in, but not before.
The owner of the Court, who was also a lord, never played without making some offering and performing some ceremony to the Idol of the Game, which shows how superstitious they were even in their diversions.