Patolli

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Patolli is one of the oldest games in pre-Hispanic Latin America. Several people played it: Teotihuacans (200 B.C. - 1000 A.D.), Toltecs (750 - 1000 A.D), the inhabitants of Chichen-Itza (1100 - 1300 A.D.), the Aztecs (1168 - 1521 A.D.)

It seems it had a ceremonial and religious sense that still now is not very clear: the time cycle of the Aztecs is based upon 52 years, the same number of squares found in the game.

The Magliabecci codex says: Patolli's god was Macuilxochitl, deity of music, dance, gambling and games, called God of the Five Flowers.

Before starting the game, the players invoked him and they offered incense and food. They bet blankets, maguey plants, precious stones and gold adornments.

The Spaniards forbade the game during the conquest because it was considered pagan and idolatrous.

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Source- Anthropolgy by E. Adamson Hoebel, University of Minnesota, Third edition. 1958, 1966. p. 76. "... the diffusion of the ancient East Indian game of pachisi into prehistoric America, where it appeared among the Aztecs as patolli and in various other forms among other Indians. See notes 15, 16 17 below: 15. E. B. Tylor, "On the Game of Patolli in Ancient Mexico, and Its Probable Asiatic Origin" (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland) Vol. 8, 1879), pp. 116-129. 16. E. B. Tylor, "American Lot Games as Evidence of Asiatic Intercourse before the Time of Columbus" (Internationales Archie fur Ethnogrophie, Vol. 9, supplement, 1896), p. 66. For a critical evaluation of Tylor's method, see C. J. Erasmus, "Patolli, Pachisi, and the Limitation of Possibilities" (Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 6, 1950), pp. 369-387. 17. F. Boas, Tsimshian Mythology (Bureau of American Ethnology, Annual Report 31, 1916), pp. 393-558. This is the classic study of the reflection of a people's material culture and social organization in their mythology. (This book exists in Central Library of Nahariya, Israel.) A fair description of the game exists at- http://www.phschool.com/atschool/paso/Paso2/Teacher_Area/Paso2_TC5_ACT5_index.html

Translated by Machine translation from the Spanish- Another important and independent game was the patolli, gambling game of the one that also the chroniclers inform. It was practised in a board in the shape of cross; every arm had pronounced a double line of small pigeonholes, in general planned with rubber melted on a mat. The player had to cover 52 pigeonholes with piedritas identical with different colors, from the point of exit up to returning again him. ' The luck and the way of advancing were decided throwing a few big beans, to which they were putting themselves on numeral marks. It seems that this game also had religious and astronomical significance, since the temporary cycle of the nahuas was shaped by a whole of 52 years. ' The god of the patolli was Macuilxóchitl, ' Five flower ', whom the players were invoking before initiating a game. In his house, they were offering incense and meal to his protective deity and to the instruments of game before going out to playing. " The patolli and the ullamaliztli had his profane aspect: the strong bets of players and spectators - blankets, magueyales, golden accounts and precious stones. There was those who were betting even his person and if they were losing they were remaining submitted to the slaves' condition up to paying the debt. "

" The nahuas and the totonacas of the north saw of Puebla were still playing the patolli during the twenties and thirties. In a board in the shape of cross, painting on a mat, with pigeonholes in the arms, they were placing piedritas in accordance with the points that obtenín on having thrown a few big beans marked with numeral signs. Both the name of the game and the way of practising it are clear evidences of that this pre-Hispanic gambling game lasted in this zone for many years. "