It is difficult to know what the Mayans did for a good time. Their chief sport — known to us simply as the ball game — was a kind of cross between football, basketball and hara-kiri. Rules stipulated you weren’t allowed to use either your hands or your feet but instead manoeuvred the ball — it weighed up to 8lbs, and was not allowed to touch the ground — with your shoulders, your hips, your buttocks or your back to get it through one of the two hoops on the side walls. Defeat didn’t mean dropping three points. The losing team were lined up and sometimes — the ultimate hairdryer treatment — decapitated.
很難知道瑪雅人是如何消遣的。他們的主要運動——我們簡單地稱之為球賽——是一種介于足球、籃球和切腹之間的混合運動。規則規定不能用手或腳，而是用肩膀、臀部、臀部或背部操控球——球重達8磅，且不能觸地——將球送入側墻上的兩個籃圈之一。失敗并不只是失去三分。輸球的隊伍會被排成一排，有時甚至會被斬首，這就是終極的懲罰。