Tapayol (MH515v)

The Codex Mendoza does not include a ball called the tapayolli; its examples of balls are all black balls of rubber (see below). Molina's Vocabulario has a number of words beginning with tapayol-, and several of them relate to playing a ball game with flowers. Some translations of tapayolli suggest a ball filled with air (see the Gran Diccionario Náhuatl). An air-filled ball could represent a European introduction. A follis, a "pelota de vent" (wind or air ball) was known in Spain in fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (Wikipedia). The Mesoamerican balls were made of solid rubber, a vulcanized latex that was first developed in Mesoamerica. (Mexicolore has a short article on this process and another article with wonderful photos of rubber balls that date from 1,000 years B.C.E.