acxoyatl (Chav16)

This black-line drawing of the element acxoyatl (special branches used in a festival) has been extracted from the compound glyph for the place name Acxotlan. The element shows two vertical branches with a center piece of wood and short black lines emanating in a curving fashion on both sides of each branch and at the top. There is a white space between the wood and the needles. John Bierhorst (A Nahuatl-English Dictionary and Concordance to the Cantares Mexicanos, 1985, 26) gives "fir" as one translation for acxoyatl. He adds that these materials were "used in ritual bloodletting and mock combat."