ahuitzotl (FCbk11f71r)

This iconographic example features a mythical water animal (ahuitzotl) that hunts people, a reversal of the usual human who hunts animals. It is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a man in profile, facing right, in deep water, and holding onto a paddle. He has fallen out of his canoe. His mouth is open, and his left arm is raised as though he is crying for help. On the right side of the scene is the ahuitzotl, a brown, four-legged animal with a long tail. It may be an otter, nutria, or perhaps an amphibious marsupial. This animal, which looks relatively benign and calm here, was believed to be able to reach up from under the water and pull humans down, drowning them, by using a hand attached to a long tail. The text on 71r describes the terrible fate of the body of someone killed by the ahuitzotl. The text, in fact, expands over several pages, providing more information about the corpse, and another scene of the ahuitzotl hunting humans appears on folio 72v. On 73r, another story tells of a woman who captured an ahuitzotl, put it in a water jug (comitl), and went to show it to the lords, who perceived it to be a divine force (teotl). The water here looks stirred up and treacherous, which is also described in the text. The swirling whirlpool here is a regular feature of bodies of water painted in a Nahua style. The grass growing along the top of the water (presumably a shore), however, suggests European artistic influence that pushed for a landscape setting.