atezcatl (Mdz42r)

This turquoise blue color is typical for water, especially for a shallow pool and perhaps less so for a puddle. The representation of the pool shows lines that are spiraling or swirling, again, more like a whirlpool than a puddle. Here is an image of a whirlpool. This element for a pool of water, unlike the water sign (atl) for the current of a stream or river, does not have the turbinate-shaped shells or the droplets of water [or chalchihuitl), round jade stones] splashing off. That is true, too, of the swirling water in the upper right corner of the 1580 map of Ixtapalapa. In the attestations for this record we are showing the full compound glyph and the texcatl (mirror) that suggests a mirror pond.