Coyotl Inahual (MH667r)
This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Coyotl Inahual (“Coyote’s Nahual” or “Coyote’s Shape-Shifting Animal Spirit”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows the head of a coyote in profile, facing toward the viewer’s right. This animal head (the nahualli) is sitting on the head of the tribute payer who has this name. The coyote’s tongue is long and protruding. His ears have shading that gives them three dimensionality. His coat is textured.
Stephanie Wood
In other examples of nahualli spirits, below, one can see that the placement of the personal spirit is often on the crown of the human’s head. Other nahualli glyphs show something like a caterpillar, perhaps because the caterpillar or cocoon undergoes a shape-shifting transformation.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
nahuales, transformación, sobrenatural, espíritus, cabezas, nombres de hombres
nahual(li), a shape-shifting spirit, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nahualli
Nahual
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 667r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=414&st=image.
This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).
