Cuachil (MH517v)
This compound glyph for the personal name Cuachil has two main elements. One is a human head (cua-) and the other is a chile pepper (chilli). The head, which doubles as the portrait of the tribute payer who holds the name Cuachil, is shown in profile, facing toward the viewer's right, and its face is painted a pink flesh tone. The chile pepper is vertical, with its stem touching the top of the person's head. Whether intentional or not, the chile pepper seems to have some shading and some places of shine.
Stephanie Wood
The name Cuachil seems to really refer to a bird, the common gallinule, and the head and chile pepper provide a rebus that is a double phonogram of the parts of the word. The gallinule can have beautiful blue feathers and an orange beak, as shown in a photo in Wikipedia.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Cuachil_MH517v_CmpndPersName.png?itok=aJNC0z-h)
cuachil(li), a common gallinule (bird), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuachilli
cua-, head, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cua-2
chil(li), pepper, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chilli
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 517v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=114&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).
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/Cuachil_MH517v_Context.png)