cuaxolotl (Mdz20r)

This multicolored painting is an iconographic example for the noun cuaxolotl, an adornment of the head (cuaitl) of an anthropomorphized dog (xolotl), with no ears and a long neck, perhaps sometimes worn on the back. Here, however, it is on the top of a warrior's regalia. Xolotl was a revered ancestor and a divinity associated with lightning and death that was often depicted as a dog.