cuexyo (Mdz19r)
This example of iconography from the Codex Mendoza shows a feathered war shield {chimalli) in a design that Berdan and Anawalt (1992, vol. 1, Appendix G) call the "cuexyo variant 1." The many colors on this shield are turquoise, white, brown, red, yellow, and green. Four curving water symbols take the place of one of the curves and three of the nose ornaments that appear on the more popular cuexyo shield.
Stephanie Wood
The main cuexyo shield (cuexyochimalli) in Berdan and Anawalt is discussed in some detail in an article in Arqueología Mexicana. See also our dictionary entry for cuextecatl, which refers to a feather suit worn by a dancer. The water elements on this cuexyo design have yet to be analyzed. em>Cuexyo with the absolutive (cuexyotl) would be a noun, but here it seems to be modifying the noun for shield (chimalli), so it serves as an adjective.
Stephanie Wood
xl. rrodelas desta
divisa
xl rodelas de esta divisa
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest
shields, escudos, rodelas, feathers, plumas, agua
cuexyo, a feathered shield design, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuexyo
cuexteca(tl), a feathered suit for a dancer, or the person who wears this suit, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuextecatl
Codex Mendoza, folio 19 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 48 of 188.
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).
