Cuezaca (MH870r)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cuezaca (perhaps “Grass Skirt”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a frontal view of a skirt (cueit), consisting of a rectangle with criss-crossing diagonal lines and, in the diamond shapes, some dots. Around the perimeter of this rectangular shape, short lines suggest straw, hay, or grasses (zacatl).
Stephanie Wood
The gloss suggests that the skirt is made from zacatl, but the design is quite elaborate for such a mundane substance. Another garment, the Zacacue, is much simpler, with hanging straw or grass and a tie to go around the waist (below). Zacatl is found in various textiles, including a loin cloth (maxtlatl), a ritual bib (quemitl), and, especially, capes (tilmatli). It is difficult to imagine these garments being comfortable. Perhaps the translation of straw, hay, or grasses is incorrect, and the reference is simply to an inexpensive cloth.
Stephanie Wood
domingo . cueçaca .
Domingo Cuezaca
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
paja, heno, hierbas, faldas, textiles, nombres de hombres
cue(itl), skirt, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cueitl
zaca(tl), straw, hay, grasses, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/zacatl
Falda de Zacate
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 870r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=812&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).
