Cuezal (MH518r)
This simplex glyph for the personal name Cuezal shows two red feathers (cuezalin) from the scarlet macaw--apparently tail or wing feathers. They are somewhat curvy and they have small lines coming off them.
Stephanie Wood
To the Nahuas, these feathers symbolized flames and fire. Thelma Sullivan, cited in our dictionary (in the reference elsewhere in this record), noted that Cuezaltzin (with the reverential ending) was one of the names of Xiuhtecutli, "God of Fire." Alfredo López Austin has also noted that Cuezalin was the name of a deity associated with death. [See Los mitos del tlacuache (1996), p. 194.] The tiny lines coming off the feathers do not appear in any of the representations of these feathers in the Codex Mendoza. In the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, often these small lines will be added to suggest movement.
Stephanie Wood
Juao cueçal
Juan Cuezal
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
feathers, red scarlet, plumas, rojas, escarlatas
cuezal(in), scarlet macaw feathers, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuezalin
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 518v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=116&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).
