ecatl (MH606r)
This is a black-line drawing of the simplex for the noun ecatl (breath or air), which has been extracted from calendrical name Chicome Ecatl (see below). This sign has the buccal mask that involves a device for blowing wind, which is clearly related to the divine force for wind, Ehecatl. This deity name is typically glossed as Ecatl, ignoring the reduplication of the first syllable. Behind the blowing device is the head of what appears to be an animal (perhaps a dog) in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. It has the squared-off ears that some deity images have, and it has a thick black vertical stripe on its cheek. The stripe is an iconographic element that is associated with the figure of Ehecatl.
Stephanie Wood
A great many glyphs in this collection start with Eca- when Ehecatl is expected, given the iconography. The gloss here gives "Ecatl," but the visuals suggest "Ehecatl." We are recognizing the possibility of an unintentional oral abbreviation of Eheca- to Eca-. But, if the shortening of the name is intentional, it may be a response to the edict of 1540 prohibiting the naming of Nahua children after deities that led to a favoring of Ecatl over Ehecatl, as a kind of disguise. See Norma Angélica Castilla Palma, "Las huellas del oficio y lo sagrado en los nombres nahuas de familias y barrios de Cholula," Dimensión Antropológica v. 65 (sept.-dic. 2015), 186.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
aire, aliento, viento, fuerzas divinas, Ehecatl
eca(tl), air, breath, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ecatl
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 606r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=294st=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).
