Huitznahuatl (Mdz66r)

The thorn and the speech scroll appear to be phonetic indicators, not meant literally. Given that thorns were used in self-sacrificial acts, the red color likely refers to blood. The iconography of the thorn is fairly standard in the Codex Mendoza. However, one group of thorns ("puas de maguey") are shown as green and horizontal elsewhere in the Codex Mendoza.

John Bierhorst (A Nahuatl-English Dictionary and Concordance to the Cantares Mexicanos, 1985, 143) says that Huitznahuatl was a "name or epithet of a god to whom slaves were sacrificed in Mexico." Other sources report that one of the ethnic groups that migrated from the Seven Caves came from a place called Huitznahuac, and there was a temple with this association in Mexico Tenochtitlan. Finally, Huitznahuatl was a high title, and it had an association with the South. The name was not inaccessible for tribute-paying men of humble means, such as found in the census of modern-day Morelos and in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco (modern-day Puebla). See the Online Nahuatl Dictionary for more information about Huitznahuac and Huitznahuatl.