huitztli (Mdz19r)

Attestations of the use of the term in manuscripts from the sixteenth century, published in our online Nahuatl Dictionary entry for huitztli, mention several spines that came from the metl, or maguey (an agave plant). Others have suggested that the thorn came from the biznaga cactus. Anyway, such spines were extremely common in the homes of Aztecs, according to Bernardino de Sahagún. They were often used to draw blood in a self-sacrificial ritual, or they were sprinkled with blood. This spike or spine is turquoise (the color of some maguey plants, but also generally a color associated with preciosity) and it has red edges, suggesting that it has been used for bloodletting. Given the association with blood, it is not a coincidence that the Nahuatl verb huitzmana, to offer up thorns, referred to offering up warriors or victims on the field of battle. [See: John Bierhorst, A Nahuatl-English Dictionary and Concordance to the Cantares Mexicanos (1985), p. 143.] But the act of offering up thorns, huitzmanaliztli, is also attested in association with the act of obtaining maguey nectar for making pulque (vino nuevo, "new wine"), when the new maguey plants were castrated. [See: Anales del Museo Nacional de México, v. 6 (1898), p. 89.] This may be how huitztli also serves as a synonym for pulque. [See: Edward Payson Vining, An Inglorious Columbus (1885), p. 762.] The suggestion of a bloody thorn here, however, seems to point to autosacrifice.