icxitl (Mdz8r)
This simplex glyph for a grasshopper foot (icxitl) or chapolicxitl also stands for the place name, Chapolicxitlan. It is a two-tone green, textured, bent grasshopper leg, the leg used for jumping. The part with the attached foot has hairs coming off of it. The upper part of the leg has a pattern that is like a row of v's.
Stephanie Wood
Here, the visual is of a full leg, but without the full leg, the foot alone would be difficult to recognize. The details of the leg are worth comparing to the full insect (shown, below right). This leg is the one used for jumping, and it is quite different from the other smaller legs on the full grasshopper. The attention to detail in the full image also helps confirm the reading, for instance, when looking at photographs of grasshoppers. The bent position of the leg recalls the use of the bent deer leg to stand for choloa (see below, right).
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
foot, leg, pierna, pie, chapulin
Codex Mendoza, folio 8 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 25, of 188.
Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)
