Malinalco (Mdz35r)

This glyph harkens to the twelfth day of the twenty day signs of the tonalpohualli (calendar). Our online Nahuatl Dictionary cites the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca for the crucial information that the word malinalli was part of a diphrasis, in nopalli, in malinalli, connected with bleeding and death. Another intriguing detail comes from Michel Graulich, who finds that the dried grass called malinalli, represented by a half skull with grass hair, is associated with "the moon, drunkenness, and the paranormal goddess Cihuacoatl Quilaztli, which is clearly an aspect of witchcraft." [See: Estudios de Cultural Náhuatl 22 (1992), p. 91.] Finally, Frances Karttunen reminds us that malina is the verb for "to twist something" (as in, to twist into cord), and malinalli is "that which is twisted." The other glyph for malinalli in the Codex Mendoza shows the grass as twisted (see below, right).