Mazahuatl (MH517v)

Juan José Batalla Rosado (2018, 89–90) has suggested that this representation of the ethnicity called Mazahua is a phonetic reproduction of deer (mazatl) spines (ahuatl), without intending the corresponding meaning. Early on, the word for deer was applied to horses, which were a re-introduction from Europe. And the shape here, as suggested by Batalla, points to the spur that horseback riders would wear on their boots. This same shape is echoed in a number of other glyphs in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, as Batalla demonstrates. I have also seen a similar shape used for the name Citlal, but that one is greatly removed from all the others, which represent the neologism tepozahuatl (metal spines) or tepozhuitztli (metal thorns).