minacachalli (FCbk11f29v)

This iconographic example, featuring a three-pronged harpoon (minacachalli), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the Nahuatl text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a Nahua man in a profile view, facing left. He has a mustache and a beard, which may be signs of mestizaje (biological and cultural mixing with the invading Europeans). He wears a white cotton cloak (tilmatli or tilmahtli) tied on his left shoulder. The cloth has some shading that gives it a three-dimensionality, an artistic trait that shows European influence. Speech scrolls arise from this man’s head. He is sitting in a canoe (acalli) and holding the harpoon up in the air, which allows the three prongs to be visible. This harpoon is yellow, and the handle is segmented, something like bamboo canes or other local reeds (carrizo in Spanish). He has apparently just stabbed the white pelican (atotolin) that is in the boat with him. The bird is bloody. The contextualizing image shows that another man is in the canoe, too. The DFC keywording team labels this man as the tlaneloani (boatman, rower), given that a paddle (ahuictli) is at his side. The rower also emits speech scrolls. Another canoe with two hunters–one holding a minacachalli–appears on folio 31r.