Nauhecatl (MH604r)

The number four combined with wind would be a calendrical name (4-Ehecatl) in the 260-day divinatory calendar, called the tonalpohualli in Nahuatl. Calendrics held an important role in Nahuas' religious views of the cosmos.

Even though the name is glossed without the reduplication, the intention would seem to be wind. So, ecatl may well mean wind along with breath and air. We are preserving the glosses that spell ehecatl as ecatl.

Ecatl and ehecatl visuals often include a head/face with a beak-like protrusion. The two parts of the beak-like protrusion may be tubes (or another device) through which wind was imagined to blow. Gabrielle Vail and ‎Christine Hernández (Re-Creating Primordial Time, 2013, ) describe Ehecatl as the wind aspect of Quetzalcoatl, and they note that Ehecatl "wears a buccal (duck) mask through which to blow wind." That the "beak" may have been perceived as a blowing device is supported by the glyph for Pitztli (below).[See also: Ryanne Maxine Meyersohn, Comprehensive Study of the Origin of Humankind (2023).]

The object below the head, with its red tip, is somewhat reminiscent of the tlacuilo sign that is a painting implement with red paint on its lower tip. See below for the tlacuilo sign from the Matrícula de Huexotzinco folio 778 verso. This may be just a coincidence.