popolotza (FCbk12f26r)

This is an iconographic example featuring a black and white sketch of Malintzin interpreting for Cortés and Motecuhzoma. In the Nahuatl text, Cortés is described as “replying in his babbling tongue” (popolotza). This conversation is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows Malintzin standing in a frontal view, her hands crossed in front of her abdomen. She wears an elaborate huipilli with a large rectangle over her chest with an X-shape that has dots in each of the four sections it creates. The huipilli has decorations on the shoulders and a border along the bottom edge. Her skirt also has a complicated weave that has diamond shapes with dotes in the middle of each diamond. Her hair is twisted up into the neaxtlahualli or axtlahuilli design of mature or married women. Cortés is on her left, facing right, and two speech scrolls indicate that he is speaking. Malintzin faces Motecuhzoma, who is on her right. She and he exchange two speech scrolls each. Motecuhzoma points his finger up in the air. He also wears a very elaborate cloak, also with a design of dotted diamOND shapes and a border of the tenixyo pattern (with eyes). The contextualizing image shows how each of these two leaders has a contingent of men with him. Cortés seems to carry a bouquet of flowers. The scene has some landscape features, including a place with a circular pattern below the roof, and some three-dimensionality. All this shows European artistic influence.