Popotlan (Mdz17v)
This simplex glyph for the place name Popotlan consists of three sprigs of yellow plant matter that will produce straws (popotl). The sprigs are tied with a white horizontal tie, probably paper. The locative suffix -tlan is not shown visually.
Stephanie Wood
The straw that was called popotl) was used primarily for making brooms. In contemporary Mexican Spanish, however, the "popote" is a straw for drinking. The binding on this bundle of straw suggests a possible ritual use, such as sweeping (tlachpanaliztli). The tie on this group of popotl is reminiscent of the tie on the tzontli (clumps of hair) on the glyph for Papantla (below, right). This popotl has a look reminiscent of zacatl (grasses for fodder), but the popotl stalks are straighter. The locative suffix, as seen in the gloss, is not -tla (or -tlah), place of abundance of, but -tlan, near.
Stephanie Wood
puctlan.puo
Poctlan, pueblo
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
straw, paja, popotes, sweep, barrer, brooms, escobas, Puctlan
popo(tl), broom straw, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/popotl
-tlan (locative suffix), near, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan
tlachpanaliz(tli), sweeping, often with a ritual dimension), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlachpanaliztli
"Smoke Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]
"Where There is Much Popotli" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, 199)
"El Lugar de Popotes" o "El Lugar de Paja para Escobas"
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 17 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 45 of 188.
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).
popōtl (Karttunen 1992, 203)
