teilpiloyan (Osu37v)

This painted example of Nahua iconography represents the noun teilpiloyan, a jail or prison. Another name for this is teilpilcalli, and this depiction of a jail shows a frontal view of what might be called a calli (house, building). It is white stucco with some shading for three-dimensionality, especially on the left side. It has a beam-lined entrance; this wood is a tan color. Inside one can see a woven mat (what should be called a petlatl) with a Nahua man sitting on it. He wears a belted white cotton tunic. His skin is a generic flesh-tone. A chain (cadena, the Spanish equivalent, entered Nahuatl as a loanword, although it is not used in the text here, nor is the Nahuatl term for an iron chain, tepozmecatl) detains the man by his ankles, and the extra length of the chain (colored gray) comes out the front door. Behind the man are some wooden stocks (possibly called cuauhcoyoctli, cuauhcocoyoctli or cuauhicxitl), apparently not in use at that moment.