Teuhcatl (MH776v)

Teuhcatl is not an unusual name for a tribute payer, although it has sacred origins (see the record in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary). The name appears, for example, in the book of tributes from Morelos, the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, and in records from Tetzcoco, all for macehuales. But the Codex Chimalpopoca refers to the ixiptlatl of a deity, Teuhcatl, who was dressed like Mixcoatl, and the Mexica were fooled by it. This is quoted in Molly Bassett's, The Fate of Earthly Things (2015), 162. Given the association with the divinity Mixcoatl, and the image of swirling serpent-like clouds shown in some of the glyphs of that name, this name Teuhcatl seemingly has associations with beliefs relating to the importance of wind and swirling rain clouds and what the Western world calls dust devils. Further underlining the spiritual significance of Teuhcatl, Bierhorst notes that the Codex Chimalpopoca associated this divine force with the Christian "devil" (see Bierhorst 2011, 123).