Tlacochin (MH497r)

The creation of an enclosure with the spears is a phonetic complement that helps the reader know what type of spears these are, reinforcing the phonetics of tlacochin and leading the reader away from a reading of mitl (arrow).

The omission of a carved stone point is not unusual in tlacochtli (or tlacochin) glyphs, and this is even true sometimes of other arrows or darts. The feather decorations are, however, similar to the acatl and mitl arrows. One wonders whether the spear or javelin without the point was a staff that was held by the Tlacochcalcatl. It may be relevant to explore possible connections between the names Tlacoch/Tlachoin and the title of the high judge or general, the Tlacochcalcatl.

A man named Tlacochintzin (with the reverential suffix) was a principal merchant in the time of Moquiuixtzin in Tlatelolco (central Mexico, sixteenth century). See: Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 9 -- The Merchants, No. 14, Part 10, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1959), 2.