tlacualchiuhqui (FCbk10f38r)

This iconographic example, featuring a cook (tlacualchiuhqui), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the page previous to the page with the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a woman in one of her traditional occupations, to prepare food (tlacualli or neucayotl). Here, she is grinding dried maize kernels (tlaolli) to make corn dough for tortillas (tlaxcalli), tamales (tamalli), and the like. The basket (chiquihuitl) on a stool probably contains tamales. She grinds the kernels with a hand-held stone (metlapilli) on a large, sloping grinding stone (metlatl). As with so many of her labors, whether cooking or weaving, she is kneeling (verb: motlancuaquetza). She wears a white cotton tunic (huipilli) and skirt (cueitl), which is shaded by the artist here for a three-dimensional effect (showing European artistic influences). Her hair is in the traditional style (neaxtlahualli or axtlacuilli) of an adult woman, with the points above the forehead.