totolin (Mdz21v)

In the plural, totolin could be male and female, but sometimes the totolin was a female, a hen. Sometimes, for clarity, they were called cihuatotolin, female hens. A turkey could also be called a huexolotl (guajolote in Spanish), but this was more often a male. Turkeys were provided to authorities as a form of taxation in kind (tributes). They were also bought and sold in the marketplace. In our dictionary, one will see that a single totolin hen might cost one or two reales (eighths of pesos), or even up to a peso each. Sometimes warriors who had taken captives anointed themselves with white down feathers of the totolin.