Xalpatol (MH730r)

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the place name, Xalpatol (“Salvador”), is a Nahuatlization of a Spanish saint’s name. It shows a frontal view of a building, which is a semantic indicator that this is a place name. Inside the building is a large black bean (etl), which is a semantic indicator for the game of patolli, which features beans as playing pieces and provides for the last two syllables of the place name. Patolli was a religious divinatory game. The first syllable, Xal-, is indicated phonetically by the dots of sand (xalli) underneath the bean.