Xelhuan (MH884r)
This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Xelhuan is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows what seems to be an animal paw showing a textured coat. Above it is a horizontal bar uniting seven vertical lines. These two elements seem to be part of a compound glyph, but research remains to decipher how they would result in the name Xelhuan. The verb xeloa, to distribute things, could come into play if the idea is to distribute seven animal paws, but that seems far-fetched.
Stephanie Wood
Xelhua or Xelhuan was the name of a a figure who has been interpreted as a mythical giant, prince, or "deity," the son of Ilancueitl, and someone active in the Tehuacan Valley. [See Emily Umberger, "Aztec Presence and Material Remains in the Outer Provinces," in Aztec Imperial Strategies, ed. Frances Berdan (1996, 170).] Some believe he survived a flood by climbing Mount Tlaloc, and some say he organized the construction of the huge pyramid at Cholula. Our Online Nahuatl Dictionary also reports that Xelhuan was the name of: "a Nonoalca Chichimeca who settled in Tula with three other Nonoalcas and four Tolteca Chichimecas, according to the Historia Tolteca Chichimeca or Anales de Cuauhtinchan." Compare this Xelhuan glyph with other examples, which together represent quite a variety of expressions.
Stephanie Wood
po. selhuā
Pedro Xelhuan
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
divide, dividir, distribute, distribuir, números, counters, marcadores, nombres de hombres
Xelhuan, a personal name, a Chichimec lord, and a figure in origin stories, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xelhuan
xeloa, to divide or distribute, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xeloa
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 884r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=840&st=image.
This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).
