macuilli (Mdz44r)

Five-Flower is a calendrical expression from the 260-day tonalpohualli (day count). Day signs often appear in conjunction with strings of what we might call "ones" (digits or numbers represented in strings of such circles). Book IV of the Florentine Codex, for example, has horizontal rows of these circles, up to five per row, and linked together with simple lines. These counters also can appear in various colors. The bead-like appearance of the five circles here recalls the Spanish word for beads (cuentas), which also have an association with counting. While the number five was called macuilli in the post-Classic period and/or early Spanish colonial era, at some earlier time five must have had the stem of chic-, given that chicuacen (six) is five plus one, chicome (seven) is five plus two, etc., repeating this pattern through the number nine. Perhaps chic- had something to do with the hand or fingers, given that the human hand has five digits. The term "macuilli" starts with "ma" which is also short for maitl). On an interesting aside, the number five was considered unlucky, an excess (with four being a cultural ideal, symmetrical), according to Ian Mursell of Mexicolore.