quiyahuitl (Mdz40r)
This element for rain (quiyahuitl) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Quiyauhteopan. The rain consists of three short streams of water painted a turquoise blue and with black lines in the middle to suggest current or flow (movement). At the end of each short stream is a droplet, two small concentric circles left white/neutral. The streams are evenly placed. The tops of the streams are cut off. They fall from an unknown source, as though suspended in air.
Stephanie Wood
The visual relationship between rain (quiyahuitl) and water (atl) is not a coincidence. Variations will occur, but this is a classic representation of rain, and we have a few compound glyphs in this collection that indicate the importance of rain. As our online Nahuatl Dictionary entry for quiyahuitl shows, there was a strong relationship between tears and raindrops. When children cried, people believed that to be a sign that it would rain. Rainfall had a strong association with the deity or priest called Tlaloc, who could bring on the rain and facilitate fertility in agriculture (Florentine Codex, Book 1). Tlaloc wore a necklace of green stones, which also symbolized water or precious raindrops.
Besides the fact that rain is essential for agricultural success in many parts of the Nahua world, and probably because of that, the term quiyahuitl is a day name in the calendar. But in the compound from which this element derives, rain may have been playing a phonetic role for -quiyahuac (outside or at the entrance--to the temple).
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Xitlali Torres
agua, lluvia, aguacero, entrada
Codex Mendoza, folio 40 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 90 of 188.
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).
