tlachpanaliztli (Osu15v)

This example of the simplex glyph for the labor of sweeping (tlachpanaliztli) is not actually glossed this way, but rather only with the Spanish term barrer (to sweep), a service that was demanded daily from local Nahuas. Thus, we are just including this as an example of the iconography relating to sweeping, for the purpose of making comparisons. It shows a man in profile, holding a broom up in his right hand. The broom is made up of at least three stalks of what we would identify here as zacatl. A very similar example from another page of this codex calls it “zacate,” the Hispanized form of the grass or hay from which the broom was made. The contextualizing image also shows another person, another man, who was expected to bring water regularly. A ceramic jug is shown with three short streams of water splashing upward out the top, each one with a line of current (movement) and a droplet at the tip.