Tochhuicol (MH676v)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tochhuicol (literally, “Rabbit Pitcher,” but apparently referring to a “Pulque Pitcher”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a small ceramic pitcher with a narrow neck and a large handle. The pitcher has horizontal hatching for three-dimensionality.
Stephanie Wood
The beverage of choice may have been octli (what is called pulque today), fermented agave juice. “Four hundred rabbits” (centzontotochtin) was an expression referring to pulque and being very drunk. The rabbit was a calendrical sign, and there were divine forces associated with rabbits. Below, see a scene from the Florentine Codex showing a man who is drunk. In the lower left corner is a pitcher with a turquoise blue liquid spilling out from it.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
conejos, pulque, bebidas alcohólicas, jarras, cerámica, nombres de hombres
tochhuia, to turn into a rabbit, i.e., get drunk, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tochhuia
huicol(li), a little pitcher, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huicolli
centzontotochtin, “four hundred rabbits,” i.e., pulque, or the state of being very drunk, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/centzontotochtin
Jarra Pequeña de Conejos, o Jarra Pequeña Para Pulque
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 676v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=433&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).