ixcuamama (FCbk8f34r)
This iconographic example features a man carrying a devil with a tumpline, which features the verb, ixcuamama, to carry with a tumpline. It is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the keywords chosen by the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss. This example shows a Nahua priest (tlamacazqui, in the DFC’s keywording) in a ¾ view walking (with one foot raised, in motion). His head is more in a profile view. The contextualizing image shows that he is one of three priests, who are in a line, walking toward the viewer’s right. He is in the lead, and he is the only one carrying anything. They all have long hair tied at the back with a red and white tie, and they wear cloaks (the tilmatli). These cloaks are white with red intersecting lines across them. The tumpline runs across the man’s forehead, and it is painted yellow. The verb combines ix- (face) with -cua- (head) and mama (to carry). The man’s left hand reaches up to the tumpline, perhaps to help hold it in place. The devil on his back is a greenish-brown. Its head is shown in a frontal view, and it almost appears to be smiling. The rest of its body is in a ¾ view. It has long nails. Surely, whatever divine force or deity this priest was carrying in the original account has been replaced here with the devil. This shows colonial European/Christian influence in the thinking of Nahuas by this point in the sixteenth century.
Stephanie Wood
This digital collection includes various examples of people carrying things with tumplines (mecapalli). Sometimes the items being carried are in baskets (chiquihuitl), and sometimes they are tied to a carrying frame (cacaxtli). See below. For more examples, do a Quick Search of the word tumpline. For devils to compare with the one here, please do a Quick Search for the word devil. Most have horns and are shown in profile views. Frontal views of faces are rare. Many human-like faces in a frontal view that connect with teotl (divinity) include, for example: Achiteotl (MH507r), Cihuateotl (MH792r), Tlacateotl (MH704v), Teoxoch (MH524v), and Teoyohua MH616v. A search for Xochiteotl will show more. The nenetl (deity figurine) also typically has its face shown in a frontal view (there are so many examples of this, it would be best to do a Quick Search for nenetl). The sun (tonatiuh and tonalli) can have a face on it that looks right at us (e.g., Itztonatiuh MH709r, Atonal MH665r, tonalli T1871:1). Sometimes these faces seem European-influenced, but the pre-contact sun stone does have a face in a frontal view. The cave, associated in Nahua religion with an earth monster, can have a frontal face (e.g., Oztoman Mdz10v). Certain other animals that may have a spiritual side can have their faces shown frontally, such as the owl (e.g., Cuauhtecolotl MH525v, Ecatecolotl MH816v, Tecolotl MH797r, Chichtli MH770v), although–curiously–glyphs for tlacatecolotl in this collection show a face with a side view, perhaps an image that dates from pre-contact times. Only one crocodile in this collection (Cipac MH653r), a wolf (Cuetlach MH493r), and a cougar (miztli MH493r), are given full faces, perhaps because they are formidable in some way. One item (Tetlailli MH884v) has a frontal face; the name means “disgusting or abhorrent.” Something that may be frightening or spiritual (Miquiz MH520r) or humorous (e.g., Huetzquiz MH666r or Tecahuezca MH671v), can also be shown in a frontal view. Finally, eyes are typically shown in a frontal view, either because they are powerful with their association with knowing, or because they would be a challenge to show in a profile view. One case of eyes (ixtli FCbk10f33r) shows a pair of eyes in a frontal view.
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
carga, diablo, demonio, vistas frontales de caras, iztihuihuiyac, iztihuihhuiyac, horned, cuernos
ixcuamama, to carry something with a tumpline on one’s forehead, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ixcuamama
mecapal(li), a tumpline, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mecapalli
cargar cosas con el mecapal
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 8: Kings and Lords", fol. 34r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/34r/images/0 Accessed 17 August 2025.
Images of the digitized Florentine Codex are made available under the following Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International). For print-publication quality photos, please contact the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ([email protected]). The Library of Congress has also published this manuscript, using the images of the World Digital Library copy. “The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.”
