tlaciuhqui (FCbk10f125r)

This iconographic example, featuring a diviner (tlaciuhqui), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text the page after this image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a man with long hair, wearing a cloak knotted o the chest and made from hide. He is sitting on a rock (tetl, drawn as though a hieroglyph), facing left. He is also speaking, with two brown speech scrolls emerging from his mouth. The contextualizing image shows that he is speaking to a group of men with the same hairstyle and hide capes, and one of them speaks in his direction. The text explains that these are Otomies who are consulting the diviner. The text also informs the reader that the diviner was a “wise man,” equal to and resembling a deity, and addressing the others as though he were that deity. He could communicate with the deity on behalf of the Otomies and share what he learned. All the men in this scene have capes with a brown shading, giving them a three-dimensionality, and they are all sitting in a landscape. These are European artistic traditions that the tlacuilo has learned through colonial education. The landscape is interesting for the two animals in front of the tlaciuhqui: a colorful bird facing left, and a rabbit that is running (movement) left toward the Otomies.