[Aztlan] Man eating jaguars

micc2 micc2 at cox.net
Thu May 31 15:48:36 UTC 2007


Here is a question:

In common folklore people say that "ocelotl" means jaguar.  But the 
ocelotl is an entirely different cat than the jaguar. 

What is the actual name for a jaguar?

P.S.  in one of the translations that Jeff Burnham gave us to work on in 
1981 was a "tecuani coatl" a man-eating snake....
perhaps an anaconda or a boa constrictor.... or just a fabulous animal 
of the mind?

John F. Schwaller wrote:
> In Nahuatl the common name for the lion (puma, cougar, etc.) is tecuani.
> It means "it customarily eats something human."  This is also where the
> name Tehuantepec comes from, the place of lions.
>
>
>
>   
>> I remember hearing somewhere that lions also rarely eat humans. As I
>> recall, the ones who do attack humans are usually thought to be old, or
>> mentally screwed up.
>>
>>
>>     
>
>
>   
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