Matl / Tezcatlipoca?

[Paul Anderson]

Hi all, happy thanksgiving to those who celebrate it.

At the AHILA website I ran across a fragment of what the author, Jansen
I assume, describes as a conjury against bandits in the road. From there
to cross-roads, from cross-roads to night and thence to an
identification of Tezcatlipoca as the principal actor here. Two
questions, one specific, one general.


  1. "Matl" - what does it mean, who is it?

          I've been to Joe Campbell's dictionary and get this
          as a stem (?) in things like matlatl - blue water,
          nets, multiples of ten.

  1. Is "Matl" a manifestation of a particular god, Tezcatlipoca for
     example?

That's two questions already. I'd better stop there for now.
many thanks,
Paul Anderson

The fragment and attribution are as follows:

http://www.dsp.unito.it/AHILA/publicaciones/cuaderno5/2_jansen.html

                                                          (Ruiz de
Alarcón Tratado II, cap. 1)
Nomatca nehuatl
niquetzalcoatl,
 nimatl,
ca nehuatl niyaotl
nimoquequeloatzin
Ye axcan yez:
 niquinmaahuiltiz nohueltihuan

Yo mismo,
yo Quetzalcoatl,
yo Matl,
ya que yo soy la guerra,
y me burlo de todo.
Ahora así será:
me burlaré de mis hermanas..."

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