A query about a translation in Andrews's Nahuatl textbook

[John B. Carlson]

At 10:51 PM +0100 9/1/03, anthony.appleyard at UMIST.AC.UK wrote:
>Amazon.com has at last coughed up the new version of Andrews's
>Nahuatl textbook. I have been reading through it.
>
>On page 502 (in the new version) in a discussion about place
>names he says that A:yo:to:chcuitlatlah means "at the abundant
>armadillo excrement". This seems such a strange idea that I must
>point out that [cuitlatl] also means "bottom", which may be the
>meaning here. If any of you can identify and go to the place, I am
>wondering if near the place is a land feature looking like the back
>end of an armadillo. (I am in Manchester in England.)



===>  I think the description and derivation are correct. Check the
toponym, which I am virtually certain is in the Codex Mendoza (although I
haven't checked myself today). The ideogram is just "charming" and shows an
explicit defecating armadillo. I used to include a slide of this toponym in
classroom discussions on the nature of "Aztec" (Central Mexican) writing.
The students found it compelling.  That having been said, this does NOT
imply that there were not other layers of meaning. I would be sure there
were.

I expect we'll never get to the bottom of this one,

John Carlson