Bundles of salt

This grouping shows bundles of salt (the dots within the knotted cloths, suggested to me by Baltazar Brito Guadarrama) above counters of 400 (a grouping of reeds, suggests <a href = "https://brewminate.com/the-codex-huexotzinco-art-to-protest-tribute-in-colonial-new-spain/">Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank</a>) and banners representing 20 each. So, the total quantity of tributes in this item was 440. These are vigesimal numbers; the pre-Hispanic counting system had a root of 20 (compared to our decimal system with a root of 10). Vigesimal numbers would continue to be used, especially in the rural areas, through the end of the Spanish colonial era. [SW]