f. 19v., strips of land

This page (folio 19 verso) features horizontal strips of land that are labeled in a way that is meant to differentiate between different types of land. But the terms and their meaning are somewhat ambiguous. We see, for instance, “tequitlalli” and “tequitcatlalli,” which, in other Nahuatl manuscripts, both tend to be translated as tribute lands, i.e. lands from which townspeople derived the tributes or taxes they had to pay to local indigenous leaders and colonial Spanish authorities. Further study is required to understand the distinction between them. “Tequitlalli” may simply be meant as worked-land. “Mecatlalli” is not a term seen in standard Nahuatl manuscripts. It appears to mean cord-land, and so may intend measured land. In the Techialoyan manuscript from Iztacapan, mecatlalli appears with “yeitzontli,” which we translated as 1,200 cords of land. Although both of these manuscripts pertain to the same genre, the usage of the term is different between them, suggesting that their authors may have been part of the same workshop, but they were different individuals. A mecatl, cord in Nahuatl, may here refer to the cord of “50 varas,” or 50 yards/meters, that was used for measuring community lands during the measuring procedures associated with the minimum town base called the “600 varas” or, later on, “fundo legal.” [SW]