"the mother, the father," a metaphor for the leader of the altepetl, who watches out for the macehualli (commoners) as parents would; typically, but not exclusively, the mother/motherhood is mentioned first; see also separate entries for nantli and tatli (central Mexico, early seventeenth century) Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 2, 192–195.