See an image that represents metl in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).
yhuā in yehuatl franco xallacatl ca in tlaulli ca omoch quitamachiuato oquipouato yhuā yn ixquich metl ca omoch quipohuato yhuan oquicuiloto = And Francisco Xallacatl measured and counted all the shelled corn and counted all the maguey plants and wrote it down. (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, 218–219.
Auh in ootzti, momexaiacatiaia, inmemexaiac quicuia, yoan cuezcomac quintlaliaia: ipampa mauhcaittoia, = And women with child put on masks of maguey leaves and took up their maguey-leaf masks. [They] placed [the women] in granaries, for they were looked upon with fear. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 7 -- The Sun, Moon, and Stars, and the Binding of the Venus, No. 14, Part VIII, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 27.
7 pºs yc Oquichitonique metzontetl yhua yc ocaquique metl = 7 pesos were spent with which they trimmed the maguey growths and transplanted maguey. ([Coyoacan region?], ca. 1632)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 7, 78–79.
nitlanahuatia Ca Sempuali Mel yhuan chiCuaSen nicCahuilia nopiltzi = I order that I leave 26 magueyes to my son. (San Pedro Calimaya, Toluca Valley, 1763)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 200.
Auh in vncan quimetepātzacca = and where they had closed the road with a wall of maguey. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 104.
opuhuali yhua nahui metli = 44 magueyes
ome mel = 2 magueyes (Toluca Valley, 1737)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 124.
ome mel = two magueyes (San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1710)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 134.
memilli = maguey field (San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1710) Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 25.
meme = magueyes (San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1710)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 40.
metoyoc = planted in magueyes (San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1710)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 25; and see Byron McAfee translation, plate 10, Zempoala Techialoyan Codex, The Techialoyan Codices: Codex E, Tlalocan 2:2 (1946), 143.
oc se tlaltzintli meyotoc quipie macuilquahuil = another small piece of land planted in magueyes that measures 5 quahuitl (San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1710)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 63.
metl = maguey plant (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Susan Kellogg, Law and the Transformation of Aztec Culture, 1500–1700, (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995), 225.
ma ye mel xiçacamo, xitlacuentoma, xitlacuentlapana ximeteca xictlaça in nopalli = Be diligent. Rework the soil; make ridges; break up the earth; plant the magueys; cultivate cacti. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 240.
The deceased, the progenitors who are now gone, may have left "their thorn, their maguey," which they "planted deep" upon departing. This may bud and blossom -- in the form of a new child -- in the coffer, the reed chest (toptli, petlacalli). (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 138.
Macamo no quen qujmuchiujlican in xoxovixtoc in quavitl, in metl, in nopalli in jxqujch ixvatoc: ca itlaanca ca ijulca in maceoalli, ca inenca in jcnotlacatl = May they also in no manner harm that which lieth green - the trees, the maguey, the nopal, all which lieth germinating - for they are the source, the life of common folk, the support of the poor (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 40.
auh xontlatepeoacan in mjlpan in metzintli, in nopaltzintli in quauhtzintli = And in the field plant the maguey, the nopal, the trees (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 91.