fish (see Lockhart); sometimes had warrior associations (see attestations)
Īca pāquizqueh; īca ahāhuiyazqueh in notlahhuān, tlamacazqueh, Chicōmahtlapalehqueh, Tezcaīxehqueh, Quetzaltēntzonmāxaliuhqueh, Iztāqueh Tlamacazqueh = With it my uncles, the priests, Seven-fins-owners, Mirror-eyes-owners, Those-with-divided-plume-beards, White Priests [i.e., the fish], will be happy; with it they will have pleasure
(Atenango, between Mexico City and Acapulco, 1629)
michnamacac in itequiuh ce tomi = The fish sellers' tax is 1 tomín (Coyoacan, mid-sixteenth century)
ma ticcohuacan yn tetl. yn quahuitl. ma yehuatl yca. yn atlan chaneque yn atlan onoque ӯ michin yn axollotl yhuan in cueyatl. yn acocillin. yn anenez yn acohuatl. yn axaxayacatl. yn izcahuitli. yhuan yn canauahtli yn quachilli = yn yacaçintli. yn ixquich yn totome yn atlan chaneque = Let us buy stone and wood by means of water life, the fish, salamanders, frogs, crayfish, dragonfly larvae, water snakes, waterfly eggs, and red shellfish that live in the water; and the ducks, American coots, all the birds that live in the water. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
auh ynic niman ompa ontlacallaquiaya azcaputzalco cencuauhchiquihuitl cueyatl no cencuauhchiquihuitl michin = and the Culhuaque provided the Mexica with a heart for their altar. It was of excrement and whippoorwill feathers, wherefore the Mexica where much saddened.
Quen uel ximimatia in titeocuitlamichin. Iquac mitoa: intla aca quin yeoa uel monemitia, zan tepan itla ipan uetzi. = What happened to you, fish of gold? Be careful! This is said when someone had lived a life of propriety until a certain time and then something came over him.
michin (fish) could be used to refer metaphorically to a warrior, linking references to "the other world as a watery paradise" (late sixteenth century, Tetzcoco?)
ma mocujtlapan xocontlali in chilҫolotl, in jztatapalcatl, in tequjxqujtlaltzin, in mjchtlaҫultzin: ma xoconmotlatoctili in aoacan, in tepeoacan = Place the strands of chili, the salt cakes, the nitrous soil, the strings of fish on thy back; travel from city to city (central Mexico, sixteenth century)