Search Issues: Update 2026-09-16 - Repairs to some of our search pages are ongoing. Thank you for your continued patience!

Meanwhile, elements of the Advanced Search are working and the Alphabetical Listings are working, too.

tlalcua.

Headword: 
tlalcua.
Principal English Translation: 

to swear or pledge by kissing the ground, or to eat dirt (see Molina)

Orthographic Variants: 
tlalqua
Alonso de Molina: 

tlalqua. ni. (pret. onitlalqua.) jurar besando la tierra, o comer tierra.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 124v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Attestations from sources in English: 

Sometimes translated literarlly as to "eat earth," but it is also described as kissing the earth using the fingers, touching the earth and then the mouth, a ritual. (see Spanish attestations)

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

tlalcualistli [tlalcualiztli] = "tlalli, tierra; cualistli, comida = «comida de tierra,» alusión al acto de tocar con la mano la tierra y llevarla después á la boca , que ejecutaban en el juramento solemne"
Cecilio A. Robelo, "Diccionario de Mitología Nahoa," Anales del Museo Nacional de México 4 (1907), p. 127.

themes: 
Religion (Indigenous)
See also: 
tlalcualiztli.