Principal English Translation:
the hand(s), the foot/feet, a paired phrase meaning either dependents or human beings (a metaphor)
Attestations from sources in English:
To constitute hands and feet was also a metaphor for dependents. We see this in the Historia Tolteca Chichimeca: yn ima yn ihicxi = "en sus manos y sus pies," referring to people who arrived late in Cholula. Lockhart wrote "dependientes" in the margin of his copy of the book. (sixteenth century, Quauhtinchan)
Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, eds. Paul Kirchhoff, Lina Odena Güemes, y Luis Reyes García (México: CISINAH, INAH-SEP, 1976), 148.
the hands and the feet, a metaphor for dependents (sixteenth century, Quauhtinchan)
Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, eds. Paul Kirchhoff, Lina Odena Güemes, y Luis Reyes García (México: CISINAH, INAH-SEP, 1976), 148.
Attestations from sources in Spanish:
mano, pie = un difrasismo que quiere decir "ser humano" (p. 86)
Katarzyna Mikulska, "Te hago bandera... Signos de banderas y sus significados en la expresión gráfica nahua", en Los códices mesoamericanos: registros de religión, política y sociedad, Miguel Ángel Ruz Barrio y Juan José Batalla Rosado, coordinadores (Zinacantepec: El Colegio Mexiquense, 2016), 85–133.