Note 477 — Chapter XIV · NAHUA LAWS AND LAW COURTS.

The title cihuacoatl, meaning 'serpent-woman,' appears incomprehensible as applied to a judge, but M. l'Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 579-80, sees reason to believe that the Mexicans, when they succeeded to the rights of the Toltec kings of Culhuacan, adopted also the titles of the court, and that the name cihuacoatl had been given to the prime minister in memory of Cihuacoatl, the sister of Camaxtli, who cared for the infancy of Quetzalcoatl. The learned Abbé translates cihuacoatl, serpent femelle, which is literally a serpent of the female sex. Molina, however, in his Vocabulario, gives 'ciua' as a substantive, meaning 'women' (mugeres), and 'coatl' as another substantive, meaning 'serpent' (culebra), the two as a compound he does not give. I translate the word 'serpent-woman,' because the sister of Camaxtli would more probably be thus distinguished among women, than among serpents as the 'woman-serpent.'