a sorcerer; a shape-changer; a spirit, often an animal form or shape a person could take on; hieroglyphs show it attached to the crown of the human head
The root nahual- “means to transform, convert, transfigure, disguise, re-clothe, mask oneself, conceal, camouflage, and finally to trick.”
– Online Nahuatl Dictionary


Palace of
the Circus at
Chichen-Itza,
bas-relief of
tigers
