Chocolate whisk

• Toy
• Torch/blowtorch
• Rattle/shaker/musical instrument (‘sound of rotating discs’ / ‘by rolling finger nails around the edge’)
• Priest’s staff
• Fire kindling stick (note similarity in the movement involved!)
• Medical instrument
• A ‘flaming arrow’
• Emblem for the emperor
• ‘Something for scaring wildlife’/bird scarer
• ‘Something to scare evil spirits away with’
• ‘Something to call/summon people with’; to call family for a meal
• ‘Something to signal danger with’
• ‘Something to remove air bubbles from food with’
• ‘A puzzle for entertainment’ / ‘A game’
• ‘To do tricks with’
• ‘Something to distribute seeds on the ground when planting maize’
• ‘To mix up the ground with before planting maize’
• ‘Something that works with cogs/gears’ (‘two could mesh together....’) - eg, to drive a fan to blow wind onto a fire
• ‘Something to tickle children with’ (to wake them up)
• ‘Something to put children to sleep with’
• ‘Something to dance with’
• ‘Something to hypnotise people with’
• Tool for spinning yarn/’weaving stick’
• Tool for ‘making string’
• Tool for (tie) dyeing
• A whip
• A horn
• To churn milk into butter
• A telescope
• A ‘Mayan spatula’
• Tool to unclog something with / a plunger
• ‘A Mayan glockenspiel’
• An instrument for weighing ingredients
• ‘To break down the ingredients in the tortillas’
• Tool to ‘express air out of bread’
• Tool for crushing beetles to produce dye
• Tool for ‘making holes in tortillas’
• Tool for gardening
• ‘For making bricks’
• A shredder
• A flute
• A megaphone
• A tool ‘for making leather’
• Tool to separate egg yolks and whites with
• A bottle opener
• To wake up the gods!
• ‘To mold clay’
• A tool for measuring/predicting an eclipse (?)
• ‘For relaxing music’
• A tool to ‘hold the maize [cob] with’
• Something to make a noise with at a party
• Something ‘to blow into’
• A ‘calendar tool’ (the disks revolve to mark a date)
• Alarm clock/’for waking up with’
• Drill
• A powder ‘shaker’/mill
• A (door) key
• A door knob
• A spoon or scooper
• Hairbrush
• Toothbrush (!)
• (Water) sprinkler
• Duster
• Screwdriver
• Wind vane
• Sundial
• A ‘decoration’
• Something to ‘keep the peace between two warring sides, like in a court’ [a gavel]
• Candle/candle holder; candle snuffer
• A blow pipe/blow gun
• Something to write with
• A dinner gong
• A tool for whacking clothes to remove dust and dirt
• ‘For smoking’
• ‘To soften butter’
• A fan for keeping things cool
• Something for ‘purifying water’; something ‘to filter water’
• King’s mace
• Hammer
• Pencil
• Pencil sharpener
• ‘To bless food with’
• Sieve
• Cigarette
• Salt/pepper pot
• Tool for stripping spines off a cactus
• Potato masher/grinder
• Fruit juicer
• A baptism tool
• Honey stirrer
• Rug beater (for dust)
• Rolling pin
• Toilet cleaner
• ‘Something to spray [paint] designs on a wall with’
• Weapon
• A tool to de-skin a jaguar
• A ‘god’s amulet’ (then changed to ‘staff’)
• A magic wand
• Microphone (!)
• ‘Something to hit/punish children with’
• Incense burner/scent holder/diffuser
• A stilt
• Poker for the fire
• ‘Something to juggle with’
• A cheese grater
• Walking stick
• Handwarmer
• Something ‘to make a mold with’
• Gong beater
• Back-scratcher
• A ‘dispenser’ (cf modern pill dispensers)
• An instrument connected to the calendar/reading the days
• Laundry squeezer (wringer)
• A ‘clothes drier’
• A ‘gift for the gods’ / ‘to offer a drink to the gods’
• Tool for cracking open cacao pods
• ‘Something to put in the ground, twist, dig around the earth to find roots of crops’
• ‘To spin cactus thread with’/a tool to make clothes with
• A kaleidoscope
• A hunting tool
• A tool for skinning animals
• A nutcracker / ‘you put nuts inside it’
• A baseball bat
• A snake-catcher (wind it round the molinillo!)
• ‘To massage someone with’
• A tool for storing chillies (by winding them round it!)
• Something to use to make patterns - in cakes, or generally
• Something for calling animals with in the forest
• Something to herd animals with
• A tool for getting sap from a tree
• A sports implement (as in Olympic torch, baton...)
• A tool for taking samples from things
• A tool for rolling out ink (ie for printing patterns)
• A meat tenderizer
• Some kind of timer (the loose rattles making a sound)
• Tool to lift the edges of a tortilla off the griddle, to prevent it sticking
• A tool ‘to make jewellery with’
• Something to hold up [to read] a codex with
• Something to ‘catch lightning’ with (ie a lightning rod)
And of course, a WHISK!

Photos by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore.