CENZOTLE CENZONTLE deformation, sinsonte, voice derived from nahuatl centzutl meaning 400 (voices). The Nahuatl or Nahuas were an advanced people in knowledge for their time, and consequently did not use the decimal system like us, but the twenty-based vigesimal, which intrinsically implies a civilization more advanced than binary, octal or hexadecimal. The value 400 in decimal system corresponds to 20 in vigesimal system. The 400 vigesimal corresponds to the 1600 decimal ( 4x20x20 ), which was supposedly the number of voices it could emit. While we talked about thousands (of people or things) for nahuas it was natural to talk about 32 thousand. Therefore, in Mexico this name is assigned to a Mexican bird that has great canora skills and that can mimic the trinar of other birds, the maullar of the cat, the human hiss and many other sounds. The Nahuas believed that man, when he died, could become a bird, which usually occurred in the form of cenzontle, giving rise to many myths and legends.
