Mexico
Aztec (Mixtec)

Wood
Signs of usage – at least ca. 19th c.
Length: 21.75 in; Height: 8 in; Depth: 7 in
Idiophones – Struck Directly – Slit Drum

A stone carved wooden teponaztli /teponaxtle  in a zoomorphic form of a ‘nagual’.  This slit drum, has two slits on the topside, cut into the shape of an “H”. When these two strips or tongues of different lengths and thickness are struck by the beaters/sticks, they produce two unique tones.  The teponaztli is an instrument that was considered a living entity by the Aztecs and related cultures.  The term ‘nagual,’ also spelled ‘nahual,’ refers to the guardian spirit of some Mesoamericans, including the Aztec people. In some areas the ‘nagual’ is the animal into which certain powerful men can transform themselves as animal spirit guides, spirit helper, and even to do evil; thus, the word derives from the Nahuatl word ‘nahualli’ (“disguise”), applied to the animal forms magically assumed by sorcerers.  This ‘nagual’ is a goat with beastly features.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: 

“Teponaztli were believed to be the manifestation of a court singer kidnapped by the god Tezcatlipoca and sent back to Earth in object form. As teponaztli were played, the powerful sound made manifest supernatural forces. Sixteenth-century Spanish accounts and contemporaneous codices (indigenous illustrated manuscripts) describe the contexts in which teponaztli were played, included tozohualiztli (priestly midnight household ceremonies).

This smaller teponaztli could either be rested on a frame or carried by straps over the shoulders. Please note that the term, Aztec, a Western portmanteau meaning “people of Aztlan,” is used to describe all the Nahua-speaking peoples in the Valley of Mexico, while the culture that dominated the Aztec Empire was the tribe known as Mexica.

References:  https://indigenousmexico.org/guerrero/indigenous-guerrero-a-remnant-of-the-aztec-empire/;  https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/312583