Tsintsiinkiriantsiintsoonkwaakwaa. , The art of Nahuatl Riddles and Tonguetwisters, Old and New José Antonio Flores Farfán Riddles have been present in Mesoamerican culture ever since there is an historical record of their language and culture in so called Aztec society and most likely long before that. The selection of riddles presented in this chapter stems both from sixteen century sources, as compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún in Book VI of the Florentine Codex, together with contemporary riddles from the Balsas region, in Guerrero, Mexico. They are recognizable by paying attention to the different orthographies in which these riddles are written. The 16 th century ones based and adapted on the Hispanic orthographic tradition, as standardized by academics such as Andrews (2003).. The modern riddles are presented in a phonemic, practical orthography, as adopted and adapted by the author of these lines and collaborators (cf. e.g. Flores Farfán 1999). Riddles constitute an outstanding window to understand a number of issues in Nahuas’ culture, mirroring for instance their material culture, flora and fauna, as well as humor and language; in a word, their Mexicanero (as they call themselves) ethos as a whole. Riddles are powerful ways to socialize children in contemporary Mexicano and measure the vitality of the language and culture (as Nahuatl is known by speakers themselves in several modern communities, including the Balsas region) -- probably that was also the case in Prehispanic Mexico. The author of the present lines was made aware of this fact by his Nahua mentor, Don Arnulfo G- Ramírez (RIP), when almost 40 years ago, in the community of Xalitla --- were Nahuatl is no longer or very rarely transmitted to children --- asked him to sit down and write down a number of riddles. Of c ourse Don A rnulfo was qu i te frustrated at that time, since he w anted me to respond accurately, something which of course I was not ready to do and which ocnsttuted my goal fro the last 30 years – now I’m able to even dream Nahuatl tonguetwisters . Afterwards I realized that he had not transmitted them to his own sons, who did not knew about them; depositing the responsibility in my hands; ever since I started working on the topic in a number of ways, compiling, analyzing and producing educational materials with Cleofas Ramírez Celestino, Don Arnulfo’s one and only daughter, a Nahuatl speaker and talented Tlacuilo or amate painter. Today in modern Balsas communities a good speaker is someone that is able to produce and reply properly to riddles, a Tentetl, a “riddler”; literally someone that has lips as a rock, a speaker whose words are heavy ” heavily ”; i .e. , beautifully uttered , have a specific weight . Significantly, i n ancient Nahuatl Tentetl meant the jade jewelry that the Piltin (High class ruler) used under his lips (cf . Simeon 1981: 481 ), a “be ç o te” (Molina 1571: 99) in ancient Spanish , a symbol of the most “polished”, as missionaries likes to say, eloquent speech . In an occasion when the author was able to spontaneously witness a riddle game between adults —a fact that point to the value of riddles for all generations, not viewed exclusively as a child's game. It became crystal clear that both the pitch and volume of the participants change, marking precisely the riddle situation; in which key, mode and a whole different prosodic change and spe . akers are quite alert of the genre. Velocity of speech is an outstanding factor linked to the ability to swiftly reply and produce a new “shot” --- a new riddle. Closely linked to this genre, at times even directly coinciding, tongue twisters also entail the challenge to produce rapid, “ perfectly” uttered speech. Readers of this chapter are invited to listen to the Nahua riddles that are available online, as part of an effort we been developing over the years, together with local actors and other interested people to utilize them as very powerful way of revitalizing Mexicano language and culture (Adv ivinanzas nahuas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riASdGAsbYc ) and also the tongue twisters, available in http://www.lenguasindigenas.mx .