a sacred bundle (see attestations)
"From his tlaquimilolli bundle Huitzilopochtli renamed and equipped his people: 'ynic axca ye mitohua Mexica. Yhuan oncan no quinmacac yn mitl yhuan tlahhuitolli. Yhuan chitatli yn tleyn aco yauh quimina yn Mexiti' (Hence they are now called Mexica. And he then also gave them the arrow and the bow and the net carrying-bag. Whatever went [flying] above, the Mexiti could shoot easily [CC, f. 23v; Chimalpahin 1997, 1:73]). Huitzilopochtli pierced their ears, denoting their noble rank (Olko 2014, 70–73). He painted their faces black, signaling them as warriors, and gave them bows and arrows."
Mendieta (1845, vol. I:85–86) and Torquemada (1969, vol. II: 78) describe the tlaquimilolli as being made up of folded cloths of the gods, encased in sticks and one of the sticks had embedded precious green stones, and snake and jaguar skins ("ciertos palos y haciendo una muesca, o agujero al palo, le ponían por corazón unas pedrezuelas verdes, y cuero de culebra, y tigre.") Another tlaquimilolli is described in the Anales de Quauhtitlan (1938: 53 and 361; 1945: 3 and 124) as having ashes and an obsidian flint. (Quauhtinchan, s. XVI)
Something covered in turquoise (see Molina; and see Molly H. Bassett, The Fate of Earthly Things, 2015, ch. 4, note 2, citing assistance from Joe Campbell).
tlaquimilolli = a "sacred bundle" and "made up of the relics and/or belongings of the divinized founder -- tutelary deity or mythical hero (López Austin 1973)." The contents were "part of the supernatural powers of the universe and therefore functioned as a channel through which flowed the sacred forces that empowered, protected, legitimated, and gave a common identity to the village or town. Logically, the tlaquimilolli was housed in the temple that represented the sacred center of the community." Eventually, the Christian "patron saint of a village substituted for the tlaquimilolli...."
"In addition to human and animal forms, deities also appeared solely in material objects of certain kinds. Most prominent among these are the sacred bundles, which carry items quintessentially identified with the respective tutelary deity. The sacred bundles were held in great awe and were, because of the power contained within, opened only in protected environments and situations. We do not know much about these bundles, most probably because the
Indigenous peoples protected the esoteric knowledge and the power associated with them (Olivier 2007: 285; see also Guernsey 2006)."
ueuetzin ualteachcauhtitiya no ceppa ye quiualmeme yn tlaquimilolli = [Huehuetzin] "fue fungiendo como teachcauh; también una vez cargó el tlaquimilolli." (Quauhtinchan, s. XVI)