The topilli or ‘staff of justice’

‘The walking stick is called tlanahuatilcuatopilli in Nahuatl, meaning “walking stick of command” (in Spanish, bastón de mando). Many Nahua associate the sacred walking sticks with thunder, rain, fertility, and the authority of the ritual specialist. During rituals, the Nahua decorate the walking sticks with ribbons and tie a fresh cloth handkerchief doused with perfume around them. People say that the colors of the ribbons tied to the walking sticks reveal the seed crops and the rays of the sun as it rises. Walking sticks are ranked according to prestige and power. People use governmental offices to indicate the position of a specific walking stick in the hierarchy. Thus, the most powerful stick is called the “presidente” and a lesser one the “juez.”’
(In the main photo above, Nahua ritual specialists, each carrying a sacred walking stick, lead a pilgrimage entourage back to the community’s shrine).

Pic 1: Nahua ritual specialists carry a sacred walking stick and ring bells to awaken the spirit entities as they lead a pilgrimage trek to a distant sacred mountain. The air is filled with copal incense from a smoking brazier

to is ‘our’, pilli is ‘son’/’prince’/’noble’, and tzin(tli) is a reverential suffix; it was the title of the leading Mexica priest undertaking human sacrifice rituals, it was the title of the famous semi-divine ruler-priest Topiltzin Quetzalcóatl - in Henry Nicholson’s words ‘The Once and Future Lord of the Toltecs’; and as topile it was the title of an Aztec constable or judge (‘he with the staff [of justice]’) Clearly the staff was a powerful and visible symbol of justice in the community, with sacred associations: whilst Yacatecuhtli, patron of merchants, wasn’t the only god depicted bearing a staff, it is with him that the strongest connections were formed. The staff and feather fan were ‘objects associated by the Aztecs with both imperial messengers and travelling merchants’. Berdan and Anawalt explain:-

Pic 3: Yacatecuhtli-Quetzalcóatl, principal patron deity of merchants, carrying staff and fan; Tonalamatl de los Pochtecas (Codex Fejérváry-Mayer), pl. 31 (detail). Note the flower at the end of the staff

It’s well known that long-distance Aztec travelling merchants (pochteca), with their own system of grades/hierarchies, acted as spies for the Triple Alliance Empire (learn more about this by following the link below). They enjoyed special privileges as a reward for some of the physical risks they took on their expeditions, and were close to nobles in social status.
The Florentine Codex (Book IX) describes merchants’ walking sticks as ‘the black staves with tassels of curve-billed thrasher [bird] feathers, with which they took the road to arrive here in Mexico.’ Clearly the decorating of the staff emphasises its ritual importance - a tradition that lives on today (pic 6) in Nahua communities...

Pic 5: Mexica ‘disguised merchants’ entering the territory of Zinacantlan; Florentine Codex Book IX