Quetzalcoatl

Look at the amazing Feathered Serpent. His feathers shimmer with all the colors of the rainbow, and his tail is long and strong like a snake. He is Quetzalcoatl. Long, long ago, the world was very quiet and gray, and the people he loved were sad because they had little to eat. Quetzalcoatl knew he had to find a special gift to make them happy and their world bright. This is the story of how Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, brought corn to the people.

Quetzalcoatl looked everywhere for the perfect gift. He looked high and he looked low. One day, he saw a tiny red ant carrying a golden seed. He asked the ant where she found it, and she pointed to a huge mountain. 'Inside,' she whispered, 'is a treasure of colorful food.'. But the big mountain had no door. How could he get in? Quetzalcoatl used his magic. Poof. He turned himself into a tiny black ant. He wiggled and squeezed through a tiny crack in the rock, following the trail of red ants deep, deep inside. The mountain was full of colorful corn. There was yellow corn like the sun, blue corn like the sky, red corn like a parrot's feather, and white corn like a fluffy cloud.

Quetzalcoatl, who was a tiny black ant, picked up one special grain of corn and carried it all the way back to the people. He showed them how to plant the little seed in the warm earth and give it water and sunshine. Soon, tall green stalks grew up, up, up. From the stalks came cobs of yummy, colorful corn. The people learned to make food, and their world was no longer gray. The Aztec people told this story to their children to remember where corn came from. It is a story that reminds us to be clever and kind.