Another Side of the Story
The World needed humans. In order
to get them Quetzalcoatl had to get the bones and ashes from humans of the 4th
world. He travels to the underworld and finds Mictlantecuhtli on his throne
surrounded by spiders and owls. Quetzalcoatl told him that he needed the bones
of those from the 4th world. Mictlantecuhtli agrees but on one
condition. Quetzalcoatl had to parade around his throne four times while
playing a trumpet (conch shell). Mictlantecuhtli is reluctant to give up the
bones so he gives Quetzalcoatl a conch shell with no holes in it to make his
task more challenging. Quetzalcoatl called upon worms to drill the holes, and
bees to make the sound inside. Surprised, Mictlantecuhtli allows him to take
the bones, but then changes his mind and tells him no. (Markman 1992).
Quetzalcoatl thinks of a trick to
retrieve the bones. He tells his twin Xolotl to tell Mictlantecuhtli that they
will leave the bones. While Xolotl is telling him this Quetzalcoatl gets a head
start. Mictlantecuhtli discovers this and orders his minions to dig a pit in
Quetzalcoatl’s path. When he approaches the pit, Quetzalcoatl is scared by a
quail. He then falls into the pit and the bones shatter, the ones that don’t
are pecked at by the quail. This accounts for why all people are different
sizes. Quetzalcoatl then escapes with the shattered bones, and grinds them up
with the other gods. They then, through self-sacrifice, create human kind by
spilling their own blood on the ground up bones. (Markman 1992).