Nahua/Mexica · 7 min read
Quetzalcoatl and the Precious Bones
Human remains, a dangerous fall, bones broken by birds and ritual bloodletting. No graphic description.
A request in Mictlan
The gods looked upon the earth and asked who would inhabit it. Heaven had been established, and the land was ready, but the question of its people remained. Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, went down to Mictlan, the realm of the dead. There, Mictlantecuhtli and Mictlancihuatl guarded the bones of those who had lived before. These were the precious bones he needed to bring into the world above.
Quetzalcoatl explained why he had come. The gods wanted people to dwell on the earth, and he had come to take the bones. Mictlantecuhtli asked what he would do with them, then set a task. Quetzalcoatl must sound a conch and go four times around the precious wall. Only then could he carry the bones away. The shell was handed over, but it had no passage through which a breath could sound.
A voice inside the shell
Quetzalcoatl called for worms. They bored through the shell, making the opening it lacked. Then bees and wasps entered, and at last the conch could be heard. Its sound reached Mictlantecuhtli. The ruler of Mictlan gave permission: Quetzalcoatl could take the bones. For a moment the way seemed clear. The task that had looked impossible had been answered with the help of small creatures inside a shell.
But Mictlantecuhtli changed his mind. He told his servants to order Quetzalcoatl to leave the bones behind. Quetzalcoatl refused. His nahualli, an answering self or alter ego, advised him to say that he would bring them back. He called out that promise while preparing to depart. Gathering the bones of men and women, he wrapped them together and began to make his way upward, carrying what the gods had sent him to find.
The broken bundle
Mictlantecuhtli saw that the bones were leaving and ordered a pit dug in the path. Quetzalcoatl stumbled into it. Quails frightened him, and the bundle fell from his grasp. The birds pecked at the bones and broke them into pieces. When he recovered himself, he saw what had happened to the remains he had gathered so carefully. He wept and asked his nahualli what would become of their work now.
The answering voice acknowledged that things had gone badly. They would have to continue with what remained. Quetzalcoatl bent down and collected the fragments. They were no longer the whole bones he had taken from Mictlan, but he did not abandon them. He gathered them into a bundle again and carried them onward to Tamoanchan. The journey had changed his burden; it had not made him put it down.
The jade bowl
At Tamoanchan, Quilaztli, also called Cihuacoatl, received the bones. She ground them and placed the powder in a jade bowl. The remains that Quetzalcoatl had carried out of the underworld were being prepared for a new beginning. He then offered blood from his own body over the bowl. Other gods also performed ritual bloodletting. The account calls their acts penance: a deliberate offering through which human life could begin.
From the precious bones and the gods’ offering came the people of the present world. Quetzalcoatl had not brought back the earlier people as they were. Their remains had become part of the creation of others. Nor had he worked alone: the worms, bees and wasps, his nahualli, Quilaztli and the other gods all belonged to the journey. Once the people existed, another question arose. What would they eat?
Food for the new people
An ant knew where maize was hidden, inside the mountain Tonacatepetl. Quetzalcoatl asked where it had found the grain and persisted until it showed him. He became a black ant and followed it into the mountain. Together they brought maize out, and he carried it to Tamoanchan. The gods chewed the kernels and placed the food in the mouths of the new people, who grew strong from it.
More food remained within the mountain. Quetzalcoatl tried to carry it away with ropes, but it was too heavy. After divination, Nanahuatl was called to split it open. The rain gods gathered the maize and other food plants that were released. The work that began with a descent to Mictlan had reached the meals of the living. The bones had been recovered, the people had been made, and now there was grain to feed them all.
About this telling
The Nahuatl Legend of the Suns, dated 1558, paragraphs 20–35
This adaptation follows the Legend of the Suns and continues briefly into its search for maize. The nahualli remains an alter ego, as in the passage, rather than being identified with Xolotl. The selected translation describes Quetzalcoatl as almost dead from fright after the fall; other translations differ. The claim that broken bones explain differences in human height is not added. Ritual bloodletting is retained without anatomical detail.
Version note
Rewritten and translated in Codex in September 2026, with source checks. This is an AI-assisted editorial revision, not a certified specialist or native-speaker review.
Sources
These sources informed the retelling. The wording was written for Mythic Dream.
- The Legend of the Suns, paragraphs 20–35 — Anonymous Nahua author; English translation by Jason Colavito, The Jason Colavito Library
The 1558 Nahuatl narrative of the bones, conch, pit and ritual offerings, followed by the maize story. It does not explain human height through broken bones.