How corn arrived

Before corn, people ate roots and whatever they could find. They were often hungry. The gods knew there was something better somewhere, but nobody could find it. The story says an ant found it first.

A red ant was carrying a yellow grain, and Quetzalcóatl saw it. He asked her where it came from and she did not want to say. He asked again and again until she took him to a mountain with a crack in the stone.

Inside the mountain there was corn, more than anyone had ever seen. The crack was too small for a man, so Quetzalcóatl turned himself into a black ant and went in. He carried out one grain at a time and gave it to the people.

From then on people planted, waited and harvested, and they stopped being hungry. That is why in many places corn is not treated as simple food. It is picked up from the floor if it falls, and it is not thrown away.