Detail of relief sculpture, Great Ballcourt, Chichen Itza.
Rubbing image by Merle Greene Robertson.
Copyright 1995 Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute.

Quetzalcoatl approached the Lord of Mictlan, where he sat on his throne surrounded by spiders and owls. "I've come for the bones, the precious bones, the jade bones," said Quetzalcoatl. "Can I have them in order to populate the earth?"