This happened in the most beautiful city of ancient Mexico, Uxmal, where a holiday reigned in honor of the Feathered Serpent Kukulkan. The Uxmal ruler threw a grand feast on the palace square for the main priests, rulers of neighboring states and other honored guests.
The vulture hovering in the heavenly surface greedily looked at these wonderful dishes. He also wanted to try something from such a luxurious table. He called his fellow tribesmen to help.
The vulture and his friends lurked in ambush and at one fine moment, when the servants went to the kitchen, they ran into the treats, which they swallowed in an instant!
The angry ruler was not going to forgive the feathered robbers. He called the wisest priests of Uxmal. And this is what they advised him.
Since the birds dropped several feathers while fleeing, they were burned on the altar, and the black ashes were carefully collected.
It was dissolved in water, and it also turned black! Then they began to expect the appearance of vultures. They soon arrived, first one, then another... Saying ritual spells, the priests began to sprinkle the sky with black water, so much so that its droplets fell on the plumage of the impudent birds.
Trying to escape the fatal rain, the vultures rushed into the sky. They rose higher and higher, approaching the sun itself, which furiously burned their heads with its rays... From then on, they began to go bald.
After all that had happened, the vultures returned to their trees, embarrassed and depressed, because they discovered that the once beautiful colorful plumage had been lost forever on their heads, and the rest of the feathers had become black and dry.
But the punishment did not end there either... For excessive gluttony, the gods doomed the vultures to eat only garbage and carrion, which they still have to do to this day. That's why they're such freaks. And, as if to complete the punishment, even the trees on which they take refuge at night lose their leaves and soon die.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru