The Legend of the Pyramid of the Magician Legend held that when a certain gong was sounded, the town of Uxmal would fall to a boy "not born of woman". One day, a dwarf boy, who had been raised from an egg by a witch, sounded the gong and struck fear into the ruler, who ordered him to be executed. The ruler promised that the boy’s life would be saved if he could perform three impossible tasks, one of which was to build a giant pyramid in a single night. The boy achieved all the tasks, and became the new ruler.  

The Destiny of QuetzalcóatlIt was probably the Toltecs who superimposed their cultural hero Topiltzin Quetzalcóatl, the legendary king of the city of Tula, upon the ancient and mysterious deity represented as the Feathered Serpent.  Two intertwined legends recount the destiny of this hero after his expulsion from Tula.  According to Toltec history, in 987AD the legendary ruler Quetzalcóatl was dethroned by the evil Tezcatlipoca and expelled from Tula.  It was believe, that he emigrated to the east with a group of followers, reaching the Yucatán region, probably by sea.  In the same year, Mayan stories recorded the arrival of a king named Kukulkán, which in the Yucatec language means “Serpent-Quetzal” or “Feathered Serpent”, whose return had been expected.  Kukulkán defeated the Mayan city tribes, and made Chichén Itzá his capital.  He is said to brought great knowledge to Chichén Itzá.

Human SacrificeIn "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan" (two volumes, 1843) John Lloyd Stevens recounts stories of the human sacrifices performed at the highest temple of the House of the Magician. With the victim still alive, the priest would rip out the heart with a flint knife, and throw the body (allegedly still moving) down the steep steps.

  There are stories of sacrificial victims being thrown into the “cenotes” (see Chitchén Itzá) along with offerings of treasure.  The “sacred cenotes” are very deep wells where selected victims (humans and animals) and a variety of rich offerings were thrown to placate the rain god Chac-Tlaloc in times of drought.  It was believe that the rain god Chac-Tlaloc preferred children victims, because their tears stimulated the rain.  Mayas also thought that these sacrifices were a means of access to the Xibalbá, the Maya kingdom of the Underworld. 

   In 1901 an American, Edward Thompson, bought the land around the site and proceeded to dredge the "cenote". He found jewelry, pottery, figurines, and the bones of many humans, mostly children. An international dispute arose when he shipped the findings to the Peabody Museum at Harvard, where some still remain (the remainder have since been returned to the Mexicans). The evidence, however, was inconclusive, as it was feasible that children were most likely to fall into the cenote during play rather than as a deliberate act of sacrifice.

  In the Ball Game there were also sacrifices.  Some people think the captain of the losing side was decapitated by the winner; others suggest that the winners earned an honorable sacrifice. No one knows for sure. It is said that the game was used either as a method of settling disputes, or as an offering to the gods, perhaps in times of drought. Only the best were selected to play, and to be sacrificed in this way was a great honor.

  Nowadays, in Piste and other regions in the Yucatán Peninsula, peasants still do rituals to the rain god Chac-Tlaloc in times of drought. But instead of having human sacrifices, they offer food to the god.  The participation of children is very important, children sing like frogs, announcing the coming of the rain. Also, four members of the community stand up around the table where the food is, waving machetes vigorously to produce the sound of a storm while the leader of the ceremony prays.