Well, you guessed it, vanilla, also comes from the Americas and is another one of the wonderful gifts from this continent to the rest of the world.
I researched a number of legends and eventually settled on the story of the love
between Xanath and her artist lover Tzarahuin (beautiful goldfinch). It is a lovely story with magical transformations, an irate god and a bee. Interestingly, apparently when the Spaniards came to Mexico, they were soon enchanted by the flavour and wonderful smell of this plant, however, although they took the plant back to Spain, they could not pollinate the plant. It needed the magic of a very special insect which only grew in Veracruz. John Todd junior has a wonderful website called Adventures detailing the pollination of this wonderful plant. . However, if what you want is to read the legend of the vainilla, as told by the Totonaca people, the builders of the pyramid of the niches in Tajin, look no further and take yourself to Stories from the Americas.
The wondeful image of the "danzantes" the flying dancers in Tajin was taken by AboGabo.
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