Quetzalcoatl is the name of a god from the old cultures of central Mexico — the Aztec (Mexica) and peoples before them. People picture a long snake covered in bright green feathers, like the quetzal bird. It is not only “feathers on the head”; the whole serpent is feathered. School English sometimes calls him the god of air and water. That is a bit too tidy. He is most often the wind, the morning star, and a teacher-god of knowledge and order. Rain and water have another famous god in that same world (Tlaloc). The name is not an English-made name; English borrowed it. You will meet it in history class, museums, and games more than in daily talk. A rough classroom saying is “ket-sal-KO-at-l”; the tl at the end is one sound in the old language, not “t” plus a lazy “l.”

羽蛇神（中美洲神話，阿茲特克等；不是中國龍）