India, Sept. 5 -- It was once considered so precious, it was used in offerings to the gods. Today, it's in soaps and spa treatments, Coca-Cola and candles, lattes and doughnuts. How did cinnamon get everywhere?

The spice was once the stuff of legends.

Arab traders spun elaborate tales to keep Europeans from finding out where they sourced it. They said, for instance, that there were giant birds who gathered these bits of bark from "unknown trees", and built nests with them. The traders left huge chunks of meat for the birds to carry away; when the nests cracked under the weight of the meat, the cinnamon supposedly rained down to the ground. Other tales told of cinnamon that came from marshes protected by giant bats or winged serpents.

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