Of similar malevolent disposition is the _Chan Pal_, Little Boy, who lurks in the woods and is alleged to bring the small-pox into the villages.
Others are merely teasing in character, and not positively harmful. Thus there is the _X bolon thoroch_ who lives in the house with the family, and repeats at night the various sounds of domestic labor which have been made during the day. The word _thoroch_ is applied to the sound caused by the native spindle revolving in its shaft; _bolon_ is “nine,” a number used to express the superlative degree in certain phrases; while the initial _X_ shows that the imp is of the feminine gender. The name therefore signifies “the female imp who magnifies the sound of the spindle.” Other such household imps are the _Bokol h’otoch_, Stir-the-House, who creeps under the floors and makes a noise like beating a cake to scare the inmates; the _Yancopek_, Pitcher-Imp, who crawls into jars and jugs; and the _Way cot_, Witch-bird, who lurks on or behind walls and drops stones on passers by.
The female sex is further represented in the Maya folk-lore by a personage who has a curious similarity to legendary ladies of the old world, sirens, mermaids, the Lorelei, and others. She is called _X tabai_, the (female) Deceiver. Her home is under shady bowers in the forests, and there the ardent hunter suddenly espies her, clothed, and combing with a large comb (_x ache_) her long and beautiful hair. As he approaches she turns and flees, but not with discouraging haste, rather in such a manner and with such backward glances as to invite pursuit. He soon overtakes her, but just as he clasps her beauteous form in his strong embrace, her body changes into a thorny bush, and her feet become claws like those of a wild fowl. Tom and bleeding he turns sadly homeward, and soon succumbs to an attack of fever with delirium.
Another very similar creature is _X Thoh Chaltun_, Miss Pound-the-Stones. She slily waits around the villages, and when she sees some attractive youth she awakes his attention by tapping on the stones, or in default of these on an empty jar which she carries for the purpose. Does the foolish youth respond to the seductive invitation, she coyly moves to the woods, where the amorous pursuer meets like disappointment and a similar sad fate as the victim of the _X tabai_.