La Xtabay () is a Yucatec Maya folklore about a demonic femme fatale who preys upon men in the Yucatán Peninsula. She is said to dwell in the forest to lure men to their deaths with her incomparable beauty. She is described as having beautiful, shining black hair that falls down to her ankles and wearing a white dress. One of the most accepted versions of the myth comes from a book, Diez Leyendas Mayas (1998), written by Jesus Azcorra Alejos.
Etymology
The term "Xtab" was used to refer to an ancient Maya goddess Ixtab, the goddess of suicide by hanging or the gallows. According to Perez' Lexicon of the Maya Language, "Ix" is the feminine prefix, and "tab", "taab", and "tabil" translate to "rope intended for some exclusive use." Ixtab was seen as a benevolent goddess who acted as a psychopomp to whoever hung themselves, leading them to paradise, as suicide was considered an honorable way of dying.
The legend of Xtabay
Background
Two equally beautiful women, Xkeban and Utz-colel, lived in a village or pueblo in the Yucatán Peninsula. Sometimes the women are said to be sisters. Xkeban was treated poorly by her community for her promiscuous behavior while Utz-colel was considered virtuous for remaining celibate. The people of the village planned to exile Xkeban, but they decided to allow her to remain in order to further humiliate her. Despite her ill treatment, Xkeban tended to the poor, sick, and animals in need. In contrast to Xkeban, Utz-colel was cold-hearted and believed she was superior to those around her, especially those socially below her. The townspeople adored Utz-colel because of her celibacy and overlooked her cruelty.
Several days after Xkeban's death, the townspeople discovered her body guarded by animals and surrounded by fragrant flowers. The homeless and poor, whom Xkeban had helped during her life, held a funeral for her and, soon afterward, a mysterious, sweet-smelling flower grew around her grave, for Xkeban had metamorphosed into the species of morning glory called, in the Maya language, xtabentún, (Ipomoea corymbosa (Convolvulaceae)). Xtabentún is a lax, clambering vine that sprawls through hedges, scenting the air with its festoons of delicate white trumpets, and it is said that the reason that it seeks such shelter is that it is defenseless (it has no thorns)—just as Xkeban had felt defenseless when she was human. This flower is used for a liqueur of the same name. Ipomoea corymbosa was also one of the most celebrated entheogens of the Aztecs, who knew the plant under the Nahuatl name coaxihuitl and its psychoactive seeds as ololiúqui ("round things") and, to this day, the seeds are still used to induce healing trances in curing rituals performed by the Zapotecs.
Utz-colel haughtily believed that her dead body would smell better than Xkeban's because of her purity, however, her dead body had an unbearable smell. The entire pueblo gathered for her funeral, and they put flowers around her grave that disappeared the next day. Utz-colel became the foul-smelling flower of the Tzacam cactus (Mammillaria columbiana ssp. yucatanensis or Mammillaria heyderi ssp. gaumeri). Utz-colel prayed to evil spirits who fulfilled her desire to become a woman again so that she too might become a beautiful flower in death, but, incapable of love and motivated only by jealousy and rage, she became instead the demon Xtabay, outwardly a beautiful woman but inwardly cruel and predatory of heart.
Modern legend
Xtabay is said to wear a white dress and to have large black eyes and long black hair down to her ankles which she uses to attract men who are out late at night. She waits behind a ceiba tree (a sacred tree in Maya culture) and is said to comb her hair with the spines of the Tzacam cactus. She lures men deep into the forest, making them lost and disoriented before having sex with them. Once they have had sex, Xtabay transforms into a poisonous serpent and devours them. In other versions of the myth, the Xtabay can appear in any form or sex she chooses in order to lure a person to their doom. Xtabay will lie in wait under a tree to seduce her victim before throwing them over a cliff and finally ripping out their heart.
An alternative version of the legend, particularly in Quintana Roo, states that Xtabay is the punisher of drunks, thieves, and violent criminals.