The legend of the Xtabay

Two equally beautiful women, Xkeban and Utz-colel, lived in a village in the Yucatán Peninsula.The women were 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. 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 aliqueurof  the  same  name. Ipomoea corymbosa was  also  one  of  the  most celebrated entheogens of the Aztecs, who knew the plant under the Nahuatl name coaxihuitland its psychoactive seeds asololiúqui ("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 village 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 Tzacamcactus (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.

It is  said that  the  Xtabaywear  a  white  dress  and 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  aceibatreeand  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.

By Diana Orozco and Brianna Balam.