La Xtabay () is a Yucatec Maya folklore tale 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."
The legend of Xtabay
Background
alt=|thumb|Location of the Yucatán Peninsula
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. 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.
thumb|The Tzacam cactus ([[Mammillaria heyderi), bearing its foul-smelling flowers]]
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. 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.
Moral of the legend
Despite her promiscuous nature and the resulting ill-treatment by her community, Xkeban helped those around her, which ultimately made her worthy of being transformed into the xtabentún flower. In contrast, Utz-colel believed she was virtuous because of her sexual purity and her community’s resulting kind treatment, but was also haughty and unkind to the downtrodden. The moral of the legend is that celibacy and outward virtue can lead the unwary into the sin of pride and count for little unless governed by a kind heart (inner beauty) capable of compassion for those less fortunate than oneself. Les Baxter's album Voice of the Xtabay by Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac depicts the lure of the xtabay in her music.
There are many similarities to the legend of La Llorona, a ghost who is said to wander Mexico searching for her children and luring away any living children she comes across. La Malinche was said to have three sons by three different men, and she drowned her three lovers, but now is cursed to look for them along the rivers and call to them endlessly.