La Xtabay is a Yucatec Maya myth about the female demon, Xtabay, a supernatural 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 beautiful dress. One of the most accepted versions of the myth comes from the book, Diez Leyendas Mayas (1998), written by Jesus Azcorra Alejos. 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.