Yucatan is a land of many legends and believes. Creatures as good as evil that lurkes in the dark. A runaway princess. Tales about the Mayan gods. And so...
Here are some of the known popular legends:

EL Huay Chivo
The legend tells that The "Huay Chivo" is a magician shaped as a big black goat, whose eyes glows red. He eats the chicken and the people who has faced him, they sucumbed to high fever and illness.
Practicionist of the black magic, he likes to do his devil acts in lonely, dark places.
According on what is believed, he is half human, half goat. He has the head of the goat and human body but he can assume some other forms, like a dog (Huay Perro).
So wayfarer, look after yourself of walking after the midnight where the Huay chivo roams for this evil being who hates light and loves darkness, can bestow on you all his evilness.

Cenotes
There are many legends about the cenotes. Here there are some of them:

A couple without children found in a cenote a little girl which was named Nicte-Ha (water Flower). The girl grew in beauty and age and so a mayan warrior wanted her. One day he ran after her in order to get her and she fell into a cenote and the water claimed what was its own. Her body appeared later, floating on the cenote. White flowers appeared in the mouth of the girl and two white pigeons were scattering the flowers all over the ceonte. When the moon is full, Nicte-ha sings in the cenote while his cursed stalker wanders in the woods.

The great priest of Chichen Itzá, Ah Kinxoc, had a beautiful daughter called Oyamal. Two princes brothers, Ac and Cay, fell in love with her. Cay was the chosen one but in his ire, Ac enclosed Oyamal in Chichen Itza's cloister, and to Cay in Kauá's waters. Cay crossed the underground labyrinth up to coming to the cloister, but Ac surprised the couple, who managed to hide in the grotto where they yet remains and in the nights of Xac (January), a voice is heard that says Yacumá! (I love you).

A Mayan priest committed the sacrilege of falling in love with a princess and both hid in Xtacumbil-Xunan's grottos. But the spirits, infuriated, transformed the princess into a statue of stone (some figures of the cave) and to the priest in one of seven lakes of the cave called Putsu. When the human voice is heard there, this lake moves back and returns when all is silence. The water is the soul in sorrow of a priest who scares and run away when he hears voices.

Many fantastic beings, as the aluxes, live or are related to the cenotes. Landa (Spanish priest) supposed that the cenotes were formed when a lightning sruck the surface. The mayan had similar believes as it follows the creation of the cenote Xlacah from Dzibilchaltun. An old and tired man came to the house of his son to ask for a piece of bread. The ungrateful son, in spite of enjoying many comforts, denied the food to his father. God took the appearance of the old man and went to ask for help the son, who returned to refuse. Then, God, to punish the ingrate, made fall a beam of lightning on his house. Sinking in the soil, the cenote Xlacah was formed.

The name of Yucatan
The name of the peninsula was given during the Spanish Conquest. Though there are several statements that coincide with that this origin would have been given by a verbal misunderstanding (among) the Maya and the conquerors, they all are uncertain enough.
One of them tells that a spanish approached a mayan and asked about the name of the land, which the mayan responded: Yuk ak katán (I don't understand your language). In other one, the answer was Yucatán (I'm not from here). Other tells the mayan people answered uh yu uthaan (hear how they speak) and the Spanish people heard Yucatan. In other answer, they said Ci u than (I don't get it).
Probably the first narrator of the story of "I don't get it" was Toribio de Benavente, Motolinia, who writes at the end of the chapter 8 from the "Tratado III": " Because speaking with those Indians of that coast, what the Spanish were asking to the Indians: " Tectetán, Tectetán ", that means: " I do not understand you, I do not understand you ": the Christians corrupted the word, and not understanding what the Indians were saying, they said: " Yucatan is called this land "; and the same thing was in a Cape, whom also they were called Cape Cotoch; and Cotoch in that language means house ".

The god of fireand the god of rain
The day that the God Crador of the Maya brought together other gods to say to them how there should work each of them to give the sustenance to the man, the God of the Fire and the God of the rain did not come in time.
When still(yet) they were in way, the God of the Fire said this way:
-Rain, since we're getting late to the meeting, why don't we return to our homes? I want to go home.
-Are you afraid? They will give our assignment even if we're grumbled. -answered Rain
-They are going to left nothing to us to do. -replied Fire
-It doesn't matter. Let's go and see if we have work to do. -said Rain
-Fine, let's go
When the gods arrived with the creator, he scolded them for the delay and later he asked to pay attention for the task to do. It was then when the creator talked to them:
-Fire, you will burn down the crops of the farmers.
-It's ok-answered Fire
-And you, Rain, You will let the rain drop over from the beginning to the end of the crop and before the harvest.
Once the works were given, the two gods were returning home. Suddenly, they remembered the creator didn't told them who was going to feed them so they returned to him for asking and the creator said:
-Don't worry, the farmer will feed you with the result of the harvest.
That's why till now always we see the offering of the the Saka ' in the center of the milpa and does also the Ch'a 'Chaak to feed the Gods.
The saka' is a drink made of corn, similar to the pozole, whose nixtamal is parboiled without lime and is ground with husk and everything. Then is dissolved and sweetened with honey to offer it to the gods of the milpa. The Ch'a ' Chaak is the agricultural ceremony that is done to ask for the rain.

X'tabay
The legend says that the X'tabay is the beautiful, inmensly beautiful woman who has the habit of pleasing the traveler who likes to adventure in the night. Sitting at the foot of the most leafy ceiba of the forest, she lures them singing, talking sweet phrases and full of love, seduces, bewitches and finally, destroys them. The bodies of the incautous appear the next day with the most horrible scratches, bites and the chest opened by nails as claws.

Aluxes
Tiny people who lives on some areas where the crops are. they come at night and like to prank on the people living around. They also scares the bad winds and the plagues. you have to be good with them so your crops will grow fine. you treat them bad and your crops will give you nothing.


There are other legends like the dwarf of Uxmal and the princess Sac Nicte and the dwarf from Uxmal. We don't want to add those here because the legends described here are for general knowledge of the mayan culture. You still can hear some other legends on every archeological site of Yucatan. It's a well worth trip you will enjoy.

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