Ghost Story of the Month

Xtabi

On my last trip to Belize in Central America, our guide at the ruins of the Mayan temples in Lamanai, told me several legends that were fascinating. Which came first—the phenomena in the jungle or the events that were said to cause them? Or neither? One must always be skeptical when dealing with folktales and urban legends.

In any case, the story is of an ancient Mayan king who sought to consolidate his power in the region. Knowing the legendary powers of his shaman or medicine man, and perhaps fearing the man’s priestly powers, the king decided to marry his daughter, Xtabi, to the priest. Then the gods would presumably be at the beck and call of the royal family.

The daughter, considered a princess, was broken hearted when she learned of her father’s plans. The shaman was old and weird, and the girl had already set her sights on a muscular and handsome young warrior in the tribe. Explaining to her lover that their relationship could never be officially sanctioned, Xtabi and her lover stole away into the forests. Soon, the king, missing his daughter, figured out the plot, and sent his warriors into the jungle to bring the pair back to Lamanai.

When captured, the suitor put up a stubborn resistance and was killed by the soldiers. The sorrowing daughter was forcibly returned to the capital, but escaped again into the jungle, from which she never emerged again.

“She is still out there,” Belizian historian Emory King later told me. “Year after year, adventurers return from jungle expeditions telling of the haunting sounds of a woman sobbing. They pursue the sound, but never manage to find the princess. They recount wasted hours of pursuing the weeping sounds, though they never seem to draw closer to the princess. Her crying lures many people deeper and deeper into the forest, and eventually they become lost and perish, never more to return to civilization, King told me.

I asked him whether or not he believed the legend. With a wink, the 90 year-old writer told me, “If she is out there, she has found a way to survive over a thousand years. But also, David, we have a certain species of bird whose call is very like that of a woman sobbing. With the approach of humans, the bird flies off to resume its calls. And as the outsiders come closer, the bird flies off—deeper into the wilderness.

So, I leave it to the reader: was there ever truly a Mayan princess named Xtabi? And if so, did she have a brief romance that ended in the death of her lover? Haunts seem to linger long after such events all over the world. There is no ghost like a despairing lover.