A myth or a distorted reality?

 A mysterious black snake from Mayan mythology

 

  Mayan mythology is one of the most intriguing and mysterious when it comes to imaginary beings and monsters, having representatives such as enormous and horrifying death-herald birds, mountain-sized giants, tiny humanoids or large feline-like beings, but among these legends there is one that attracts attention, this being the ekuneil, a mysterious creature that although it seems like a myth could be a reality, come with me to see this, Thank you for reading, I hope you support, without further ado, let's start.

The legend of the ekuneil

   It is a creature from Mayan mythology, whose legend is told from the southern areas of Mexico to Central America, which is usually not very marked in the mythical realm, since it does not have divine powers.

This mysterious snake is described as a snake with a length of 2 to 4 meters, black or grayish in color, although what distinguishes it from others is its supposed forked tail and its ability to feed on human milk, its most distinctive feature being a forked tail, Although it also has a strange habit, since its diet is based on human breast milk.

According to Mayan legends, Ekuneil lived in the mountains of the Yucatan Peninsula, where it is said that they looked for those women who were breastfeeding they were agile to climb the trees, and from branch to branch, they reached the roof or wall of the house, where they looked for a way to access the interior.

Once inside while she was feeding her baby, little by little the snake slowly approached, inserting its forked tail into the woman's nostrils to make her fall asleep or to prevent her from waking up. Once this was achieved, it began to feed on the mother's breasts. retracting his fangs so as not to kill her with his poison, however, as soon as the infant cried, he withdrew his tail from the mother and put it in the defenseless baby's mouth, which in desperation began to suck from her with all its strength in order to obtain its vital food, although this was only a trick to silence him.

According to whether the Ekuneil did not kill its victim or the baby, it was not because of an act of kindness, but rather because it wanted to preserve its food source for as long as possible, Thus, as the days passed, the snake gained nutrients for when it came into heat or for the cold season, but mother and son were becoming weaker, until reaching severe malnutrition since the animal did not stop feeding until both of the woman's breasts were dry, and thus there was nothing left for the poor newborn.

And if the snake was never caught in the act, eventually mother and child died from malnutrition, so the Ekuneil fled to continue its trail of death.

A fascinating legend of Mayan folklore, but why do we say that it is between a myth and a reality? well, it is precisely that all myths have real bases and it seems that this one came to light recently.

An exaggerated reality?

(photograph of an alleged dead ekuneil)

  Well, it turns out that over the years, on the internet and in different media, several photographs of snakes with these characteristics have appeared, whether alive or dead, Here we have one from one or 2 years ago of one of these already dead snakes.

Although common species do not have these characteristics, and what's more, snakes in general do not have the evolutionary capacity to suck, Perhaps it is a case where this mutation used to occur not very frequently and this, when seen by ancient cultures, was distorted, giving rise to this myth to then explain other more common events, so perhaps the ekuneil would be a mythical being created from snakes with malformations, although to this day it is still under debate.

And well, we have come this far, thank you for reading, I hope you support this and decide to continue this humble project, see you later.

[Reading links]

https://vivemaya.com/leyendas-mayas/la-serpiente-que-toma-leche-2564

https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpiente_cola_negra_(criatura_fant%C3%A1stica_maya)