Do you believe in Leprechauns’ or Goblins? What about an Alux? Part 2

The final challenge was to build a pyramid in one night.  The King gathered all of his men managed to build only five steps.  The Alux though, being all by himself sought out the help of his Mother, the witch.  The witch went into the forest, collected hundreds of turtle eggs and through magic, created hundreds of Alux.

The myth/legend mentions that in one night, all of the Alux built a beautiful pyramid, destroyed it, built it again, destroyed and finally re-built it one last time.  This pyramid still stands today!!!

It is now know as the Pyramid of the Magician, or the Pyramid of the Dwarf, in Uxmal, Yucatan, Mexico.

The King became infuriated at his loss, so he decided to curse ALL of the Alux. He said, “You have won all of the challenges and you will be King of Uxmal, but only under these conditions:  You will be King, but ONLY during the night but during daytime, you will be turned to STONE, just like your statues!”

Throughout the entire Mayan world, anyone that visits the pyramids and museums will be able to find hundreds if not thousands of miniature statues of gnome like creatures.  The local people are quite scared of these miniature statues, some locals even go to the extreme of decapitating the heads off the statues so that the Alux cannot ham them during the night.

Like I mentioned before, nearly everyone I met in the Yucatan Peninsula have had some sort of encounter, experience or have had some sort of incident involving an Alux.

Do you believe in Leprechauns’ or Goblins? What about an Alux?

Continuing on my Yucatan blogs, I decided to tell you a little about the Mayan Alux (pronounced Al oosh).  Which, once again, if you are visiting the Mayan Riviera and/or Cozumel, Mexico, you might want to keep the following information in mind.

The origin of the Alux myth has been debated for quite a while. Some scholars believe they have European origins form the 16^th Century, others debate that it has a pre-Columbian origin, let them battle it out themselves.

I on the other hand, have heard one origin story straight form the modern Mayan people that involved a witch, a king and the beautiful, striking Pyramid of the Magician, also known as the Pyramid of the Dwarf at the archaeological site of Uxmal, Yucatan, Mexico.

First though, I will tell you a little about the Alux. The Alux is a kind of goblin/leprechaun that is widely known among the Maya people in the Yucatan Peninsula.  Nearly every one I spoke to there believes in them and most locals have a story to tell about them.  An Alux is a small being about 2ft tall that has magical powers, they can be invisible to the eye, or they can also assume any animal that they wish, like a large snake, bees or even a jaguar.  The Alux mainly protect the crop fields of the locals, but also are know to protect all of the archaeological sites at night. But most of all, they like to play tricks on unsuspecting passerby’s, some can nice but sometimes they can be quite mean and even scary.