The J'ik'al, 'Black-man,' is a small winged black being who lives in caves and rock clefts, flies abroad by night, and seizes travellers — most often women — to carry off, devour, or breed with. He is associated with bats, whirlwinds, and in modern tellings with aircraft, and multiplies alarmingly upon those he abducts. The subject of a book-length study by Sarah Blaffer, he recurs across Zinacanteco and Chamula narrative as the archetypal predator of the dark.