Demonological character albasty in Kazakh maternity rituals: functions and attributes. Naumova.Y.N.

Translated via google translate.

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The article is devoted to the modern ideas of the Kazakhs of Northern Kazakhstan about albasty - a demonic character known to many Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia and the Caucasus. The article examines the attributes and functions of this character, which are implemented in prohibitions, regulations and tales associated mainly with the traditional maternity cycle. According to the Kazakhs, the harmful effect of albasta is associated with the abduction of any vital organ of a woman, usually in the process of birth. In the traditions of different Turkic-speaking peoples, this demonic character can exist in different guises, but at the same time he has a number of stable characteristics and functions, a detailed consideration of which is undertaken in the article.

Key words: Kazakh folklore, Kazakh demonology, demonological character, albasty, birth ritual.

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The period of pregnancy and childbirth is associated with a special borderline state, the idea of which implies an increased danger for the mother and child and their special vulnerability at this time. In the Kazakh culture, a whole complex of prohibitions, regulations and norms is associated with the belief in the existence of demonic characters capable of harming a pregnant woman both during childbirth and long before it.

The main harm, according to currently prevailing beliefs, can be caused by the demon albasty; sometimes it can be called shaitan as a general name for evil spirits. This character is known to many Turkic-speaking peoples, in particular the Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Karakalpaks, Tatars, Azerbaijanis, Tuvans, etc. Its main harmful effect is associated with the abduction of any vital organ of a woman, usually in the process of birth. According to the Kazakhs, albasty steals the lungs, liver or heart of a woman in labor and hurries with them to the water; as soon as he lowers them into the water, the woman will die.

The image of this demonic character has a number of stable characteristics, one of which is red or yellow hair or fur. Often “albasty appears in the guise of an ugly or beautiful woman with long flowing blond or golden hair. In some Kazakh myths, she has everted feet or hooves on her legs”. According to the Kyrgyz, she may appear in the form of a child with red-yellow hair, most often in the form of a girl. In addition, this character has the ability to transform not only into animals, but also into various objects. For example, the Kazan Tatars believed that albasty could take the form of a cart, a haystack, or a spruce tree. Among the Kazakhs, such metamorphoses are characteristic of almost all characters of lower mythology (Zheztyrnak, Mystan Kempyr). Sometimes the image of an albasta, according to informants’ descriptions, combines the characteristics of these characters (for example, long copper claws, a bird’s foot, long breasts thrown over the back).

Among the Kyrgyz, albasty is also called sary kuchuk, which means “yellow puppy”. This nomenclature is not accidental, since, according to information received from informants, this demonic character often appears to a person in the form of a dog or other animal (puppy, fox, cat, ram, goat), always with red hair. A striking example of the incarnation of the “yellow maiden” in the form of a fox (3) is a tale recorded by the Bayanaul Kazakhs.

“Once a horseman, approaching a village, saw a fox running from the village and holding the lungs of one unfortunate woman in its teeth. Looking at her, the traveler realized that these were albasty in the guise of a fox. The horseman rushed after her and, having caught up, began to beat him with a whip, drove her towards the aul. The whole aul is in bustle. In this aul, a woman who has just given birth lies on the verge of death, because the devil stole her lungs. That man, beating the albasty with a whip, tells her: “Put your lungs in their place!” Albasty returned her lungs, and the woman opened her eyes and began to come to her senses [Inf. 1].”

Let us note that the person who noticed the fox immediately recognized it as an albasty. The rider had the special gift of seeing this demon and the ability to drive it out. To force her to return her lungs and thereby heal the woman in labor, he beats her with a kamcha - a whip, which was traditionally one of the attributes of a shaman. In some cases, when there was no person nearby who was able to see and expel the albasty, his whip, scarf or robe was brought into the yurt (4). According to the Kazakhs, “any peri is very afraid of the whip, especially one made from tobylgy wood. They said that they could not even get close to the place where the tobylga whip was located” (5). That is why the whip (Kazakh qamsha - already in the name, according to S. Kondybai, there is a kam component, clearly associated with the name of the shaman) often acts as a talisman against evil spirits: the whip was hung over the child’s cradle or placed under the pillow. Currently, in Kazakh families one can see kamshy hanging next to the Koran, which indicates the preservation of its apotropaic function in the Kazakh tradition.

Not every person has the ability to see the albasta demon, even if it has a specific embodiment in the form of an animal. A special type of magical specialist, kuuchu, who has this gift, is noted among the Kirghiz. According to S.M. Abramzon, the one who once managed to see the albasty can become a kuuchu. During a prolonged difficult birth, they called for a kuucha (he was called batyr - hero, since it was impossible to pronounce his name during albasty, otherwise he could lose his strength), while loudly saying out loud: “Baatyrdy chakyr!” (Kaz. “call the hero”). Kuuchu ran into the yurt, splashed cold water on the woman in labor, beat her with a whip and shouted the words ket (“go away”) and chyk (“come out”). He seems to see at this moment how Albasty is carrying in her teeth a lung that she tore out from a woman 6 . The hero in the above Kazakh tale performed similar actions.

According to Kazakh materials, albasty, as a rule, is visited by an “unclean” house, an “unclean” person (7). If albasty appeared to a woman during the birth of her first child, then she will always torment her during childbirth. The Kirghiz said about such a woman that “one day her eyes became cloudy,” since the main visual sign indicating the presence and influence of this demon on the woman in labor is a change in the color of her body and eyes: her pupils dilate, become cloudy, her body turns yellow, she herself lies unconscious. Apparently, yellow or red color is a marker of this particular character, since during any of his reincarnations, the color of his hair, fur or skin remains red or yellow. In some cases, a sign of exposure to albasta could be a woman’s twisted mouth or squinting eye, which remain for life (at the same time they say albasty urdy - “albasty hit”). The presence of such women during childbirth was not allowed, since it was believed that if a woman “with dim eyes” entered or spied on the woman in labor, then albasty would appear. The appearance of albasta could also provoke loud laughter and fun, so at the time of the birth, young people in neighboring yurts were forbidden to have fun.

In order to prevent the actions of albasta, the Kazakhs used various kinds of tumars - amulets to which the claws of an eagle owl or other birds of prey were hung 8. Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, in order to protect themselves from evil spirits, place a knife near the hearth with the tip facing the door. They hang a loaded gun on the lattice frame of the yurt (kerege) above the woman’s head, lay down the skin of a wolf or bear, bring a golden eagle or an owl 9 - all these actions are of an apotropaic nature, and the attributes used are the meaning of strong amulets.

It should be noted the apotropaic function of birds of prey in the maternity rite, in particular the golden eagle and eagle owl, which, according to the beliefs of many Turkic peoples (Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Tatars, Tuvinians, Altaians) are sacred birds. Thus, according to materials recorded by the northern Kazakhs, the eagle owl is a sacred bird, since a prayer from the Koran is written on its motley plumage - “Alla degen” [Inf. 2]. Therefore, eagle owl feathers and claws are used as amulets: they are hung from a cradle, dombra, a child’s cap or shirt, or a wedding headdress. A bunch of eagle owl feathers was tied to the horse's tail when they went to make a match in another village. As a correspondence to this, we can give an example from modern records: nowadays this amulet, to which tumars with words from the Koran are often hung, can be seen in passenger cars, that is, in one of the means of transportation, the role of which was previously known to be performed by a horse.

We find a mention of the fact that birds of prey were brought into the yurt at the time of childbirth in order to quickly relieve the burden and protect the woman in labor from evil spirits in the diaries of travelers of the late 18th century. For example, Christopher Bardanes noted: at the moment of childbirth, “they bring a hungry golden eagle and place it in front of the eyes not far from the woman in labor, which, being hungry, often screams; They shoot over her from rifles or pistols and with this cry of the golden eagle and the shooting they pretend that the devils who are in the wagon (who could do anything to prevent the birth of the baby) will drive them out and somewhat frighten the woman in labor, which will make it easier and faster for her to give birth” 10. According to other sources, two birds were brought into the yurt at once - an eagle owl and a golden eagle. As G.N. writes Simakov, the shaman brought birds to ward off evil spirits. At the same time, the eagle owl was forced to scream in the belief that its voice was driving away evil spirits, and the golden eagle was placed on the mother in labor 11. In such cases, the shamanic function of expelling evil spirits was performed by the birds themselves, acting as if they were the shaman’s substitutes. All this information suggests that the idea of the sacredness of these birds was formed in the so-called pre-Islamic period, and such a sign as prayer on the plumage of an eagle owl is clearly a later component.

It seems that the endowment of these birds of prey with a special sacred status, the ability to drive away evil spirits, is also associated with other characteristics, namely with the peculiarities of their habitat. The eagle owl and the owl are nocturnal birds of prey, capable of seeing in the dark, respectively, and various kinds of evil spirits and demons, classifying them as their category, and do not cause anything bad to the one who possesses them or their feathers and claws. In addition, many Turkic peoples, including Siberian ones, 12 know the motif of the transformation of a shaman into a golden eagle or an eagle owl, who fight evil spirits, also embodied in the form of a bird. In some cases, this struggle occurs for the soul of the mother in labor at the time of birth. In this regard, the text of the shamanic legend recorded by Ch. Valikhanov is indicative:

“Once in a dream, Nadyr-Chulak, the head of the Perii, appeared to Koilubai (the name of the shaman), and announced to him that in a few days, during the birth of one woman, the king of the Albastyi himself would be there, advising him not to go there. Approaching the yurt, Koilubai raised a hubbub and, waving saber, rode into the yurt and fixed his eyes, full of anger and fearlessness, on the chanarak of the yurt, swung his saber, the saber hit something, the ringing was metallic... Koylubai saw on the chanarak the king of the Albastys on a horse as black as black velvet, chained from head to toe in blue iron, with one eye, as big as a cup of kumys, sticking out in the middle of the forehead... “13

This text is especially interesting because the head of the perii informs the shaman about the woman’s future birth as a planned event, which, apparently, is predetermined by a bad outcome. In this way, he seems to appoint the place and time of the confrontation with the shaman. Chanarak (shanyrak - among the Kazakhs) was traditionally conceptualized as the habitat of evil spirits - albasty or karakus (burial eagle, the embodiment of an evil spirit that kidnaps the souls of children).

Thus, the process of giving birth to a child, conceptualized as a borderline action, was associated with a complex of ideas about demonological characters who are capable of harming the woman in labor and stealing her soul or the soul of the child. One of these demons was the character albasta, who is defined by a number of functions and attributive features, for example, the theft of a woman’s lungs, yellow or red hair, and the ability to transform into the images of different animals. In this regard, many ritual actions during this period were determined by these ideas and, as a rule, were apotropaic in nature.

Currently, Kazakhs have separate ideas about albasty in tales and beliefs about shaitans, since informants often use this name to generally designate characters of lower mythology, and the signs of individual demonic characters (albasty, mystan kempyr, zheztyrnak) can be integrated into this single image .

List of informants

[Inf. 1] – Aset Kazhymukanuly Pazylov, born in 1976, p. Zhanazhol, Bayanaul district, Pavlodar region (Kazakhstan), 2008.

[Inf. 2] – Zhakap kazhy Kaleaskarov, born in 1945, chiropractor, p. Zarya, Pavlodar region (Kazakhstan), 2010

1. Kondybai S. Kazakh mythology: A brief dictionary. Almaty: Nurly Alem, 2005. P. 57.

2. Ibid. P. 56.

3. In connection with the idea of the incarnation of albasta in the image of a fox, I recall one interesting fragment from the story of the Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov “...And the day lasts longer than a century.” At the very beginning of the story, Edyge sees a bright red fox running by and understands that some kind of misfortune has happened. The death of Kazangap was symbolized by the appearance of this animal. Apparently, the author, as an expert in the Kyrgyz tradition, was aware of the idea that albasty, appearing in the form of a fox, could steal a person’s soul.

4. Abramzon S.M. Birth and childhood of a Kyrgyz child // Sat. MAE. Vol. 12. M.; L.: 1949. P. 99.

5. Kondybai S. Decree. op. P. 197.

6. Abramzon S.M. Decree. op. P. 99.

7. Konovalov A.V., Shakhanova N.Zh. A child in the system of traditional rituals of the Kazakhs (maternity and early educational cycles) // Childhood in the traditional culture of the peoples of Central Asia, Kazakhstan and the Caucasus: Collection. MAE. St. Petersburg, 1998. P. 13.

8. Ibid. P. 14.

9. Abramzon S.M. Decree. op. P. 96.

10. Bardanes H. Kyrgyz, or Cossack, chorography // History of Kazakhstan in Russian sources of the 16th–20th centuries. T. 4. Almaty, 2007. P. 181.

11. Simakov G.N. Falconry and the cult of birds of prey in Central Asia (ritual and practical aspects). St. Petersburg, 1998. P. 153.

12. For example, among the Khakass this motif unfolds into the following plot. The hero Khyyar fell ill while hunting in the taiga; the parents invited a shaman to find out about the fate of their son. The shaman flew to the shooter Hyyar in the form of an eagle owl, who, frightened by the werewolf, shot the night bird. The shaman, who was performing rituals in the yurt, died at the same moment. For more details see: Butanaev I.I. The mythical journey of Khakass shamans to another world // In memory of I.N. Gemueva: Sat. scientific articles and memoirs. Novosibirsk: Publishing House of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography SB RAS, 2007. P. 111.

13. Valikhanov Ch.Ch. Collection Op.: In 5 volumes. T. 1. Alma-Ata. P. 119.

Y.N.Naumova 2016.