Kaftar
Andi · numen · Andi traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The kaftar is a hairy she-demon of the wilds, haunting abandoned houses, mills, gorges and graveyards and startling those abroad at night; in one of her aspects she is the presser on the chest of the sleeper, the being behind the nightmare and sleep paralysis. Sources differ on how sharply she is distinguished from the other female demons of the region, and she is at times run together with the childbirth-demon al or the cannibal hag kart, so that her name marks a cluster of dangerous night-beings rather than a single fixed figure.
Domains
- wilderness
- sleep
Powers
- haunt ruins and lonely places
- press on the sleeper
Sources
- A hairy female demon of the wild places, ruins and the night who frightens travellers and oppresses sleepers; recorded in Daghestani demonology and sometimes conflated with the childbirth-demon and the witch-hag.: Сефербеков Р. И. Пантеон языческих божеств народов Дагестана. Махачкала, 2009. (secondary)