Erirey is the patron spirit of grain and of the threshing floor, one of the labour-song numina by which Karachay-Balkar farmers sanctified their work. His name is the refrain of the threshing song raised as the oxen tread the cut sheaves in a circle; the singers call on Erirey to swell the heap of winnowed grain and to keep the harvest abundant. Like the churning-spirit Dolay and the sheep-patron Aymush he survives chiefly in the seasonal work songs, a personification of the increase sought from a particular agrarian task.