Totur is a patron power whose name descends from Saint Theodore, absorbed through Caucasian Christianity into the older cult of the hunt. He is chiefly the lord of wolves, loosing or restraining the predators that threatened the flocks, and stands as protector of hunters and warriors. The 'Totur days' kept in early spring were observed to win his favour for herd and household, and his figure retains chthonic and martial colouring alongside the pastoral. He is one of several Karachay-Balkar powers, like the thunder-name Eliya, in whom a Christian saint's name overlies an indigenous deity.