Albasty is a malign female spirit of the Kazakh and wider Central Asian imagination, the enemy of mothers and newborn children. Dishevelled and pendulous-breasted, dwelling by water and haunting the birthing tent, she presses upon sleepers by night and above all attacks women in labor, seeking to tear away the lungs or liver of mother or child. Tradition distinguishes a 'yellow' Albasty and a more dangerous 'black' one, and holds that a person who seizes a hair or a talisman from her can bind her to service. Against her the baksy conducts his violent seance, wrestling the unseen demon and casting her out; in this she stands as the direct antagonist of Umai, the guardian of the cradle.