Albasty
Kazakh · numen · Kazakh traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
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.
Domains
- disease affliction
- nightmare terror
Powers
- attacks women in childbirth
Epithets
- Сары албасты — Yellow AlbastyBasilov, 'Albasty,' in Mify narodov mira (1980-82). (secondary)
Relations
- enemy: UmaiThe child-harming demon opposed to Umai, protectress of mothers and infants; baksy expel Albasty in Umai's name.Basilov, Shamanstvo u narodov Srednei Azii i Kazakhstana (1992). (secondary)
Sources
- Albasty is a named female demon of Kazakh and wider Central Asian belief who assails women in childbirth and their newborns, distinguished into a 'yellow' and a 'black' kind.: Basilov, 'Albasty,' Mify narodov mira (1980-82). (secondary); Valikhanov, 'Sledy shamanstva u kirgizov' (1985). (secondary)
- The baksy's healing seances are directed in part at driving out Albasty from the birthing tent.: Basilov, Shamanstvo u narodov Srednei Azii i Kazakhstana (1992). (secondary)