Obur
Nogai · numen · Nogai traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The obur is the gluttonous witch-vampire of Nogai and wider Kipchak belief (cognate with Tatar ubyr and Karachay obur). It is at once a living sorcerer whose soul flies out at night as fire or beast to devour, and a malignant corpse that rises from the grave to feed on the living. Insatiable hunger is its defining mark, and its name became a byword for gluttony. To lay such a being the Nogai are said to have transfixed or burned the suspected grave, a practice that preserves an archaic stratum of demonology beneath Islamic custom.
Domains
- sorcery
- devouring
Powers
- sends its soul out as flying fire
- devours flesh and drinks blood
Sources
- The obur is a devouring witch/vampire-being of Kipchak demonology, shared by Nogai, Tatar (ubyr) and Karachay tradition.: N. A. Baskakov (ed.), Nogaysko-russkiy slovar' (Moscow, 1963), s.v. обур (secondary); materials on 'Obur / Ubyr' in S. A. Tokarev (ed.), Mify narodov mira (Moscow: Sovetskaya entsiklopediya, 1980–82) (secondary)