Kaftar
Rutul · numen · Rutul traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Kaftar, also called Kushkaftar and among the Laks kaftar-kari, is a malevolent hag-demon of the southern Daghestani peoples, the Rutuls among them. Where some neighbours picture her as a decrepit old witch, Rutul narrators render her monstrous: an enormous creature carrying a single round eye the size of a plate, a cyclops-like ogress of folk narrative. She belongs to the working repertoire of evil spirits blamed for harm and misfortune rather than to any cosmological scheme.
Domains
- witchcraft and harm
Powers
- work harm upon people
- glare with a single plate-sized eye
Sources
- Kaftar (Kushkaftar) is a malevolent hag-demon of the Tabasarans, Lezgins, Rutuls and Laks; in Rutul tradition she is a giant one-eyed being with a single round eye the size of a plate.: Кушкафтар // Мифы народов мира. Энциклопедия. М.: Советская энциклопедия, 1980–1982. (secondary); Сефербеков Р.И. Персонажи низшей мифологии народов Дагестана. Махачкала: ИИАЭ ДФИЦ РАН, 2019. (secondary)