Num-negir is a household spirit of the Muslim Tats, counted among the unseen presences of the home. Its name is understood to hold the Iranian element gir- 'to seize, catch,' and the being is conceived as one who lays hold of those who transgress domestic sanctities. Sources differ on its precise character: some accounts describe a nocturnal presser that seizes and stifles the sleeper, others a guardian attached to the hearth and to the bread of the house, punishing the careless who defile or waste it. Like the other domestic spirits it is warded by invocation of God, by iron, and by keeping the hearth in good order.