The azhdaha is the great serpent-dragon of Lezgic and wider Daghestani narrative, current among the Tsakhur as a figure of tale and of belief about springs and deep waters. In the recurring story it coils upon the source that feeds a village and doles out water only in return for a yearly tribute, most often a maiden, until a hero arrives to cut off its heads and free the flow, a plot that binds the monster to the vital theme of water in the arid highlands. Beyond narrative, large snakes about springs and old ruins were sometimes taken for young azhdahas, and an aged serpent was thought capable of growing into one. Sources treat it as a borrowed Iranian dragon fully naturalized into local weather-and-water lore rather than a native theriomorphic deity.