Kʼav
Tsez · numen · Tsez traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Kʼav is a malevolent being of Bezhta belief, the restless and dangerous form taken by a person who lived unrighteously and did not find peace in death. It is described as a kind of werewolf, prowling in a beast-like shape to trouble the living, and stands among the evil spirits and demons that the Bezhta feared and named alongside the kindly household guardian Tsini. In the ethnographic record it is enumerated together with the spirits Rokho and Kʼaro as the dark powers of the domestic and nocturnal world.
Domains
- restless dead
- malevolence harm
Powers
- roams by night as a werewolf-like revenant
Relations
- companion: RokhoEnumerated together among the malevolent spirits of Bezhta belief.D. M. Magomedov, 'Бежтинцы: XIX – начало XX в.' (Makhachkala, 2002) (secondary)
- companion: KʼaroEnumerated together among the malevolent spirits of Bezhta belief.D. M. Magomedov, 'Бежтинцы: XIX – начало XX в.' (Makhachkala, 2002) (secondary)
Sources
- Among the Bezhta the Kʼav is an evil being resembling a werewolf, the returning form of a person who lived unrighteously.: R. I. Seferbekov, 'Персонажи низшей мифологии народов Дагестана' (Makhachkala, 2019) (secondary)
- Kʼav is listed with Rokho and Kʼaro among the evil spirits and demons of Bezhta belief, beside the family-guardian Tsini.: D. M. Magomedov, 'Бежтинцы: XIX – начало XX в. Историко-этнографическое исследование' (Makhachkala, 2002) (secondary)