Myths of the Kyrgyz in the Early 20th Century about Albarsy
Albarsty
Pishpek District, Burana Region, village of Gaur
How Khaireddin Khashimbekov saw albarsty. An aunt came and started talking to him; her feet were turned backward, and her resemblance to the aunt was incomplete in appearance. Khaireddin was sitting on a horse with a whip in hand. He quickly straightened up and swung at her (he had heard about this shapeshifter before), and the albarsty disappeared.
Last year (1923), while traveling to Tashkent, we spent the night in the Tokmak district at a station, in a carriage with a friend.
Nearby, in another carriage, a Russian woman was also spending the night. Khaireddin was not sleeping. She approached him; he wanted to say a word — but he had no strength. She stood there for a while, then disappeared; then his speech returned to him.
Every person has a jar of yarmat. One person found that every morning only half of the jar remained, although it was filled the night before. Moreover, his whole family suffered from someone lying on their chest at night, making it hard to breathe and move. One night he lay down on the bed, not undressing, with a whip in hand. When everyone except him fell asleep, four women entered the yurt. One wanted to drink yarmat, another started to light a fire in the hearth, and the fattest among them wanted to lie on someone from the family. Then he got up, grabbed her by the hair, and began to beat her with the whip. She struggled, but he held her tightly and did not let go, demanding that she give him the paper that all albarsty have in their mouths, which constitutes their power. The fat albarsty gave him the paper, and he let her go. Her companions had already fled earlier. He placed this paper in the Quran.
Once he was going to ride somewhere and took the paper out of the Quran to protect himself on the road from possible dangers, putting it in his pocket. A river crossed his path, on the bank of which stood two beautiful young women. They asked him to help them cross, as their acquaintances (who were also known to him) lived on the other side, where a child was supposed to be born at that time. He placed one of them behind him and began to cross. In the middle of the river, the woman reached into his pocket. He struck her across the face, but there was no one behind him anymore, and the paper had disappeared from his pocket. The woman left on the shore also vanished.
An old woman's story. Her father was a hunter. At night in the mountains, he hears a woman mourning (singing a dirge) the death of her son, who was supposedly taken by an eagle. He immediately realized that this woman was an albarsty and began to scold her and chased after her. The albarsty went to her dwelling underground. The hunter drew a crosswise line through her tracks and thus forced her to come back to the surface. He demanded that she tell him her word and give him the paper from her mouth. Having received what he demanded, he became a kuuchu, i.e., by his appearance, he drove away albarsty everywhere.
Albarsty fear a good person, a good horse, and an eagle; they possess physical strength and have children. They catch hunters in the forest, etc. This shapeshifter is female. Its true form is in women's clothing.
District: Kolodun-su
Albarsty are usually red-haired girls.
Shaytan is invisible; he manifests during unfortunate events, both major and minor (jin — a madman who has seen a spirit118. Bakshi is also a jin).
Kaip — a spirit, the master of beasts; a spirit that unexpectedly appears in flesh and just as unexpectedly disappears119.
Sasik albarsty — "stinking albarsty," a nickname.
Zhanyzak
solto
Martu and albarsty are the same. This is a female creature with enormous, long breasts that it throws over its back.
Ibrahim K.
solto - karamoin
The soul (aruak) comes constantly to the doors of her yurt, on Thursday, in the second half of the day, and stands outside all night and all Friday, eavesdropping and peeking to see if the Quran is being read for her and if she is being remembered in prayer. If she is remembered, she laughs joyfully and leaves; if not, she promises the women the same fate — oblivion.
Kuuchu — a person who gains power over albarsty. In different weather at night, there are lights here and there. If a person sneaks up to the light, it will go out, and in its place will be ashes. The person draws a circle with a knife and then cuts it crosswise. Then he strikes that place with a whip until a little girl appears there. She asks him to stop hitting her and teaches him her law by spitting in his mouth, promising henceforth not to appear where he is. That is why during childbirth, when a woman is pressed by albarsty, she screams and calls for help from a batyr (his title). He appears, strikes the whip around, and says fierce words to the albarsty, causing it to leave.
Son-Kul
K. Chinin
Albarsty is a creature in the form of a little girl, living in the mountains and steppes, who comes at night to dirty-living, disorderly people and presses on them. It turns into animals, even into objects (like dung, for example) and needs to be ambushed at night, making a very small fire, and caught by the hair, to learn words from it, and then (when you hold it by the hair) it cannot free itself or turn into anything. It is released after learning the words and taking a promise not to be where the one who received this promise is. A person who gains such power over albarsty is called kuuchu. He is called when childbirth is difficult — albarsty presses. Upon his approach, the albarsty must flee.
translated by Ters.-Sandyk
Tengir-Bergen
Albarsty usually appears in the form of a boy or girl six or seven years old, naked, barefoot, with long hair. It must be caught by the hair and beaten until it says its "own" words — then it will fall under the power of the catcher and will no longer be able to transform into different animals, i.e., become a shapeshifter.
Kuuchu — a person who has subdued albarsty. In difficult childbirth, if a woman faints, it is said that the soul has been taken by albarsty. Then they call for kuuchu. Approaching the yurt, he shouts from afar, commanding the albarsty to leave the sick woman, reminding of his demand that the albarsty not come where he is. Then kuuchu enters the yurt and strikes the whip around the birthing woman.
In the far corner of the yurt, to the left of the entrance, they tie the foot of an owl so that the albarsty does not press the wife of the owner at night, i.e., they hang a tumar (amulet).
Zhes tulishuk — a creature on four legs, with arms, with a long beak and copper claws.
Arvak — the genius of a person, which is only present in outstanding individuals120.
Turkmen-sayak
In the area of Ketmen-tube lived a giant (doo) Achimuluk, who with one blow of his ketmen threw this mountain away. Near the salt mountain flows the Syr Darya River (upper reaches). Achimuluk hated people. He wanted to wash away the salt mountain (beneficial to people) with the river, and for that, he needed to cut a different channel for the Syr Darya. He took the ketmen and, digging with it, threw the earth into the river. The river partially stopped. With that blow, his ketmen broke. If he could throw another ketmen of earth into the river, the river would be completely dammed, but the water washed away the first dam. Then the giant got angry and lay across the river himself. The water stopped. A little more, and it would have washed away the entire salt mountain, but at that moment a white camel came running with a roar, as if praying, complaining to God about the giant. Then the river gained strength, and the water carried Achimuluk away. He stood up, let the river go, and, angry, urinated on a mountain nearby. Now there are traces of frequent streams on that mountain.
Achimuluk wanted to stop the Chu River as well, and digging earth on the Ili River with the ketmen, he threw it towards Chu, but the earth only fell on the shore and formed the Boroldoy hills (Bolot Abor).
Angyr (atayka, turpan) — In the time of some prophet, his son's wife once urinated without hiding from his (father-in-law's) gaze. Then he cursed her and said: "Andha bay siysang — angyr bol," i.e., "Not noticing others, you urinate, so be a turpan." That is why every month the atayka has blood (menstruation).
A hunter's wish to the beast that has run away from him: "Attu Nadir astyndan chihsin," i.e., "May you meet horseman Nadir ahead." "Cho Nadir kotunen chihsin" (And behind you, footman Nadir).
There were two Nadirs, one on horseback, the other on foot.
Both were such good hunters that no beast could escape from them.
Above all birds is the king — budaik — kushatun torosi121. When he flies, firs and all trees fall, and all birds and beasts.
Comments:
117 Yarma (zharmа) — a coarse flour made from roasted grain of wheat, barley; a porridge from crushed roasted grain, seasoned with milk, fat, or plain (Yudakhin K.K.. Op. cit. p. 235).
118 Jin — a demon, evil spirit, demon; possessed; spirits that supposedly visit a shaman and bring him into a state of ecstasy (Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. p. 254).
119 Kaip — the same as kayym, i.e., "hidden, invisible, disappearing"; a good spirit (Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. pp. 324-325).
120 Arbak — spirits of saints or revered ancestors; glory; bliss (Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. p. 65).
121 Budaik is a mythical bird (Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. p. 163). Kushatun torosi — "lord, king of birds" (from kush — bird, tore — lord). Here is what F.A. Fielstrup writes in the manuscript of the article "Hunting with Falconry among the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz": "Budaik is the king of all birds. It is caught in nets, but it is impossible to tame it unless the person who caught it is killed. After killing that person, they feed it the liver of the budaik for a week. Then it will submit, and there is no beast it cannot catch" (See about this: Simakov G.N. Falconry... pp. 178, 179-184).
Legends and Myths of the Kyrgyz in the Early 20th Century
