UBYR

UBYR, is an evil spirit in Bashkir mythology. The character appears in bylichkas and magic fairytales. U. is often associated with myaskay. According to the belief, souls of those who commit suicide or people buried without observing proper rites become U. U. can replace the soul of a sorcerer, who has sold his soul to a shaytan for his knowledge, or a person, who has broken a taboo. U. can control them while they are alive. The person possessed by U. is called “old ubyr woman”, “ubyr-person”. After the host dies, U. lives in his grave leaving it through a hole (mostly at night). A person can see U. as a fireball, a dog, a cat, a pig, a human, who does not have flesh on the back (often a disgusting old man or woman). According to some beliefs, it turns into a bat in the evenings. U. can cause disease or death, steal a baby from a woman's womb. U. also harms cattle (steals the offspring, sucks milk from cows and mares, sucks blood, etc.), swallows clouds and causes drought. If a person meets U., he should unbutton his top buttons and pray; draw a protective circle around himself; it is possible to defeat U. by taking its heart out of the hole in its armpit. In order to destroy it a person should drive an oak stake into the grave or plug a needle into the foot. Games such as “Seer”, “Take a nestling” imitate fighting with U. Fairytales show U. as an insidious cannibal, vampire (“Kamyr-batyr and old ubyr woman”, “Ubyr mother-in-law and poor daughter-in-law”, “Old ubyr woman” etc.) There are characters similar to U. in mythology of other RB peoples (Chuvash “vupar”, Mari “vuver”, Udmurt “ubyr”, Russian “upyr”).

R.A. Sultangareyeva