The Legend of the Goddess Umai

(Source:Baizhanova G. From great mothers to witches and devils: all about women in Kazakh myths and legends / G. Baizhanova // Italic. – 2024. – No. 9. –https://kz.kursiv.media/2024-03-08/print1026-glbj-kazakh-myths/)

The legend of Umai Ana goes back to Tengrianism. In the ancient world, Umai was a young, beautiful woman whose head was adorned with a three-horned tiara, symbolizing three peaks. According to mythology, Umai’s residence was considered to be the three-peaked, also called three-horned or three-headed, Muztau mountain.

According to legend, she descends to earth every day with the first rays of the sun, holding a bow and arrows in her hands to protect the babies of evil spirits even in the womb of the mother.

This was necessary because, according to popular belief, evil spirits, possessing a person, could enter the womb of a pregnant woman and destroy the child, causing a miscarriage. When labor began, Umai helped the child to be born, sometimes entering into a fight with the evil spirit that prevented this and pulled the child towards itself. This explained the difficult, protracted labor. Umai helped to cut the umbilical cord well. She not only protected the child, but also looked after him, washed his face, cleaned his eyelashes. Umai entertained the baby, raised him and talked to him in her own way. They understood each other well. Sometimes the child in a dream, and sometimes in reality, lying in the cradle, suddenly began to laugh or smile. But sometimes he cried in his sleep, slept restlessly, because Umai left him at that time.

When the child turned six months old, the kama was invited to the house for a special shamanic ritual to Umai Ane, with the slaughter of a young bull. During the shamanic ritual, Umai was asked to protect and care for the baby, and a small model of a bow with an arrow was hung on the cradle as a talisman, symbolizing Umai’s weapon, with which she struck evil spirits trying to attack the child. Umai’s complete care and constant presence near the child continued until the time when he began not only to walk and run freely, but also, most importantly, to understand speech well and speak easily. This happened at about 5-6 years of age. When the child completely entered the social environment around him, first of all, the circle of his parents and relatives, learned to work, played with peers, etc., his communication with Umai ana completely ceased.