"Sibir-’Waschh" in Shapsughia: The Circassian “Witch Mountain”

In good weather, Sibir-’Waschh is visible to the residents of Krasnodar. Located in the Sever District, 6 km south of Ubin, between the rivers Afips and Ubin, the trapezoid-shaped Sibir-’Waschh rises to a height of 735.8 m (the foot of the mountain is at around 140 m above sea-level), with a length of about 1 km and a width of 500 m. The distance from Krasnodar to Ubin is about 60 km along the asphalt road. It is part of one of the spurs of the Main Caucasus Range. The slopes are steep, except from the northern approach. Sibir-’Waschh has beautiful fields, is rich in forests (oak, hornbeam, maple, ash, beech, and pine), sacred water-springs, waterfalls, dolmens and other archæological sites, and has wonderful views from the top, wherefrom the city of Krasnodar can be seen with the naked eye. At the foot of the mountain runs the Ubin River.

There was a popular belief among some tribes that on certain spring nights the witches of Shapsughia flew together astride an assortment of domestic and wild animals to the top of Mount Sibir-’Washh, within the limits of Shapsughia. There they revelled all night long. Before dawn, they swept down the mountain and flitted about the houses strewing diseases from their bags. Thus, all spring illnesses were attributed to these sirens.

It was/is believed that one class of witches, widi (уды), attached themselves to certain people, who, on this account, could master dark powers to harm unwary victims. They were thought to have the uncanny ability to change their human form to that of wolves, dogs and cats, and even go invisible. They had avail of this power only at night. To these creatures were attributed children’s illnesses and headaches, and murrain that smote cattle. They were also suspected of killing their own children. These fiends were supposed to effect these calamities by casting the evil eye on hapless creatures, though there were more elaborate methods.

[From Amjad M. Jaimoukha’s book “The Circassians: A Handbook” (Routledge, 2001), pp. 144-146]

The world of the ancient Circassians was replete with monsters, dragons, behemoths with several heads and eyes, one-eyed colossi, giant-killers, wood elves, creatures with canine heads and bodies of oxen, weird crews of witches and warlocks, old women with iron teeth and breasts thrown over the shoulders. The fiendish cast was tempered with knights in shining armour, fairies and belles capable of changing their shapes, plus magic flutes and magical trees. There was a widespread belief in magic and the black arts were thought to have been wielded by demonic creatures and a terrifying assortment of witches and warlocks. Lhepsch, god of the smiths, used to lock his smithy whilst at work, to keep people out, but one day, someone peeped into his workshop, and the magic was gone.

It was believed that evil spirits, ch’erisch’en (кIэрыщIэн), attached themselves to certain people, who, on this account, could master dark powers to harm unwary victims. One class of witches, wid (уд), were thought to have such contacts and had the uncanny ability to change their human form to that of wolves, dogs and cats, and even go invisible. They had avail of this power only at night. To these creatures were attributed children’s illnesses and headaches, and murrain that smote cattle. They were also suspected of killing their own children. These fiends were supposed to effect these calamities by casting the evil eye on hapless creatures, though there were more elaborate methods.

There was a popular belief among some tribes that on spring nights the witches of Shapsughia flew together astride an assortment of domestic and wild animals to the top of Mount Sibir-’Washh [Сыбыр-Iуашъхь] within the limits of Shapsughia. There they revelled all night long. Before dawn, they swept down the mountain and flitted about the houses strewing diseases from their bags. Thus, all spring illnesses were attributed to these sirens.

Those suspected of witchcraft were subjected to cruel harassment and persecution, oftentimes on mere suspicion and hearsay. One particularly horrible method of torture had a witch placed in ropes between two fires and thrashed with prickly birch-rods. The ordeal went on until she swore to forsake her devilish pursuits.

A sorceress, almesti (алмэсты), having the form of a naked woman with vertical eyes and flowing hair, was also said to have associations with powers of darkness. Her magic resided in her hair, hence the saying, ‘To seize the almesti’s hair,’ meaning the achieving of a longed-for object. Marie-Jeanne Koffmann, a cryptozoologist, believes in the existence of almesti, but only as the local wild man. She claims to have recorded hundreds of sightings in Kabarda.

There was a plethora of old wives’ tales. Households complaining of paucity of children abstained from doing the laundry on Friday (Day of Mary). The shape of a pregnant woman’s abdomen told the gender of the fœtus; a bulging belly predicted a male child, a flat appearance a baby girl. An expectant mother who cast eyes on fish gave birth to an infant with protruding eyes. A sneeze during a conversation was a confirmation of the truth of what was being said. If the sternutation occurred while talking about a dead person, someone had to pat the sneezer on the shoulder to prevent his joining the subject of the conversation. Fingernails had to be clipped in the morning, toe-nails in the evening. Seeing eggs in sleep predicted snowfall. Seeing oneself in sleep standing on a height presaged well.

A cat stretching in front of a hearth presaged the illness of a member of the household. A cock making his dawn call before the usual time omened the death of the family elder. A hen emulating cock’s morning call foretold a calamity. Lovers who looked simultaneously in the same mirror separated soon after. Lunar eclipses presaged spread of contagion. Other presages of evil included keeping the dead at home at night, rocking an empty cradle, breaking a mirror, antagonizing one’s neighbours, and talking about the dead while travelling at night.