Kafiristan - Fairies, Demons and the Dead

George S. Robertson

Publishing Date: Sunday, July 3 2005

We now come to the fairies. These aerial spirits are everywhere in Kafiristan. They have to be propitiated in order that the millet crops may be good. A fire is lit in the centre of the growing crop, juniper-cedar, ghee, and bread are placed upon it, and a certain ritual intoned. No animal is sacrificed. At the time that the ceremony to the fairies is being prepared, certain thick bread cakes have to be offered to Yush, the devil. So also when Dizane is being invoked to protect or improve the wheat, Yush has to be simultaneously propitiated.

There is a certain powerful fairy called the Charmo Vetr, who lives high up the Kutaringul, a ravine which empties its waters into the Bashgul river between Mirkani and Arandu. This vetr (fairy) continually receives offerings of goats and kids from the Kam tribe, and in return has given that people great help against its enemies.

My tent, owing to the great heat in Kamdesh, was pitched for some time under a magnificent deodar tree above the village. In the branches of this beautiful cedar a fairy dwelt, and in addition there was an Imra stone concealed somewhere in the foliage. For these reasons cheeses for sacrifices and other offerings could be left there unguarded by mortals, for no one would dare to steal the property placed in this manner under supernatural protection.

The fairies are often mischievous, and at sacrifices frequently cause the inspired priest much anxiety. He is constantly impelled to rush forward to save the basket of flour from being carried off by them. They also take a particular delight in annoying him. Sometimes he is pushed violently about, and has his raiment torn to ribbons by malicious fairies. I have often watched these men when they were on the look-out for vetrs, and have admired their dramatic start of surprise and fear when the fairy manifested its presence. On the whole, however, the Kafir fairies, if properly propitiated, are more benevolent than malicious. On the night preceding the Dizanedu festival there is an annual dance in honour of the fairies.

The demons and their chief, Yush, are rather dubious spirits. In discussing Yush with some of my Kafir friends one day, it seemed to me that they had some reluctance in describing his appearance. As the thought occurred to me I inquired, "Is he like me?" "Oh, no," was the diplomatic reply, "he is not like you; he is like the private English soldiers Shermalik saw in India." From this I discovered that Yush is red in colour. He loves to seize travellers at night and destroy them, but if a man is wearing his dagger he is never molested.

In most of the stories in which Yush is introduced he is made to appear as a foil to Imra. So with the other devils. The end of such narratives generally is that the devils are cut to pieces. In Presungul we passed several ruins which looked like deserted villages, the inhabitants of which had been content with very small houses. My companion explained that those places were the remains of Yush villages, formerly built and inhabited by devils.

On a block of stone in Shtevgrom village, there is what is said to be the impression of Yush's hand. It is of colossal size, and has five fingers besides the thumb. Towers and tunnels are also pointed out as having been constructed by Yush. The devils are often connected in narrative with iron or iron structures, as already mentioned. Iron bridges are made out of devil's bodies, and so forth.

By the side of a track leading to the upper village at Kamdesh there is a small rough altar, always covered with the ashes of a recent fire. They are the remains of sacrifices made to Yush to propitiate him and induce him not to do mischief. When offerings are made to Dizane or to the fairies, so that the fields may yield good crops of wheat and millet, Yush has at the same time to the propitiated, as before stated. Yush seems to be always mischievous, never benevolent. His machinations must be guarded against, or he must be propitiated by sacrifices. He is probably never danced to.

There are distinct traces of ancestor-worship in Kafiristan, although it is strenuously denied by the people. The effigies erected to the memory of the dead are sometimes sacrificed to, and have their pedestals sprinkled over with blood by descendants suffering from sickness. Long fragments of stone are set on end in many places. These, no doubt, are partly intended as a kind of cenotaph, but a goat is always killed when they are erected.

The Marnma festival is in honour of the illustrious dead. The two last days of the Duban are also devoted to dancing, feasting, and singing for dead and gone heroes. In Presungul there are no effigies erected to deceased relations, as is no popular a custom with the Siah-Posh Kafirs, and it is almost certain that the same thing is true in Waigul. In Presungul there was no evidence of ancestor-worship.