Siberian Tatars
Siberian Tatars ( sty, , ), the ethnographic and ethnoterritorial group of Tatars of Western Siberia, the indigenous Turkic-speaking population of the forests and steppes of Western Siberia, originate in areas stretching from somewhat east ...
' mythology.
Pitsen's role is contradictory. It could bring luck, but also troubles, leading humans to the wilderness.
Shapeshifting
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ...
is common for Pitsen: he may look like an elder with a staff and knapsack, but also like different animals, for example
apes
Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and as well as Europe in prehistory), which together with its sister g ...
. Pitsen prefers to live in derelict lodges. He also likes to ride horses and to oil their mane with tar. Валеев Ф. Т., О религиозных представлениях западносибирских татар, в сб.: Природа и человек в религиозных представлениях народов Сибири и Севера, Л., 1976, с. 320-29.
Pitsen, when transformed to a damsel, may have sexual intercourse or marry a human. One legend says that one hunter happened upon beautiful damsel in a forest and married her. Soon they become rich. Once he came home ahead of time and saw a tusky monster eating lizards. He cried, being horrified, and that moment his wife and his riches disappeared.
Pitsen is a counterpart of ChuvashArçuri and Volga-Ural Tatar
Şüräle
Shurale (Tatar and Bashkir: Шүрәле, yræˈlɘ russian: Шурале) is a forest spirit in Tatar and Bashkir mythology. According to legends, Şüräle lives in forests. He has long fingers, a horn on its forehead, and a woolly body. He ...
. In the mythology of the Siberian Tatars, Tobol and Omsk Tatars had shaggy and stinking ''yysh-keshe''.{{IPA-tt, jɯʃ kʲeˈʃe} They carry away travelers and force them to marry. At night the spirit of yysh-keshe used to fly away from an armpit.
See also
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Şüräle
Shurale (Tatar and Bashkir: Шүрәле, yræˈlɘ russian: Шурале) is a forest spirit in Tatar and Bashkir mythology. According to legends, Şüräle lives in forests. He has long fingers, a horn on its forehead, and a woolly body. He ...
Shapeshifting
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ...