Arsan Duolai- Sakha DemonDemon"Chief of the Abaahy"

The Lower World

Beneath the Middle World lies the Аллараа Дойду, a realm of perpetual darkness. Rivers run black. The air is thick with corruption. The abaahy spirits move through their domain plotting incursions against the world of light above, and at the head of their hierarchy sits Arsan Duolai. His authority over the Lower World mirrors the sovereignty of Ürüng Aiyy Toyon in the Upper. Where the aiyy create and sustain, Arsan Duolai and his subjects corrupt and destroy (Seroshevsky, Yakuty, 1896; Alekseev, Shamanism of the Turkic-Speaking Peoples of Siberia, 1984).

The abaahy under his command are not a single type but a varied hierarchy: powerful warriors who ascend to fight the aiyy champions, subtle spirits who infiltrate homes to cause madness and domestic strife, specialists in the theft of the kut, the soul-components whose loss means death. Every instance of spiritual harm in the Middle World traces back to the Lower World's ruler (Ksenofontov, Uraangkhai-Sakhalar, 1937; Alekseev, 1984).

Disease and Soul-Theft

When a person fell seriously ill, the cause was an abaahy attack. The sick person's kut had been stolen or damaged, and no physical remedy could restore what the spirits had taken. Specific diseases had specific abaahy patrons. Smallpox, which devastated Sakha communities, was assigned its own feared spirit. Mental illness meant a particularly aggressive intrusion. The scope of Arsan Duolai's domain left no form of human suffering outside his reach (Seroshevsky, 1896; Jochelson, The Yakut, 1933).

Protective measures were practical rather than devotional. Amulets and ritual objects warded off lesser spirits. Certain behaviors attracted abaahy attention and were avoided: speaking ill of the dead, boasting of good fortune, breaking taboos. When prevention failed, offerings were made not to worship the abaahy but to divert them, satisfying a lesser spirit's hunger so it would leave a vulnerable household alone (Seroshevsky, 1896; Ksenofontov, 1937).

The Shaman's Descent

When the abaahy stole a person's kut, the oyuun was called to go down and get it back. The descent into the Lower World was the most dangerous journey a shaman could undertake, the dark counterpart to the climb up the World Tree to petition the aiyy. Here the shaman entered enemy territory.

The journey was harrowing. The oyuun battled lesser abaahy along the way, bargained with guardians of the lower passages, and finally stood before Arsan Duolai himself. The negotiation took various forms: a substitute offered, promises made on behalf of the afflicted, or spiritual combat to wrench the kut free. Success was never certain. The shaman risked their own spiritual integrity in the attempt, and failure could mean illness or death for the oyuun themselves (Alekseev, 1984; Ksenofontov, 1937; Seroshevsky, 1896).

The Olonkho Wars

In the heroic epics, Arsan Duolai's warriors are the antagonists. They ascend from the Lower World to raid the Middle, kidnap aiyy women, and tear at the boundary between the realms. Uot Usutaaky, whose name evokes fire and destruction, is among the fiercest: monstrous in size, wielding powers drawn from the darkness below (Oyunsky, Nyurgun Bootur the Swift; Ergis, Ocherki po yakutskomu folkloru, 1974).

Each raid extends Arsan Duolai's ambition upward. The olonkho always ends with the hero's victory, the abaahy driven back, the breach between the worlds sealed. But the struggle itself costs the Middle World dearly, and the abaahy will come again. The ruler of the Lower World does not stop sending his warriors. He cannot. The enmity between the realms is built into the structure of the cosmos (Oyunsky; Pukhov, The Yakut Heroic Epic Olonkho, 1962).