Ajysyt East Asia
Literally, ‘birthgiver’. The mother goddess of the Yakuts, a Turkic people living near the Lena River in Siberia. ‘The mother of the cradles’ was believed to be present whenever one of her devotees gave birth. She was
Ajysyt-ijaksit-khotan
, ‘birthgiving nourishing mother’. From heaven she brought the soul of the baby so that a complete human being could come into existence. Other Siberian tribesmen thought that the mother goddess dwelt in heaven on a mountain with seven storeys, where she determined the fate of all, by writing at the birth of each child in a golden book.
The Altai Tartars acknowledged a goddess called the ...