Kubai (Kübey)

In the traditional account Kubai is presented as the daughter of Kayra and a being connected to cosmic sources of life. She resides within the Ulukayın (great world) tree from which Bengisu, the Water of Life, flows, and is associated with Sutgol (a sacred/source lake) from which she brings nourishing milk. These connections place human birth and the soul’s entrance into life in relationship to the world-tree and sacred life-water in Turkic cosmology.

Sources describe Kubai as having a serious look and long hair, with a middle-aged appearance. She is said to be half-naked, with legs and feet resembling tree roots, and both she and the Ulukayın emit light. She is described as giving a healing milk from her chest. In birth narratives she is said to descend from the sky and stand beside a woman in labor but is not visible to the mother.

Kubai is credited with giving children souls and initiating newborns into life by dripping life-giving milk brought from the Sutgol (in a container made of animal skin) into the newborn's mouth, which causes the infant to crave more and begin moving toward life outside the womb. She eases a woman's pains during childbirth, protects and educates the infant through early developmental stages (walking, running, understanding and producing speech), wards off malicious spirits attacking the child (symbolized by a weapon), and is viewed as a goddess of cleanliness who protects things that are pure and clean on Earth. Sources also record a belief that she remains connected to the umbilical cord to continue protecting the child.