The evil spirit of Albastı

Sometimes, when a person fell asleep, they would realize that they are in bed unable to move, and with a heart beating fast. Albastı would be sitting on their chest, pressing and choking them, or even sucking their blood. In this panicked state, the person would wake up and in that moment, Albastı would get off them and disappear. That might be how people used to explain sleep paralysis back in the day.

The most famous story about Albastı goes like this. Once a man was riding from some city to his village at night. Before reaching the village, he sees that two stacks of hay are moving on both sides of him, and near these stacks, there is some light.

Looking more closely, the man was horrified, recognizing Albastı in the haystacks. He began to whip his horse to go faster, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t get past the luminous haystacks.

After two or three hours of racing, he rides up to a dark forest, which he clearly remembered wasn’t in this area before. He starts hallucinating and hears the sounds of music, distant human voices, the mooing of cows, and the neighing of horses... He was even more frightened and prayerfully kept riding. He looked around — the same haystacks and the same unusual light around them were following him.

The man lost all hope of deliverance. He laid down in his cart and let go of the reins...

Suddenly, he hears the roosters crowing, and immediately both haystacks and the light near them disappear. After that, the horse, feeling relieved, took off straight at a gallop, so that it was impossible to hold it. The man arrived in his native village in the morning, exhausted and traumatized.

However, after this incident, he fell ill and barely survived. If the roosters had not crowed in time on that night, his death would surely have been inevitable.