Myth / Kabyle Mythology

Haguza is a folkloric crone who helps celebrate the Amazigh New Year

The indigenous people of Northern Africa west of Egypt form a meta-ethnicity commonly known as "Berbers" to outsiders, but their common endonym are variants of "Amazigh", meaning "free people". This page concerns itself with the Kabyle (Iqbayliyen) and related groups such as the Rifians who share many mythical concepts. The Kabyle are concentrated in the Kabylia region in the Atlas mountains where they traditionally live as farmers. The mountainous terrain of Northern Africa acted as a refuge for Berber languages and cultures from Phoenician, Carthaginian, Roman, Vandal, Arab, Turkish, and French rulers throughout the ages. Stubborn and proud, the Kabyle fiercely defended their independence for ages. The mighty Fatimid caliphate famous for its role in the Crusades and the flourishing of Islamic culture was born out of Kabyle warriors ascending to power and allying with the Sanhaja Berbers to dominate the Maghreb and beyond.

Despite conversion to Islam and a lesser degree Christianity, traditional Kabyle legends and beliefs survived for many centuries afterward tucked away in villages across mountains and valleys. Many myths were diminished to the level of fairytale in order to be more palatable for Abrahamic ears. Foreign influences besides the Abrahamic faiths found their way into Kabyle paganism from Egypt to Greece to Rome to Phoenicia.

Tropes relating to Kabyle mythology:

• Another Dimension: Attala.
• The Archmage: Teryel is the queen of witchcraft and demons known as Waghzen.
• Black Widow: Princes often fell in love with Lunja and fought their way through her horrid family to "save" the seemingly innocent maiden from them and marry her. Then she would rip them apart and feast on their succulence at the wedding ceremony. She extinguished entire noble lineages as men would become obsessed with having her love despite knowing the doom that surrounded from her.
• Blind Seer: Teryel had her eyes burned by Tefukt when she tried to capture her as a present for her daughter Lunja.
• Burn the Witch!: A furious mob of humans advanced on Settut with torches and sticks, burning her house down and preparing to destroy her for ruining the sun and moon.
• Celibate Hero: Inverted, Teryel is now celibate although she bore a daughter named Lunja.
• Child Eater: Teryel particularly enjoys eating small boys.
• Cool Old Lady: Haguza leaves sweets and gifts under the pillows of good children who eat all their food on New Year's Eve.
• Creation Myth: In the beginning all humans lived underground. A man and a woman existed, but they did not realize their difference in gender. The pair came to a well and began to fight over who got to drink first. The man was victorious and threw down the woman, her clothes having fallen off in the struggle. He was confused about what her vagina was for, and she invited him to learn. They had sex for eight days. Every nine months after that she would bear four sons, and then four daughters nine months afterward. This went on until there were 50 men and 50 women. The parents sent their children away, the girls heading north and the boys heading east. Both parties saw holes above them shining light through and so they climbed up to the surface world. They were amazed and the girls asked the plants who made them, to which the plants said "the earth". They then asked the earth who made it and the earth said "I always was". At night the girls saw the beautiful moon and stars and asked "Who made you?" but they were too far away to hear. Eventually the boys and girls encountered each other on opposite sides of the river asking "Who are you? What are you? Are you people?". The boys wanted to move closer to the girls, but the river was in their way. They asked the river what it was and the river said "I am a river for washing and drinking, go to the shallows upstream to cross me". The boys crossed and approached the girls, but the girls were afraid of the strangers and refused to let them come near. So they agreed to travel together at a safe distance. Eventually they came to a mountain spring where the boys immediately began bathing, with the girls hanging back aloof. One bold girl and her two companions became curious and went to spy on what the boys were doing. The bold girl reported back to her camp "Those people are not like us. Their hair is short and they have no breasts. They don't even have vaginas! And when you see them nude your heart beats faster and you want to hug them.". The journey continued and the boys decided they didn't like living out in the open anymore or in holes, so they took rocks and wood to make houses. The trees at first protested, but the youths explained their need for shelter and the trees agreed to give wood. But there was one wild and unruly boy who did not want to live indoors, the girl camp similarly had a wild girl. The wild boy would skulk between the newly built houses hoping to catch, kill, and eat someone. The girls became curious again about the activities of the boys and the bold girl yet again went to investigate. She crawled through the bushes and entered one of the lovely houses. She saw nobody around and decided to go home when the savage boy came by and smelled her presence. He roared and chased her back to the girl camp. Both camps heard screaming and so a battle of the sexes erupted in the vegetation. Even the savage boy met the savage girl in combat. The boys and the girls paired up to duel, and the girls were victorious. The girls mounted the defeated boys and decided to see if the bold girl had lied. They began to ravish the boys who became excited and ravished them right back. After this they married each other and decided it was better for men to be on top. The savage boy and girl wandered the wilderness together after being driven away by the civilized couples, only returning to the villages to catch children they could eat. The girl became known as the arch-demoness Teryel and her husband became the first lion.
• Creative Sterility: Settut was rendered sterile after the sacrifice of her child. All other witches do not attempt to steal the sun and moon because they will lose their own children and become sterile as well. At best witches can only hide the sun and moon for short periods during the eclipse.
• Cute Monster Girl: Lunja was very attractive despite being one of the Waghzen. In a few stories she genuinely falls in love with the hero and turns against her mother despite initially trying to eat him.
• Demon of Human Origin: Some say Aisha Kandisha was the gorgeous daughter of a mighty chief in the Atlas mountains. She resisted the Portuguese invaders in the 15th or 16th centuries fighting alongside her father and brothers. She was a great soldier, but her greatest asset was her looks. She would lure the enemy deep into the wilderness as The Tease where they would be ambushed and destroyed by her tribe. The Portuguese commanders had her castle burned, her father decapitated, her husband executed, and her brothers tortured to death. Nobody in her family was spared. Mad with grief, she became so unstable even her allies turned her away. So she wandered the countryside alone slaying Portuguese soldiers wherever she found them and destroying their assets like horses & ships. After she died, her restless spirit still haunts the lonely places of the Maghreb in search of new victims.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: A mob of ordinary humans made the evil goddess Settut fear for her life.
• Disguised in Drag: A heroic blacksmith named Amara dressed like a girl to get close to a Talafsa. Local villagers were sacrificing young girls to the monster in exchange for water. He threw red hot pliers down it's throat and forced it to retreat.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Children who don't eat all their veggies on the last day of the year get their guts torn out by Haguza's claws (known as Yemma Meru in Libya). Bad children get their stomachs stuffed with rocks or straw by Haguza on New Years.
• Divine Date: Anzar fell in love with Tarenza when she was just an ordinary peasant girl. Enamored with her radiant beauty and complimenting dress, he proposed marriage to her after spying on her bathing. But she was shy and ran away. Anzar was angry about being rejected and caused a great drought, hoping to coerce love from her. Fearing for everyone who relied on water, Tarenza gave in to his advances and became his bride. Anzar whisked her up into the heavens and lush greenery spread across the world.
• Does Not Like Men: Teryel relishes the flesh of little boys, and also eats men. But little girls are safe from her and women are largely safe from her. She eats men who abuse women and teaches women the secrets of magic.
• Doting Parent: Teryel adores Lunja and will do anything to make her happy.

• Evil Matriarch: Settut is the "First Mother of the World" and ancestress to everyone.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows: Tarenza became the goddess of rainbows after being abducted by Anzar.
• Face–Heel Turn: Settut was initially a benevolent goddess who was wise and beautiful. But as she aged and realized she could never have children it twisted her into a bitter, ugly, hateful hag.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Lunja was an incredible beauty whose looks stole the hearts of countless men. She was still pure evil just like her mother Teryel and her Waghzen kinfolk.
• Fattening the Victim: Defied. Teryel tries this in one story but is tricked by her daughter who fell in love with their victim. Lunja gives the prince an olive branch and has him hold it out for Teryel to check on how fat he's getting.
• Forced Transformation: Monkeys are descended from an innocent boy Settut transformed for ruining a dish of couscous.
• For the Evulz: Settut made the first sheep from dough, she then got bored and decided to make the first wolf from soot so she could watch the latter eat the former.
• Garden of Eden: Humans and animals and plants once lived together in a deathless paradise until Settut introduced things like greed, hate, envy, anger, slavery, theft, murder, etc.
• Giant Woman: Teryel was tall enough to grab the sun in the sky.
• God Couple: Anzar and Tarenza are husband and wife.
• God of Evil: Settut was the goddess of evil and chaos. The very stars are made from the bones of children and women she sacrificed in hopes it would make her fertile. She counts every person who dies with amusement, adding a grain of couscous each time.
• God's Hands Are Tied: Settut was unable to undo the magic she cast on the sun and moon, even under threat of punishment.
• God of Thunder: What largely made Anzar so important was his status as sky, rain, and thunder god.
• Hellish Horse: Taghyalt Timqber is a demon who takes the shape of a magnificent horse or beautiful lady. It lures people in before transforming into a terrible monster which devours them or buries them alive.
• Human Popsicle: Settut insulted the month of January (Yennayer) who retaliated by freezing her in ice each year.
• Human Sacrifice: Settut instituted it by tricking a woman into sacrificing her own child.
  • Settut's only baby was taken from her by the humans for sacrifice to make the sun and moon shine again. She was forced by them to burn her child alive.
• "Just So" Story:
  • Eclipses occur when Settut places the Sun into her water mirror.
  • Hedgehogs have spikes because Settut beat one with teasel.
  • Porcupines have quills because Settut beat one with spindles.
  • Turtles came about after Settut crushed a calf between two rocks.
• Kill It with Water: In various tales Teryel and Lunja are defeated by drowning under waves.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: Settut wanted a baby terribly so, and of course she was sterile.
• Light Is Good: Tafukt and Ayyur guided the first humans out of the darkness of the underworld caverns and onto the surface.
• Lunacy: Ayyur was the moon god.
• Lord of the Ocean: Anzar's domain included the sea as he was god of all water.
• Magic Mirror: Settut owned one of water. She created the sun by throwing the eyelid of the first bull into it, and then created the moon by throwing the eyelid of the first ram into it. She produces clouds from the foam around it, earthquakes by shaking it, and floods by overfilling it.
• Marriage to a God: Beautiful girls throughout the Maghreb were once ritually married to Anzar in hopes it would bring lifegiving rain.
• Messy Hair: Teryel's hair was in thick tangled knots full of toads, slugs, roaches, frogs, and snakes.
• Monster Is a Mommy: Exploited. One way a boy can survive an encounter with Teryel is to get close and drink her breast milk. In Amazigh culture drinking milk from a woman makes her your mother spiritually. And as evil as Teryel is, she will not harm her own children.
• Monster Progenitor: Teryel is the mother of the Waghzen.
• The Night That Never Ends: Settut's first act of evil was to block out the sun and moon for humanity. First she dropped Ayyur into her mirror and then she stirred up dark clouds to envelop Tafukt and shrink the sun into a little ball.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Settut is excited for the underworld to devour everything once more and end all life.
• The Omniscient: Haguza sees everything children do all year.
• Orphan's Ordeal: After Settut introduced wickedness to mankind, the first battle was fought. This created the first orphan. The orphan boy wandered around looking for anyone who cared, and was ignored. The boy refused to cry, but at night the pain in his heart could be heard by the owl who relayed his feelings to the Moon. The Moon pitied the boy and came down to earth, holding him tight. It was at that moment of comfort that the boy wept bitter tears of sorrow. Even now we can see the gray areas on the moon where the boy's tears flowed.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Talafsa is a seven headed snakelike dragon who eats humans and prevents access to water sources. Talafsas spit venom at enemies. They are usually characterized as female.
• The Power of the Sun: Tafukt was the Sun goddess.
• Powers via Possession: Aisha Kandisha is still worshipped by some as a goddess of luck and fertility. Across the Maghreb some people in secret engage in ritual possession by the goddess.
• Red Right Hand: Aisha Kandisha cannot hide her camel or goat feet.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Settut has a snakelike tongue.
• Ring of Power: Anzar had a magic ring he could twist to increase or decrease water on earth.
• Scary Teeth: Teryel has a mouth full of razor sharp teeth.
• Silver Has Mystic Powers: Aisha Kandisha can only be driven off with a silver knife plunged into the ground before she mesmerizes a man.
• Sinister Scythe: Settut uses as silver sickle.
• Sliding Scale of Animal Communication: In ancient times all creatures could speak to each other.
• Supervillain Lair: Settut lives in a palace made of bones.
• Top God: Anzar was the leader of the pantheon, worshipped from Morocco to Libya by many Berber tribes.
• The Underworld: Tallast or Tlam.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Anzar became an eagle while watching Tarenza bathe.
  • Aisha Kandisha travels in the shape of a wasp. Sometimes she might become a she-goat with human legs or an old crone.
• Walking the Earth: Teryel wanders to-and-fro with her entourage of Waghzen in search of human flesh, especially little boys.
• Wicked Witch: Settut is a particularly powerful one. Long gnarled fingers with long nails, grey hair, wrinkled, broken teeth, hunched over, and utterly evil.
• World Tree: Teryel gained most of her powers from eating the golden leaves of the Tree of Life and Destiny in the world of Atalla.