The guardian-spirit of sheep. He rears them, looks after them, but, as we see in praying presented to him, sometimes he kills lambs, if he doesn’t like them to this or that reason. About an ill lamb people say the following: hytam tytna “suffers from hytam”. If such a lamb dies, they singe it (entirely) and throw it into the river with the following words:

Hytam, have mercy upon us.
The cattle and sheep of mine keep in good health,
Don’t kill them,
We sacrifice you a lamb.

If hytam was reconciled in such a way, then illnesses among sheep didn’t spread. Formerly he was highly thought of by the northern Chuvash, but today’s generation has already forgotten about it. (Pysak Karachora).
V.K.Magnitskiy mentions it under the name of Shchyn-hytam (Man-hytam), and says about it that according to the North-Chuvash popular belief hytam descends from the dead, who had nothing when they were alive, and nobody remembers them. If a bride dies before the marriage hytam will descend from her. She causes loss of cattle. In order to propitiate her people sacrificed to her legs and heads of sheep and cows.

Gallery