Umay

Umay (also known as Umai; ; , Ūmai ana; ; , Umay ene; ) is the goddess of fertility in Turkic mythology and Tengrism and as such related to women, mothers, and children. Umay not only protects and educates babies, but also may separate the soul from the dead, especially young children. She lives in heaven and is invisible to the common people. Souls of babies-to-be-born are kept in her "temple" of Mount Ymay-tas or Amay. The Khakas emphasize her in particular. From Umai, the essence of fire (Od Ana) was born.

==Etymology== The Turkic word umāy originally meant "placenta, afterbirth" and this word was used as the name for the goddess whose function was to look after women and children, and she is associated with fertility. In Mongolian, Umai means "womb" or "uterus", possibly reflecting acculturation of Mongols by Turks or ancient lexical ties between Mongols and Turks. Similar phenomenon is observed in Japanese 生まれ umare "birth", seemingly cognate with Old English umba "child" ~ Old English womb "belly, uterus" (of unknown origin), all together offering an *(h)um-, *(kw)um- or *(k)uŋ- "to give birth, act of parturition; [secondary, mythologically] to bring life forth" as a subject for a linguistic research.