Kulema

In Komi mythology, a kulema or kulema is a person who has died, but continues to exist posthumously. 

Being in the world of the living, he has supernatural qualities and is a patron spirit for the living ("parent"), or an evil spirit if he died an unnatural death ("the dead man").

The unclean harm people, often become ghouls and take revenge on the living for something, "parents" intercede for the living. It is believed that the soul of the mortgaged deceased remains at the place of his death and is alive, "scares". It is also believed that the soul of the murdered person remains at the place of his death and waits for the death of his killer to then lead him to the underworld (these souls are designated in the Komi language by the words "grown up" or "frightening" and "gazht" or "unclean".

The mortgaged dead cannot cross the water boundary, so in some regions they were buried across the river, sometimes in special cemeteries. From among such unclean ones, ichetiki stand out - little furry little men, the spirits of babies drowned by mothers.

He is invisible, able to appear in the form of animals.

Relatives of people closest to the time of death were commemorated by name and regularly, but those more distant in time of death seemed to disappear from the memory of the living and were automatically excluded from the context of memorial rituals. The unmemorable kulems were considered dangerous, and the danger increased depending on the degree of its antiquity: the more ancient, the more dangerous, the higher its power.

The most ancient of them, called "chud", were endowed with the highest degree of danger and power, and hence with sacred authority.