That's No Tooth Under her Pillow

I love watching Uyghur movies, I am always picking up little cultural things I didn’t know or seeing something unusual that I want to ask my friends about later. The heroin of one of my favourite stories was awakened in the middle of the night with a nightmare. Her mother was quick to come to her comfort by grabbing a knife ( a big sharp one) from the kitchen and placing it under her daughter's pillow.

I asked around and found out this is more of a normal practice than I figured. Some said it was to cut the power the evil spirits had over her sleep. Others said it cut the bad images to pieces and let her sleep in peace. One person even told me it was so that she could protect herself in case the dream came true.