A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 4-5. - 1961 (Nyíregyháza, 1964)

Csallány Géza: The motive of message-sending in Hungarian folktales

there was such a Siculo-Hungarian runic relic found, in the text of wich occur the words „ijas" (i.e. having [the form of] a bow) and "ilylyalta" closely expressing that the Székelys cut in their runes, in downward lines, with the point of a knife on longshaped rodlets. (To this refers the word "ilylyalta".) It is the message-sending mentioned above we meet in Hungarian folk-tales. The motive self, even within the same type of tale, has been more or less modified in the course of years, especially by the evolution of technics. A specific example in point: the tale of The Dreamer Boy (AaTh. 725), of wich type there are in the Hungarian Catalogue of FolkTales 18 versions registered till now. With reference, however, to the motive of message-sending, the number of versions falls to not more than 4. And even in these versions is the arrow "cast" or "let off" (like a gun), nay, there is a version, in wich, instead of arrow, a "buzogány" (i.e. mace) is thrown. Further, in the rest of the versions the "török császár" (Turkish Emperor) sends a horse, a reed, a stick, an iron stick, or merely a letter already. Finally, in the tale of The Little Shrewd we meet just with a pistol. The thesaurus of Hungarian fable preserves exceptionally varying forms of message-sending. One of the most frequent ways among them is the mace-casting (fable AaTh. 301). Mace is used either as weapon or as tool for message-sending (that of a dragon). In the paper abstracted here there are several items to prove this. As another motive of message-sending appears the letter-writing, nay, in the tales of Lajos AMI — wich were not taped but a few years ago — the king "let telephone to the ironworks below" that they would make for him a good long ax weighing a centner. Or in another ÁMI's tale, in The first Tzigane Hussar, the brown hero sends his wife at home a message by wire already. The paper surveyed all types of tale being in any rapport with massage-sending by arrow. This ancient motive is to be found in the material of Hungarian folk-tales (yet westwards from Hungary not more, to the best of the author's belief). Much bigger is, however, also here the number of those tales, wich, although traceable to this same motive, contain for the same purpose of story other elements of fable already. G. Csallány 114