Birtalan Ágnes: Kalmyk Folklore and Folk Culture in the Mid-19th Century: Philological Studies on the Basis of Gábor Bálint of Szentkatolna’s Kalmyk Texts.
FOLKLORE GENRES
- What a girl are you? - Thereupon the girl told [the mistress] her whole story from the beginning to the end. Thereupon that yurt's mistress said: - That [lad] is our younger brother. These three yurts belong to your husband's elder sisters, to us. - She said. - Your husband comes to greet us three times [a day] in the morning, at noon and in the evening. - Thereafter the eldest sister put nice clothes on the girl and hid her among the goods on the honoured place. [50] In the morning [the lad] arrived to the eldest sister, took the chess set and sat down. While playing this way the lad 61 0 said: - Check! - Thereupon his sister said: - Yes, yes, it is check, but would you take your wife 1'" if she arrived from the underworld continent? - Thereupon that lad: - You are saying unnecessary words. - He said and joining 61 2 the flapfs] of his gown left. [The elder sister] sent the girl to the middle sister. She hid her among the goods on the honoured place, similarly [to her previous sister]. At noon that lad arrived, took the chess and sat down. He played again and said: - Check! - Thereupon his sister said: - Yes, yes, it is check, but would you take your wife 61 , if she arrived from the underworld continent? - You are saying unnecessary words. - He said and joining both flaps of his gown left. In the evening the [middle sister] sent the girl to the little sister's yurt. She hid her among the goods on the honoured place similarly [to her previous sisters]. In the evening that lad arrived, greeted his sister, 614 took the chess and sat down. Thereafter he played again and said: - Check! - Thereupon his sister said: - Yes, yes, it is check, but would you take your wife if she arrived from the underworld continent? - Thereafter the lad stood up and said: - I will take [her], - Get up [and come] hither! - Said [the sister] and helped her to stand up. Thereupon her younger brother could do nothing but take [his wife]. Thereafter they lived there peacefully in joy. FIFTH TALE (Bálint 5. Ut tüli) 6' 5 [51] Once there lived an old woman and an old man. That old woman and that old man got their food by throwing a hook into the water and catching fish. Meanwhile a lame Steppe Eagle 6"' arrived to them and got some leftovers from the old man's and old woman's food. Thereafter one morning the old man and the old woman were waking up and they [saw that they] were lying in a big soft bed 61 7 inside a yellow spotted building. The black lame Steppe Eagle had became a handsome 61 8 lame young man and was preparing his tea mingling it. 61 9 Thereafter the handsome lame young man said: 61 0 Bálint kün lit. "man". 61 1 Bálint kükän lit. "your girl: your bride". 6, 2 Bálint saéiji, read Kalm. sä- + -ii- (infix possessing intensive meaning) + -ji (adv. imp ); sä- 2. "näher ziehen, an sich ziehen, abkürzen" (R. 317). 61 5 Bálint babayayän, Kalm bmvyägän "your wife". 61 4 This motif-element did not appear above. 61 5 Manuscript pp 51-55. "''Bálint tarbaji, Kalm. tarwaji "kleiner schwarzer Adler" (R. 381), tarwj, "orjol belohvostyj" (Mun. 478), Khal. larwaji biirged "Tawny Eagle: Lat. Aquila Rapax" (Bawden p. 332), but in all probability Steppe Eagle (Lat. Aquila Nipalensis). 61 7 Bálint uluba, cf. 4 , h tale. 6, 8 Bálint ulän, cf. 4 , h tale. 6" Bálint samaraji, Kalm. samrx, Khal samrax is the typical movement used to prepare boiled milk tea; taking the milk tea with a ladle, one pours it back from above. 93
