The Eighth Tribe, 1977 (4. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1977-08-01 / 8. szám
Page 12 THE EIGHTH TRIBE August, 1977 csis, among other well-known community aides. Welcoming remarks included such familiar multilingual ones as “Isten hozta,” “Jó étvágy,” “Bon appetit,” and so on. Hungarian cuisine delicacies couldn’t help but entice visitors toward various booths, nooks, or church grounds where there were available goodly supplies of lángos, kolbász, pecsenye, káposzta, pörkölt, kifli, tekercs, habos kávé, mézes kalács, sausages, Hungarian “hot dogs,” plus other satisfying foods and drinks to quench hunger and thirst so as to please the expected crowd of 5000-6000 persons. A parade of flag-bearers and representatives from the St. Ladislaus School, Hungarian Scouts, among others, proceeded in the opening-up of the festive mall area — the latter comprising about a four-block segment of the community. Entertainment was scheduled throughout the day. One eye-catching table, with enthusiastic participants of Senior Citizens, had a beautiful display of handmade afghans, beaded flower bouquets, lovely paintings as well as mounted photographs showing individuals during some of their past year’s activities and sessions at arts and crafts involvements. An extraordinary collection of Hungarian monies was on exhibit in the Hungarian American Athletic Club; among the specimens were early coinage of Hungary—one dated as far back as 937 A.D.—as well as others issued under various rulers on up through contemporary times, such as one issue having imprinted portraits of the then U.S. President Richard Nixon plus the Chinese head of government (an apparent record of the former’s trip there in 1972). Another highly interesting mini-collection was that of a sidewalk exhibit of commemorative-issue stamps and postmarked envelopes mounted by participating members and friends of the Society for Hungarian Philately. The Hungarian Scouts’ booth in front of Teleki Hall was bedecked with attractively embroidered garments of various kinds for display and/or sale; their design and workmanship were exquisite testimonials to creative endeavors. It was very pleasing to see that there were mézes kalács (honey cakes) on hand also among a number of other articles. Second Annual Hungarian Festival — Professor August J. Molnár (American Hungarian Foundation, Co-ordinator) opening ceremony front of Magyar Reformed Church, New Brunswick, N. J. also used sickles, short scythes, hand mills, and several other iron reinforced implements. Their most common produce were cereals, including wheat, barley and millet. Moreover, while they had many horses, a sizable portion of their domestic animals was made up of cattle (30%) and hogs (10%) — both of which are signs of a non-nomadic, sedentary way of life. In addition to agriculture, gardening and animal husbandry, the people of the Saltovo Culture also had a highly developed handicrafts industry, producing tools, weapons and pottery. Moreover, they carried on a lively commerce with both of the great neighboring civilizations of that time: The Islamic and the Byzantine worlds. The Mägyars had arrived to the region in the early seventh century, and they settled right next to the Bulgaro-Turkic population of the Saltovo Culture. And while they had already become familiar with elements of land tilling, livestock breeding, pottery making, weaving and spinning in the Volga-Kama area, only here, under the influence of this Saltovo Culture did they adapt to the more advanced methods of agriculture, handicrafts and commerce. This influence can be substantiated conclusively both by linguistic and by archeological proofs. Thus, the Magyar language is filled with pre-conquest Bulgaro-Turkic loan words which denote agricultural activities (e.g. búza—wheat, árpa—barley, tarló—stubble field, eke—plow, sarló—sickle, boglya— haystack, szérű—threshing yard, őröl—grind, dara—grits, szánt—to plow, etc.). This also holds true for many terms connected with viniculture and gardening (e.g. gyümölcs—fruit, alma—apple, körte—pear, dió—nut, szőlő—grape, bor—wine, szűr—to strain or filter, seprő—lees or dregs (of wine, etc.). No less is it true for terms that denote sedentary animal husbandry (e.g. ártány—barrow, bika—bull, borjú—calf, disznó—hog, kecske—goat, kos—ram, ökör—ox, sertés—swine, tinó— steer, tyúk—hen, ünö—heifer, ürü—sheep, gyapjú—wool, karám— corral, köpü—churn, iró—butter milk, sajt—cheese, túró—curd, etc.) (Cf. Bartha: Társadalom, pp. 84-89; Fodor: Verecke, pp. 181-182). These revelations of the Magyar language about the influence of the Saltovo Culture and of Bulgaro-Turkic terminology upon preconquest Magyar society are seconded by identical or similar archeological finds from eighth and ninth-century Saltovo graves, and from tenth-century Magyar graves in the Carpathian Basin. Moreover, the sedentary or partially sedentary nature of the society of the conquering Magyars is also substantiated by a number of contemporary written references, including the Arab traveler’s, Ibn Rusta’s report 43
