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
- There is a man here; after meeting him I will come back. - Without making his companions meet him, 83 0 [,..] 83 1 left. They went for a long while and arrived at the two monsters' stud. On the closer side 8' 2 of the stud there was a big wooden corral; they 8" could not find any entrance into it. Thereafter our lad said: - My father used to say: "There is a narrow path into this wooden corral." - Saying it he galloped around [the corral]. [108] While going around, he found the path. Thereafter the lad said: - I will drive out this stud and drive it to you. That time the two monsters will arrive with a large army. I will drive this stud to you, and [then] I will put my horse across the path and we will shoot at each other [with the monsters' soldiers]. 8, 4 - When 1 flee, please saddle for me the fox red horse my father use to ride! - Thereafter the lad went into [the corral] and drove out the stud. Both monsters followed him with a big army. The lad stopped his horse across the path and they shot at each other. The lad shot and killed the whole army. Upon looking at his horse, a lot of arrows got into one of its sides. He rode his horse and fled. Upon arriving at his companions, 8' 5 he said: - Please quickly saddle for me the fox red horse my father use to ride! - They fled without giving him the horse. While going away the man who led the fox red horse said: - Have fun with the two monsters, while 8''' we have fun with the fifteen-year-old Aragn'i Dangn'i. - And without giving him his horse they left. The horse the lad rode perished. The two monsters arrived, hit [the lad], bound him up and took him home. [109] Bringing the lad [home] they tied him firmly to an iron cart. 8' 7 After tying him, the two monsters said: - Hit him when he comes in, hit him when goes out! 8' 8 - They hit him upon coming in, they hit him upon going out, and the lad's face became more and more handsome. Thereafter the wrinkled black monster with fifteen heads said: - He seems to be a good lad, don't hit him! - And he undid his ropes. Thereafter the monster said to the lad: - Well, now we will summon the thousand fathers of the thousand men you have killed. I will ask them whether they will set you free. If yes, I will set you free, if not I will give you to those people. [The monster] convoked the fathers of the dead young men, entertained them with milk brandy and said: - He seems to be a good lad. Let's not kill but set free the good lad. - Half of those people said: set him free, the other half said: don't set him free. - We don't set him free. - They said [finally]. Thereupon the monster said: - If you don't set him free, take that lad! What you will do with him is your choice. 83 9 - Those one thousand old men took the lad and left. They took and sold him to a rich Cherkes. That rich Cherkes did not have any sons or any daughters. Our lad became the son of the Cherkes. [110] After being 83 0 Bálint öiröki nöködn 7 xaryaldühd ügä. Kalm. örxin nöködl (dative) n ' xaryüldüllgö, lit. "without making his close companions (i. e. the five hundred khans' sons) meet him (i. e. his friend). 83 1 Bálint őikidün'i abäd yaboba, Kalm ciknd «' awädyaww, lit "left putting [his friend) into his ear (?)". Turning the companion and his horse into anklebones is a frequent motif in Bálint's and Ramstedt's tales. This motif could be a vestige of this motif-variant Further development of this motif, however, is lacking from the tale. This fragmentary syntagm remains obscure and needs further investigation. Basangova (BordZanova)'s suggestion: óig t n ' "po pravilam". 83 2 Bálint aduna näda biyärn 7. Kalm adünä näd biyér n ', lit. "on the closer [to the protagonist's] side of the stud". 8, 1 I e. the five hundred khans' sons. 83 4 Bálint edntä xalcäd bäisu-bi. Kalm. ednlä xalcäd bäisw , i. e. with the monsters' warriors. 83 5 I. e. to the five hundred khans' sons. 8"' Bálint cacayan. read Kalm. cacüxan "beinahe od. ganz gleichebenbürtig, von demselben Alter" (R. 423). 81 7 To the motif of tying to a cart cf. Ninth tale. 83 8 In the Ninth tale the monster was tied to the wooden frame of the yurts door and hit from inside and from outside, like a kind of ball game. Even if the text might be incomplete (lacking the tying to the door-frame) the hitting from outside and from inside refers to it. To this motif cf. Ninth tale 83 9 Bálint yayana-ta. kegend-la, Kalm yagnl. ként, lit "how will you act, |what| will you do", both verbs bear the personal suffix of honorific addressing (-/).
