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
- Was the Toortsog Khan good or are the three yellow monster brothers good? - Thereupon that man said crying: - Do you talk about Toortsog Khan, how could we find a khan similar to him? - Thereafter [the lad] thought and said: - Well, live in health! — And he went further. While he was going, he met in front of him a man who was pasturing many cows. He arrived [at that man] and said: - Whose homed cattle are these? - Once they belonged to Toortsog Khan. Now they belong to the three yellow monster brothers. [The herder] said. [The lad] asked again: - Was the Khan Toortsog good or are the three yellow monster brothers good? [123] - Thereupon [that man said]: - How could Toortsog Khan be compared with anything [sic!]? - Thereafter [the lad] went further and arrived at those three [monsters'] territory. He himself turned into a poor boy, and turned his horse into an anklebone, put it into his bag and went into the kitchen yurt. 88 5 He lived there for a while, when one day at noon he asked some soup and meat form the chief cook of the three monsters. Then the chief cook said: - Look! This bad guy is going to eat the best part of the khan's food. - Thereupon the lad pulled with force that chief cook's male organ (?), 88 6 then he ate all the meat. The fellows of that foodsteward ran together to the khan and said: - A bad guy came, killed the chief food-steward, robbed and ate the food. - The khan got the boy to be taken to him and asked: - Why have you killed the chief cook and eaten the meat? - Thereupon the lad said: - I didn't kill the chief of the personnel at all, [do you think] I can get flowing blood even from a rat's nose? - Thereupon the khan said: - Get out! - And pursued him. Thereafter that lad saw that his younger sister, Ginji Tsagaan, who was married to the three monsters' younger brother. Thereafter the lad took his younger sister and asked [her]: - Where is the soul 88 7 of your husband? — Thereupon the maid said: - A boy was born from me. 1 will prick him with a puncheon and ask [the monster] about his soul. Then the wife pricked her son with a thin puncheon at night. [124] The boy cried and his father asked: - Why does this boy cry? - His wife answered immediately: - He cries [because he wants] to put the soul in a [good] place. - Thereupon his father said: - There are twelve goats with an old man in the direction of the sunrise. A huge wild boar comes and eats those goats' kids. My soul is in that wild boar. - Thereafter the wife showed the soul to her elder brother. Thereafter the wife's elder brother went the next day in the morning to that old man in the direction of the Sunrise. Upon his arriving the old man asked him: - What a lad are you? - Thereupon the lad said: - I am going to become the son of a childless man. - The old man took the lad into his yurt. Thereafter the lad told his father [sic!] one morning: 88 5 Bálint zama gertii. Kalm. zam gert, cf. Kalm. zam "Koch (des Klosters) Tib.ja-ma" (R. 466). In the glossary to Balykov's story compiled by Arash Bormanshinov the expression interpreted as the follows: "zaman - lamasery kitchen by the Buzava and the Torguts and zam by the Derbets". Balykov, Sandji B.: A Maiden's Honour. A Tale of Kalmyk History and Society. Translated from the Russian by David Chavchavadze, Notes and Glossary by Arash Bormanshinov. (Mongolia Society Occasional papers 15.) Bloomington, Indiana, Indiana University 1990. p. 198 With the help of this information it might be probably concluded that this tale was told by a Dörböt informant. 88( 1 Bálint arcik xoronduyärn 7 sit tatäd orkoba. cf. Kalm. arcg "die Geschlechtsteile (sowohl der Männer wie der Weiber), die Sehnen zwischen Anus und Geschlechtsteilen), Kalm. D. ärcg" (R 15). Kalm. xörndäyür "in der Mitte zwischen, zwischen" (R. 192), cf. Khal. xörondür "along, between". 88 7 Bálint sümüsün, Kalm siinsn. sümsn, cf. Tenth tale. 126
