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
It pulled him that he got stuck into the earth up to his waist, he? pulled out. ' 5 4 It pulled him that he got stuck into the earth up to his neck. The tether 95 5 [on the horse] once loosened and once remained. [Then] The horse said: - Are you [my] owner? [Or] are you a demon? 95 6 Are you the proper person to ride on me? Aren't you the proper person to ride on me? Tell me if you are the proper person to ride on me [otherwise] I am able to tear your tether and kill you. - Thereupon the boy said: - I am the proper and right person to ride [on you], - Thereafter the horse opened its mouth in order that the boy could bridle it and bent its back so that he could ride on it. They ambled so that the Thick grass did not bow They ambled so that the Thin grass did not bend; 95 7 and arrived. [The boy] himself cut a thick black tree and made a saddle. Thereafter he took a sword from the chest, [134] brandished with it, but it broke in two and fell down. As he did so [several times], 95 8 the swords ran out. Then the khan got angry: - There is not any sword for my destined son to take in the war! - He went to the demesne and stirred an enormous black fog. 95 9 Thereafter the khan's daughter, the thirteen-year-old Aragn'i Dangn'i 96 0 said to her mother: - What made our father so angry? - Thereupon her mother said: - He got angry because there is no [proper] sword to go to war for your brother destined [to us] by fate. - The girl said: - There is the hidden 96 1 sword of the late Ketsüü Berkh. Will my father get angry if [I] give it to [my brother]? - Her mother said: - Your father will calm down, won't he? - Thereupon the girl took and gave [the sword to him]. The boy tried to fling it, it was the proper one [for him]. There was a bow in the chest, he pulled it, 962 but it broke in two and fell down. Thereafter the khan said: - There is not any bow for my destined son to take to war! - He went among his yurts and stirred an enormous black fog. Thereafter the girl asked her mother: - What made our father angry? - Thereupon her mother said. - He got angry because there is not any [proper] bow to go to war for your brother destined [to us] by fate. - The girl said: - There is the hidden bow of the late Ketsüü Berkh. Will my father not quarrel if I give it to [my brother]? - His mother said: 95 4 Bálint sönggö tatäd, Kalm. söngg 2. "auf, in die Höhe", s. taxa "nach oben ausrissen, herausziehen" (R 333), cf. söngglx "vyrivat' s komem, vytjagivat' " (Mun 457). 95 5 Bálint aryamalfin, Kalm. arymji "Strick, (auch durch Fehlsprechen (?) amyatji und armlji" (R 13), arymji (Mun 49). In the dictionary of traditional culture the form appears without an inserted -/-: arymjlx "arymj desär arxlx privjazyvat' arkanom; calmar mör bärx lovit' loäad" arkanom" (Pürbän 39); concerning the lexeme the above discrepancy appears in the same text: p 127. aryamjiär. 95 6 Bálint erlek "harmful spirit, evil spirit", Cf. note to the Tenth tale. 95 7 Bálint närin öbösö näixelüUil ügä joraläd kiiräd irebe; cf. närn öwsig näxlüll uga "[miitsja kon'] ne poäeveliv kopytami i melkije travki" (Tod. 342). 95 8 Trying the swords. 9, 9 Bálint bolSi ügä xarangyu xara budu tatäd orkoba, Kalm. bolsgö xarngyö xar bttdn tatäd okw 961 1 Bálint Aragn'i Dangn'i female proper name, appears frequently in Bálint's tales. E. g. Eleventh Tale. 96 1 Bálint dürültä, Kalm. dürülxe "einem etwas am Sattel festbinden und vor sich haltend mitnehmen lassen" (R. 107); but here probably the verb diir- + -ül- (factitive) is used here "hineinstecken, wegstecken" (R. 105), "vkladyvat', prjatat'. zasovyvat' " (Mun. 220). 96 2 Bálint deleji, Kalm. Ö. delx "(einen Bogen) spannen" (R. 86). delx "rastjagivat". natjagivat". razdvigat' " (Mun. 198). 133
