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.

ETHNOGRAPHICA CALMYCICA

ETHNOGRAPHICA CALMYCICA In addition to recording Kalmyk and East-Mongolian folklore, Bálint was interested in documenting the material culture, folk customs and other remarkable facts of every day Kalmyk life. Unfortunately he did not provide particulars on his ethnographic collection in his letters and reports cf. only: "The last passage of my collection comprises the articles demonstrating the main features of the Kalmyk life, written by Muchka Baldir the best student of the upper level at secondary school and my teacher, the surgeon for me for [some] presents and the teaching help I offered the Kalmyk pupils at secondary school in learning Latin, Greek and French languages."

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1 These concise accounts contain valuable information on various aspects of the Kalmyks' social and cultural environment and provide supplementary material to other well-known reports noted down by earlier travelers and researchers (as Pallas, Bergman, Nebol'sin, Ziteckij, Kostenkov, Dubrov, Dusan 982 • * i 983 etc.) and later ethnographic and folklore publications (Erenjänä, Erdnijev, Bordzanova, Habunova). The ethnographic accounts do not form a cohesive body of information in contrast to the folklore genres, they are scattered within, the Manuscript. Nevertheless with regards to their subject matter, these texts deserve to be brought together and will be discussed in this chapter irrespective of their sequence in the Manuscript. The accounts that will be discussed in the frame of Ethnographica Calmycica are the following: 98

1 "Gyűjteményem záradékát képezik a khálymik életet főbb vonásaiban ismertető czikkek, melyeket a felgymnasiumi tanulók legkitűnőbbje Mucska Baldir és tanítóm a sebész irtak számomra ajándék, de azon segítség fejében is, melyet én a gymnasiumi khálymik tanulóknak a latin, görög és franczia nyelv tanulásánál nyujték." Bálint: Jelentése, p. 12. On Baldrln Müéka cf. chapter Introduction. 98

2 Some of the major works: Schnitscher, Johann Christian: An Account of the Kalmyk Land Under Ayuki Khan. Stockholm 1744. (Publications of the Mongolia Society, Occasional Papers Nr. 20.) Ed., transl. Krueger, John R. Bloomington, Indiana, The Mongolia Society 1996; Pallas, Peter Simon: Samfmjlungen historischer Nachrichten über die mongolischen Völkerschaften. I

—II. St. Petersburg, Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften 1776, 1801; Bergmann, Benjamin: Nomadische Streiferein unter den Kalmücken in den Jahren 1802 und 1803. I-1V. Riga 1804-1805; Nebol'sin, Pavel: Ocerki byta kalmykov hosoutovskago ulusa. Sanktpeterburg, Tipografija Karla Krajja 1852; Kostenkov, K. I.: Kalmyckaja step' Astrahanskoj gubernii po izsledovanijami [siel] Kumo-Manycskoj ekspedieii. Izdanije Ministerstva gosudarstvennyh imuscestv. S.-Peterburg, Tipografija V. Bczobrazova i K. 1868; Ziteckij, I. A.: Ocerki byta astrahanskih kalmykov. Etnograficeskija nabljudenija 1884-1886. (Trudy etnografiéeskago Otdela T. XIII. vyp. 1.) Moskva, Tipografija M. G. Volcaninova 1893; Dubrova, Ja. P.: Byt kalmykov Stavropl'skoj Gubernii. (Izvestija Obséestva arheologii. istorii i etnografii pri Imperatorskom, Kazanskom Universtitete XV 1-2). Kazan, Tipo-litografija Imperatorskago Kazanskago Universitcta 1899; Kaarsbcrg, Hans S. Dr.: Among the Kalmyks of the Steppes on Horseback and by Troika. A Journey Made in 1890. Transl. and ed. John R. Krueger with the collaboration of Dr. Arash Bormanshinov. (Publications of the Mongolia Society. Occasional Papers Nr. 19.) Bloomington, Indiana 1

996; Dusana, Olm): Xal 'mg ulsin vorlyn, sejglyn boin mu bare badl. Mosku, SSSR-in Kein ulsin ax izdatel'stv 1931. [Omens and taboos of the Kalmyk people]. On the travelogues recorded among the Kalmyks cf. Birtalan - Rákos: Kalmükök, pp. 47-51. 98

3 On the recent (second half of the 20

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h century) relevant ethnographic publications cf. Erdnijev, U. E.: Kalmyki. Jstorikoetnograficeskije ocerki. Elista, Kalmyckoje kniZnoje izdatel'stvo 1985.

3; Emjänä, Konstantin: Cecn bulg. Eist, Xal'mg degtr yaryaő 1980 [The wise spring]; Erendzenov, Konstantin: Zoiotoj rodnik. O kalmyckom narodnom t\'orcestve, remeslah i byte. Elista, Kalmyckoje kniznoje izdatel'stvo 1990; Habunova, Je. E.: Tuimt. Xai'mgudin cimdrlin ergcin zang-iil boin amn üdäwr./Ocag Obrjady i obrajdovyj fol 'klor ziznennogo cikla kalmykov. Elst/Elista, Kalmyckij gosudarstvennyj univcrsitet Kafedra kalmyckoj literatury 2005; BordZanova, T. G.: Obrjadovaja poezija kalmykov (sistema zanrov, poétika). Elista, Kalmyckoje kniZnoje izdatel'stvo 2007. Other works, specialised in a particular topics will be quoted in the appropriate subchapters. 137