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
on the front flap of your garment, let lambs step on your back flap of garment! Herd your sheep on the spot without wolves, build your yurt on the place without stones, pull your tether on wide place, build your yurt on high place. Let your wind horse 104 4 fly in the wind, let the merit spread, have a large family! You my child, who bowed before us have eternal settlement, live long, live in peace and calmness!" - Then the ceremony of ber mörgülx will be finished with name giving for the daughter-in-law and presenting to her the five kinds of livestock. g THE DEATH AMONG THE KALMYKS •JS (Bálint Xal 'imigln ükül, Kalm. Xal'mgin ükl) 104 5 "M § 1 181] The Kalmyks have strong bodies, so if they become ill, 104 6 they do not seek curative treatment ^ (Bálint emnülkü, Kalm. emnülx) they simply try to recover using home practice(Bálint gerini aryayar edgekü, Kalm. ger'in aryär edgx). If they fall dangerously ill 10 4 they employ the physician's [help]. The Kalmyk family members respond to a mortal sickness by sending his/her family members send for a physician and monks of gelng-rank. Its purpose is to ask [the monks] to pray (Bálint mörgöl ungsituya , Kalm. mörgl ungstxä) beyond the healing treatment. When they arrived, the physician and the monk[s] diagnose that patient's illness by [examining] his/her urine and beating of pulse (Bálint säsärn 7 bolon sudusun 7 cokolyär medäd , Kalm. sesär boln sudsni cokltär medéd)and they prescribe what kind of remedy is necessary for him/her. Then in addition to praying, the The Book of the Dead* M i will be read above the sick person's the head. The monks use to say that if the The Book of the Dead is read above the head of an ill person, the sickness (Bálint, Kalm. gem) will improve, that is why our Kalmyks are keen on it, if the [monks] read that The Book of the Dead when they are sick. If a sick Kalmyk dies (Bálint ükü-, Kalm. wA-) 10 4'' many monks will be called. Then the astrologer monk (Bálint zurxäci geleng, Kalm. zurxäc gelng)*""' looks at that person's heart and touches the 1114 4 Ritual flag usually with a figure of magic horse carrying the cinlämani jewel, Mong kei mori, kimori, Tib. rlung rta. In details cf. Kelényi, Béla: "... May They Here Increase! May All Gather Together!" A Woodprint and its Inscriptions from the Mongolian Collection at the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts. In: Ars Decorativa 21. (2002) Budapest pp. 79-102. 1,14 5 Manuscript pp. 181-184. 104 6 Bálint icäkülären, cf. Kalm. ecklärän seems to be a taboo expression on becoming ill, lit. "getting tired". Kalm. ecxe "mager, kraftlos werden, abfallen, müde sein (Menschen und Tiere)" (R. 129), ecx "hudet', toäat' " (Mun. 705). 104 1 Bálint äimsiktä kiiciär gemtä bolxuläran seems to be an explanatory expression and not a term. " ) 4" Bálint Züradin sudur gedek dekter , Kalm. Zürdin sudr or Zürdin nom, the Mongolian translation of the Book of the Tibetan "Book of intermediate state" (Tib. bar do thos grol), a version is kept in the Oriental Collection of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Mong 230) Kara, György: The Mongolian and Manchu Manuscripts and Blockprints of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó 2000. p. 292. In details: Krueger, John R.: The Great Doctrine of Liberation by Hearing. (Sonusuyadyekede tonityayci). Mongolian text of the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bar-do thos-grol). (The Mongolia Society Special Papers 1.). Bloomington, Indiana 1964 In all probability the texts were recited in Tibetan even if the Mongolian translation existed. 10 4'' Bálint's informant did not use any of the numerous taboo-words for dying, the lexeme he refers to "to die and death" is the most vulgar known among Mongolian ethnic groups, cf. some Kalmyk taboo expressions: säyänxäj"he/she looks for a better [rebirth]", cogcän sol'j"he/she changes his body" nasän naslj"he/she fulfills his life", amn yarc "his/her soul has departed" xuwcsnä tö ilijocf "ended up the amount of his/her clothes"; for further expressions cf. Bordzanova: Obrjadovaja poezija kalmykov. p. 262. ,0 5" On the astrologists' activity in the monasteries and during the funerals, cf. Bergmann II. pp. 266-261, III. 153-157. 144
