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

22. Even if the grey ewe Is not able to stand up, it gets fat. What is it? (the ash) 23. [His] mouth said dobor, dobor,

2" He ate the food of others with trickery and left. What is it? (a Buddhist monk of gelng rank). BÁLINT'S KALMYK RIDDLES The following brief account will endeavour to review the available Kalmyk text-collections and demonstrate some peculiarities of the Bálint-corpus in the wider context of Kalmyk riddles. Despite the quite extensive publication of riddle-collections during the 20

t

h century,

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2 thorough investigations have been the exception. The first comprehensive, detailed cataloguing of Mongolian riddles was undertaken by Archer Taylor.

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1' More recently Csaba Mészáros

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4 has surveyed material in the Mongolian text corpora and applied new approaches for the analysis of Mongolian material. Bitkejev has outlined a framework for classifying the diverse range of riddles according to content and structure.

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1^ These studies emphasise that, although the recording and research of Kalmyk riddles is well-established, a multilateral systematisation has not yet been carried out

. More than three decades after Bálint's field work, a series of researchers visited the Kalmyks and recorded riddles, usually in tandem with other folklore genres: at the beginning of the 20'

h century G. J. Ramstedt

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6 and V. L. Kotvié.

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7 In her synopsis of C. B. Selejeva surveyed the foreign and native history of the research and publication of Kalmyk riddles. She mentioned Bálint's material in highly appreciative terms, but regretted that this essential collection is not accessible.

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8 Besides referring to Bálint's collection, she discussed Kotviő's and Ramstedt's data and also in detail the Russian and Kalmyk textcollections and studies of Nomto Oéirov, C. D. Nominhanov, I. I. Kravéenko, N. C. Bitkejev, G. B. Basanga, T. G. Bordzanova. Probably the most comprehensive collection, arranged in alphabetical order, of Bukäan Badma and Macga Ivan is cited by her as well.

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1 It is important to remember that although riddles as a genre were taken with some seriousness , -competitions among groups of adults were 21

0 Bálint siiike, Kalm sík "Ohrgehäng. Ohrring" (R. 328), W.Oir. siiike, siyike "serjo2ka" (Pozd. 160) the phonetic form of this lexeme offers more evidence of Bálint's usage of the written version of his texts as well. 21

1 Bálint dobor dobor gegäd, Kalm. dowr. dowr ge- ideophonic expression, imitating the Tibetan recitation of the monks: in dictionaries deest. Bordianova suggested to interpret as düwr-düwr ge- "bormotat" ", cf. Kalm.Ö düwrxe "(selten) lärmen, trampeln, traben (z.B. ein Pferdeherde, eine große Menschenmenge) (R 106), düwr "Lärm, Getose" (R. 107). 21

2 For the bibliography: Kara: Mongol Uriankhai Riddles, passim. 2" Taylor, Archer: An Annotated Collection of Mongolian Riddles. In: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Vol. 44. Part 3. Philadelphia 1954. 21

4 Mészáros, Csaba: A mongol találósok. (MA-thesis) Budapest, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem 2007. [The Mongolian riddles | 21

5 "1. zagadki povestvovatel'nyje, 2. zagadki voprosy, 3. zagadki-zadanija v epiCeskih proizvedenijah, 4. Cislovyje zagadki: a. zagadki-tirady, b. zagadki-povtory, c zagadki-dialogi." Bitkejev: Svodkalmyckogofol'klora. p. 12. 2"' Ramstedt, Gustaf John: Kalmückische Sprichwörter und Rätsel. Aufgezeichnet von G. J. Ramstedt. Ed. Aalto. Pentti. In: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura 58/2. (1956) pp. 1-38. 21

7 Kotviő, V. L.: Kalmyckie zagadki i poslovicy. St. Peterburg 1905; KotviC, V. L.: Kalmyckie zagadki i poslovicy. Elista, Kalmyckoje kniinoje izdatel'stvo 1972. Further publication on Kalmyk riddles: Birtalan - Rákos: Kalmükök, pp. 139-140. 21

8 Selejeva, C. B : K istorii sobranija i publikacii kalmyckih narodnyh zagadok. In: Mongolovedenije. No. 3. Sbornik nauCniyh trudov. Elista 2004. On internet: http://kalmyki.narod.ru/projects/kalmykia2005/html/papers/Seleeva_2004.htm (2010). 2,1

2 Bukäan, Badm - Macga. Ivan (ed.): Xal'mg ülgürmüd boln tähvrtä tül's. Eist, Xal'nig ASSR-in degtr yaryaC 1960. [Kalmyk proverbs and riddles]. As mentioned in the subchapter of Proverbs, it was not possible to go thorough the voluminous material of the Turkestan Oirats and Kalmyks (Todajeva, B. H.: Poslovicy. pogovorki i zagadki kalmykov Rossii i ojratov Kitaja. Ed. Pjurbejev, G. C. Elista, RAN KIGI 2007 ). 43