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
without sleeping. While he was sitting so, something entered through the felt-cover whispering.'' 2'' A black red young man with a white ''" face entered. He stopped in front of the boy: - Famous brother,''' 1 noble lord'" 2 are you in good health? - [The young man] coming to him, kneeled. - Yes, I am [in health]. - Which khan's son are you? - Thereupon the boy: - I do not know which khan's son I am. - Thereupon the lad said: - You are the son of a man called Ketsüü Berkh. Your father has been killed and his dependants have been moved by Sokhor Khar Hero having a blunt black sword. Now let us go! There is a khan, a friend of your father, living in the south. Go to him. - [The lad] said. - [131] I am your fate spirit. Saying it he was upon to leave, when the boy said: - How can I find him? - Tomorrow I will tie two tethers to the two doorjambs, follow them running. - The next day the boy got up and looked around, there were two way-red paths 9" leading from the two door[jamb]s. 9' 4 The boy ran along those two ways. He ran seven times seven, forty-nine days and arrived. Thereafter the boy said: - How could I enter a khan's yurt naked? - And he slung on his shoulders the black felt piece"" that lay in the field and entered [the yurt] running, kneeled at the right leg of the trivet 9 ' 6 and said: - Famous brother, noble lord, are you in good health? - Thereupon the khan said: - You, knave to whose [... ] dried a [... ], In whose palm it caught fire, Who became a lost bull, Who became a whistling arrow that missed its target! - And he hit the boy in the face. Thereafter the boy said: - I am the son of Ketsüii Berkh, - and he fell down. 9' 7 Thereupon the khan and the queen brought a silk and sable skin, covered him and said: - Instead of coming in thinking your purpose in your heart, '' 8 you should have come in keeping your purpose in your mouth. 9' 9 - The khan made [him] his own son. Thereafter when the boy reached the age of fifteen years, he told his father: - My father, I will go and kill Sokhor Khar Hero having a black blunt sword. - Thereupon the khan said: - Stop,'' 4 0 wait! Your age is too small. - [132] Thereafter the boy reached the age of eighteen years and said it again. [The khan] said again, that "Your age is still small." Thereafter the boy reached the age of twenty years and said it once again. Thereupon the khan said: 92 9 Bálint sar sar ged, onomatopoetic expression. Kalm. sar sar gexe, sar sir gexe "zittern, pfeifen (z. B. ein Papier im leisen Winde)" (R. 313). 9. 0 Bálint xalak cagän (xalxa cayan) üstä, cf. Fourth talc. 9. 1 Bálint alder axa, Kalm aldr ax "Herr, mein Herr (als Anrede wie r[ussisch] barin)" (R. 6). 9. 2 Bálint nojin bäba, Kalm. äka. ax nojn bäw "väterlicher Beschützer, mein guter Onkel" (R. 38). 93 3 Bálint r ama ulän xalya, Kalm.D. ram ulän xälya "die große braune Landstrasse" (R 466), Kalm. :am ulan xäly "trakt, stolbovaja doroga" (Mun. 239). 93 4 Bálint xoyur üdenäsii, lit. "from two doors". Bálint xurmus ködöräd. Kalm. xurms "alte zerrissene und vom Rauch schwarze Filzlappen" (R 199). 93< > Bálint lulyän Siredü, Kalm. lülyin sir "die (vier) Füße des (mongolischen) Dreifusses" (R. 409). 9, 7 Bálint eräd unäd odba, Kalm. eräd unäd odw , erxe "hoffen, wünschen, fragen, wollen, verlangen, begehren; lanä amri-tn erej Ihnen Gesundheit wünschend, Sie begrüßend" (R. 125). The passage is presumably about the hero greeting the khan and the queen cf. the last meaning of the lexeme. 93 B Bálint cejidän lit. "in your breast". 93 9 Bálint Saxadaya cejidän sanäd oräd irekär. amandän züyäd oräd ireken (in ';. Although the lexeme saxadaya is not identified yet the approximate meaning of the sentence is understandable: the lad should have said who he was instead of keeping it in secret. The passage needs further research. Bálint bäize zokei read Kalm. bäjä zogs (i "Stop! Stay!", cf. bäjä "postoj ?.e" (Mun. 89). 131
