Magyar News, 1991. szeptember-1992. augusztus (2. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1992-12-01 / 4. szám

HUNGARIAN “COWBOYS” ON A STEEL HORSE

It happened to the paprika, to the wine, and the list is quite long. It happened that the Hungarians got hold of something and turned it into an excellent product, or whatever it should be. This time they did it again. The war in the desert has been almost forgotten, and nobody ever said anything about the Hungarian medical team that performed a humanitarian task, but things have changed.

By the end of the war, the Iraquis set ablaze 732 oil wells in Kuwait. On TV and in magazines we see the dramatic pictures of the inferno. We all say that one has to be out of his mind to go close to it. Fire fighters specially trained and equipped dare their lives to cut the fire away from the gushing oil. It is difficult work to withstand the burning heat and the storm-like rain washing and cooling everything from a battery of waterguns. The preparation and the follow-up takes many hours when putting out an oil well fire. To douse the actual fire on a small well is on the average an hour-anda-half. The success wasn’t always there. The Hungarians did not like this so they came up with their own method and equipment. Originally it was used in the past few years to put out forest fires in Hungary. It was a clever design by the University in Budapest. It was built from scrap parts, an old Russian tank and two MiG turbine engines. Hooked up to it the water supply made it possible for it to blast 2000 gallons of water a minute. It practically empties an above ground pool every minute. Well something like this should really do the job. Witnesses say that it sure does.

Members of the teams of other countries gather around when the Hungarians are ready to put the fire out. Dressed in red, the Hungarians charge full speed with their tank and come to a squeaking stop less than two car-lengths from the blaze. Then all hell breaks lose. The turbines start up with deafening noise. The sky is filled with black smoke, then it turns white and when the air clears one could see the brown oil spattering all over mixing with the cooling water. In a minute-and-a-half the swimming pool is empty and the fire is out.

OLD HUNGARIAN SCRIPT

Phonetic

value

Old Siberian Hungarian

a, á

1Í

b

x m

cz

t

cs

ti

d

+ XI

e, é

f

8

A CA

gy

h

X 5

i, i

1ft IA

j

T1 <3-k-0 t>tt

k

zn NHW

l

A

ly

o

Phonetic

value

Old

Hungarian

Siberian

m

a

n

)

ny

D

o, Ó

O

•• // O, O

Z -XK

rr*H

P

a 3

1

r

H '

MH

s

A

AY

sz

I

I

t

H

ty

X X

U, Ú

N

Ü, u

n u"r H

V

M

z

zs

Y

r

In this table we tried to put the most known runes, rovás, irás, into some order where you could identify the markings with its phonetic values.

The alphabet we use today is not thé one our ancestors had before they accepted the letters made by the Romans. During the past centuries the old writing was forgotten, seemed so lost that an inscription that was found in Constantinople in 1515 was considered an unknown language. Only later J. Thelegdi, studying the language of the Huns, referred to the Old Hungarian Script, and eventually put it on the right track to be deciphered. Here we see a line of the letter found in Constantinople:

. Orr>. IOA-K&PA-PlPN-TK-XÉ-IP0.AC Mft.

Usually the notches go from right to left, but for us to follow it we show the mirror image so you could read from left to right. As you will notice, they didn’t use the letter “e”, that was somehow incorporated. The translation into Hungarian is: “K(e)t(e)ji. Sz(é)k(e)l. T(e)más. irta. (e)n(e)L Sz(e)l(im)? (tör)ök. császár. it(e)t. be. száz. lovai.” Now let us have it in English. “Keteji Temas wrote (this). From here Selim, the Turkish Emperor, made a foray with a hundred horses.”

We find “rovás irás” with the Huns, in Siberia, and among the Turkish people. The probability is that the eight tribes made up of Khazars settled in the borderlands, in Sekler (Székely) territory, took on the Hungarian language and joined in with their runes.

Resource material was submitted by Bush Taylor, England.

WHAT A SYMPOSIUM

Despite the heavy clouds, still lingering after a whole day’s rain, people were gathering on time at the Fairfield Library to participate in the symposium organized by the American Hungarian Heritage Association. The evening turned out to be a most enlightening and enjoyable one. Joseph Balogh made a short remembrance of the 1956 Revolution accompanied by slides showing the high spirits and the senseless destruction.

Fr. Rakaczki, pastor of Holy Trinity Church, talked about his personal experience of the Pope’s visit Fr. Rakaczki, for some years, was a priest at the church in Mariapocs where Pope John Paul II celebrated mass for 300,000 worshipers.

Fr. Szlezak from St Emery Church spoke about his experiences in Hungary, then reflected on the situation in Transylvania. He read parts of the letter by Bishop Balint about Hungarians in Transylvania. It was amazing to notice how much we American- Hungarians should learn from it

The bigger part of the evening was taken up by Rev. Havadtoy, pastor or the Calvin UCC. From his slides the audience got a true picture of how the Hungarian people respond to the religious freedom that they received. Tens of thousands of people both in Budapest and in Debrecen participated in the World Reformed Conference. It was good to see that a minister from our small Hungarian congregation speaks to the people filling up the whole stadium. We are also looking forward to the slideshow on his trip to Transylvania.