Myths and tales about the animals of the Oirats of Xinjiang

Sadalova Tamara Mikhailovna ORCID: 0000-0002-7984-2379 Doctor of Philology Leading Researcher, Kalmyk State University named after. B.B. Gorodovikov 649000, Russia, Altai Republic, Gorno-Altaysk, Teleutskaya str., 14 sadalova-t@mail.ru

Lidzhiev Mingiyan Alekseevich ORCID: 0000-0002-5113-7766 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Kalmyk Literature and Journalism, Kalmyk State University named after B.B. Gorodovikov 358000, Russia, Republic of Kalmykia, Elista, N.M. Ochirova str., 19, of. private house mingiyan75@mail.ru

Introduction

The fabulous folklore of the Oirats of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China is extremely rich and informative. It is represented by a variety of mythological plots, household, animal and short-story tales, as well as magical and heroic tales, an oral cycle of framed narratives about the Magical Dead. However, for the research field of Russian folklore, these materials still remain inaccessible for a number of reasons. Nevertheless, it should be noted that attempts to study the fabulous folklore of the Oirats of Xinjiang were launched more than a century ago ^[9].

By the early 1980s, representatives of the Oirat intelligentsia (teachers, journalists, cultural workers) intensifies the collection and publication of tales of the Oirats of Xinjiang. Over the next twenty years, a whole corpus of fairy—tale texts was introduced into scientific circulation - more than fifty collections of fairy tales ^[13]. A large layer of folklore material based on traditional "clear writing" was published in the issues of the periodical "H?n Tenger" (1981-1993), published in Urumqi. On the pages of the 51st issue of the publication, not only various samples of oral folk art are presented, but also the written literature of the Oirats ^{[2, 5]}.

Myths and fairy tales about animals are organic and independent genres of folklore of the Oirats of Xinjiang. They have peculiar features of poetics and semantics. In various collections and periodicals, more than a hundred animal tales have been published in "clear writing" and Old Mongolian graphics. The only publication that consists entirely of 31 animal tales is a collection called "The White-throated Sparrow" ("Betege ca ? an boq?ir ? o") ^{[14, 10]}.

In 2006, a three-volume set of folklore of the Oirats of Xinjiang was published in Xinjiang on the "clear letter". In the first volume, "Collection of folk tales of the Mongols of Xinjiang PRC" ("Dumdadu ulusiyin ? in ? iyang-giyin m ongyol aradiyin aman ? liger-yin emkidkel") in the sections "Myths about animals" ("Aduusun amitani tuxai domoq yaran") and "Tales about animals" ("Aduusun amitani ?liger") includes texts published both in the collection "White-Throated Sparrow" and in various issues of the periodical "H?n Tenger", as well as a number of previously unpublished texts of myths and fairy tales about animals. In total, 70 plots (22 texts of myths and 48 tales about animals) were published in the first volume of the code ^[15].

Myths about animals

Myths about animals, the essence of which boils down to explaining the origin of certain characteristic external signs of animals and birds, reproduce the interpretations of these signs that are well-established in the popular imagination. The main characters of a number of myths are birds, which the Oirats consider to be representatives of the upper world ^{[7, p. 14]}. The images of the raven, crane, swallow, cuckoo, king of birds Garuda in the fairy tale tradition, as well as the images of ornithomorphic assistants of the heroes of the fairy tale are covered in sufficient detail in the works of researchers ^{[1; 3; 6, p. 139]}.

In the myths of the Oirats of Xinjiang, for example, a swallow frees people from a snake that sent a mosquito to find out whose blood is the most delicious. The swallow tears out the tongue of the mosquito, the snake deprives it of part of the tail feathers, so the swallow's tail has become forked. Drops of mosquito blood that got on it stained the swallow's neck red ^{[14, pp. 94-98]}. One of the myths about the king of birds, Garuda, explains why the fox began to hunt mice. The other is why the vulture has burnt—colored legs and why it feeds on carrion.

In the myth "Why does a quail have a short tail" ("B?d?ne-yin sl ya ? ad oxotor boluqsan bui"), a fox threatens to eat a quail if it does not make it laugh, feed and scare it. The wise quail escapes, but loses its tail. This plot has a direct parallel with the famous Buddhist parable "The Fox and the Partridge", which is found in the commentatory Tibetan-Mongolian literature of Buddhism ^{[4, p. 61]}.

In the myth "Why the rooster screams in the morning, at lunch and in the evening" ("Er taka yund orun, udl, ashn, so duuln duhardg bolsmb"), the deceived peacock rooster screams three times a day demanding to return his beautiful plumage ^{[15, pp. 127-129]}. This plot is well known in the Kalmyk fairy tale tradition ^{[11, p. 411]}.

According to the content of the myth "Why the owl screams at night" ("Uul shovun juund sod duhardg bolsmb"), a stingy girl, angry that the guests ate all the wedding treats, runs naked from the groom into the forest at night. There she cried until she died. Her soul turned into an owl that cries at night and sleeps during the day ^{[14, pp. 72-75]}.

Another kind of etiological myths are plots that reveal the appearance of certain animals and birds in this world. There were three such etiological myths among the Oirats of Xinjiang — "How tarbagan appeared" ("Tarbayan yayy a d bui boluqsan"), "How the hedgehog appeared" ("Zara ya ? a?i bui boluqsan bui") and "Why the whale lives for a thousand years" ("Xalim zayasun yah a d mingya nasuldaq boluqsan bui"). There is a clear influence of Buddhism in the content of the last two texts. Thus, the appearance of a hedgehog in this world is associated with the Buddha himself, and a whale with a Bodhisattva. Of the two calendar myths "The Story of the twelve-year Cycle" ("Arvn khoir ?ilin tu?") and "Why they start sowing after hearing the croaking of frogs" ("Tar id yuundu mekelei duyyarbala tar ? uryuxu caq bolba gedeq bui"), the deity of the pre—Buddhist faith, the White Elder, appears in the content of the latter.

Some of the myths are original in their content and are known only in the folklore of the Oirats of Xinjiang. These include the following myths: "Why is the dog covered with fur, but the man is not" ("K ? m ? n ? c ? ken noxoi ? s ? tei boluqsan-ni"), "Why did the horses stop flying" ("Morin ya? a d nis ? i ? idaxu ? gei boluqsan bui"), "Cow kidneys"("? kri-yin b ? r ?"), "The Parable of the Wise Hedgehog" ("Cecen zar a-yi n domoq"), "Why does a cat wheeze in its chest" ("Mis-yin i yuundu xar ? ingnadaq boluqsan bui"), "Why does a dog urinate on the road" ("Noxoi yuundu ziyiliq d ? re deq boluqsan bui").

Animal Tales

Animal tales are the most ancient genre of folklore of the Oirats of Xinjiang. Genetically, they go back to the myths of the first creation, some of which later transformed into a fairy tale. The range of characters in animal tales is quite wide. These are well-known wild animals (fox, leopard, wolf, etc.), birds (swallow, sparrow, quail, etc.) that live in the steppe and mountain landscapes of Dzungaria.

The active characters of the animal fairy tale are domestic animals (camel, dog, cat, etc.) and small representatives of fauna — hare, tarbagan, hedgehog, mouse, frog, turtle, bat, etc.

There is no allegory in the content of the archaic animal tale of the Oirats of Xinjiang, despite the fact that its main characters are animals. In ancient times, man believed that animals were once human beings. Therefore, in many ways, the animal world was perceived as a reflection of the human world, and the morals of animals were equated with the same human qualities. Accordingly, in an animal fairy tale, animals behave like humans — they are friends, help each other, envy, deceive, take revenge, etc. However, it cannot be said that human traits completely replace the properties of an animal. An animal fairy tale is a kind of ethnocultural retrospection on the human world through the prism of the animal world.

All the characters of the animal tale of the Oirats of Xinjiang are divided into two types — deceiving and deceived, since its elementary plot is based on a trick. The characters of the animal fairy tale achieve their goal with the help of deception. Lying is a complex communicative situation that involves at least two participants. The essence of such a communicative action lies in the desire to assure the interlocutor that he is facing a friend, not an enemy. Therefore, the main feature of an animal fairy tale is a dialogue that reveals the nature of the characters and the essence of what is happening. At the same time, the ability of animals to speak is an internal necessary condition of the animal fairy tale itself and has nothing to do with the wonderful properties of the characters. 

Compared to other fairy-tale texts, the animal tale of the Oirats of Xinjiang is usually small in size and has a simple plot. Sometimes, due to the repeatability of actions, there are also voluminous plots. For example, the fairy tale "The Fox and the Crane" ("Oegen to ? oruun xoyor") or "The Hunter-trap and the black-brown fox" ("Xabxa?i ba xaltar oegen").

The initial formula of the animal tales of the Oirats of Xinjiang begins with a verbal code that developed in ancient times, immersing the listener in a special atmosphere of the animal world. The main stable initial formula indicating the time of the mythical creation is the phrase — ‘e rt urd tsagt’, ‘e rt urdyn tsagt’ (‘in ancient times') or ‘e rt urd tsagt gin a' (‘in ancient times they say’).

Further, according to the frequency of application, the initial formulas follow — ‘ert tsagt’, ‘ert neg tsagt’ (‘at an early time’, ‘at one early time’); ‘kezen tsagt’ (‘in a long time’), ‘kezen ginae’ (‘a long time ago), ‘kezen san? gina’ (‘they said it a long time ago’), ‘to yezen’ (long ago); ‘n eg edr’ (‘in one day').

Some plots do not have an initial formula and begin with a description of the situation preceding the event. Thus, the initial formula in the myths and tales about animals of the Oirats of Xinjiang refers to the mythological time of the first creation, and the final formula, which returns the listener to the world of people, always correlates with the present time. As a rule, these formulas are ‘since then...’ (‘t uunas avn’), ‘since that time...’ (‘t er tsagas’), ‘therefore...’ (‘tiigad’), ‘it became so...’ (‘bol ? gina’, ‘bol sn gina’).

The setting in which the event in the animal tale takes place is quite mundane. As a rule, everything starts with a meeting of domestic or wild animals. All the characters of the fairy tale are endowed with the appropriate epithets for them: a malicious fox (hulchn ungn), a shrewd partridge (tsetsn sergln bodn), a greedy, ferocious wolf (harmnch, da?rach chon), a wise hedgehog (tsetsn zara), a resourceful hare (arhta tuula), etc.

The main characters of the animal fairy tale

One of the main characters in many animal tales of the Oirats of Xinjiang is a fox.  It is noteworthy that the Oirats call the fox by the original ancient word ‘ungn’, while in the Kalmyk language the fox began to be called 'arat'.

In the animal fairy tale of the Oirats of Xinjiang, the fox is the personification of an insidious, overly cunning, extremely deceitful, vindictive, calculating and infinitely cruel creature. Taking advantage of the gullibility or naivety of his friends, the fox mercilessly deceives them for the sake of his self-interest. To achieve his goal, he uses various methods: gives false advice, flatters, promises rich loot, threatens. In a number of fairy-tale plots, she deceives animals into death, or deprives them of food, using a cunning trick forces them to become a mount or carry heavy prey.

In the fairy tales of different peoples, the fox invariably appears as a cunning and insidious character. The Mongolian peoples have different beliefs and ideas associated with the fox. Among the Kalmyks, a meeting with a fox on the road is a bad omen, wearing a hat made of fox skin was taboo ^{[1, p. 91]}. At the same time, to scare away evil spirits, the bones of her skull were attached to the collar of children's clothes as a talisman ^{[12, p. 69]}. The Oirats of Western Mongolia consider the fox to be an animal with a "black trail", i.e. bringing misfortune ^{[8, p. 52]}.

In a fairy tale plot, every physically weak animal character is forced to resort to deception in order to confront a stronger opponent. In relation to the fox, two techniques are usually used to escape from its mouth. This is to make the fox count to eight or throw the victim over his head, like noble foxes ^{[14, pp. 46-50; 15, pp. 542-543]}.

Some fairy-tale plots are based on the motif of the section of food found by animals. In the fairy tale "The Fox, the Frog and the Grasshopper" ("Oegen, mekelei, carc?yurba"), the dispute is resolved by running a race. The grasshopper hiding behind the fox's ear is the first to reach the finish line. The frog that came last, reports approaching hunters with dogs. The fox runs away in fear. The whole crop goes to the frog and the grasshopper ^{[15, pp. 539-540]}.

It cannot be said that fairy-tale plots ending with the triumph of the fox make up the majority. There are many such narratives in which the fox turns out to be a loser. So in the fairy tale "The Kid and the Bull" ("I?ige teke b?r buxu"), a bull stuck in a crevice scares the wolf by the fact that the hunting dogs he swallowed rush out to eat him. The frightened wolf runs away. The fox persuades him to come back and eat the bull. On the way back, they met a man with brushwood, who began to shout that the fox had promised to bring seven wolves, but had brought only one. The frightened wolf takes to his heels and strangles the fox with the rope with which they were tied ^{[154, pp. 561-563]}.

In the fairy tale "The Resourceful White Hare" ("Ar ? atu ca ? an tuulai"), a deceived fox pretends to be lame in order to take away a lama priest, and the hare takes possession of his belongings. In the fairy tale "The Miserly black-brown fox" ("Xobdoq xaltar ? negen"), the miserly cheat dies from an accidental arrow ^{[14, pp. 62-64; 15, p. 554]}. Two foxes die because of their own stupidity in the fairy tale "Two stingy Foxes" ("Xobdoq xoyor oegen") ^{[14, pp. 12-13; 15, pp. 550-551]}.

In the tale "The Camel's Tail" ("Tem ni s l"), the fox arranges for the leopard to kill the bear and the wolf, and then he breaks off the cliff. However, in the final, the stingy fox itself becomes the prey of the eagle ^{[14, pp. 16-20; 15, pp. 549-550]}.

The fox, as one of the main characters in animal tales, is invariably cunning, but at the same time, stupidity. In some plots, she cruelly takes revenge on her abusers, sending them to certain death with the help of cunning. This is how a fox takes the life of a wolf, sending him in search of a healing pill in the fairy tale "The Wolf who was looking for uril" ("? r ? l xayiqsan ? ono"). She points out to him the place where these pills are supposedly located and advises him to sing loudly in order to manifest their healing effect. People come running to the howl of a wolf and kill it ^{[14, pp. 32-35; 15, pp. 537-538]}.

In the plot "How the mouse lost to the fox" ("Xulu ? una oegen-d? ideqdeqsen-ni"), the cheat eats the entire mouse family. In another story called "Camel, fox, wolf and leopard" ("Tem? ?egen ?ono bars d?rb?") she convinces the wolf and the leopard to eat the camel, then leads the wolf into a trap and forces the leopard to jump off the top of the mountain. In the fairy tale "The Fox, the leopard and the wolf" ("? negen, bar, ? ono ?urban"), "the tiger and the wolf eat so much that they easily become prey to the hunter ^{[15, p. 572]}.

Some stories about the fox are borrowings from the commentatory Tibetan-Mongolian literature of Buddhism. So the fox tricks the king of beasts into carrying heavy prey in the fairy tale "The Lion and the Fox" ("Arslang tegen xoyor") ^{[14, pp. 14-15; 15, p. 550]}. This plot is known within the framework of commentatory Tibetan-Mongolian literature under the same name ^{[4, pp. 144-145]}. In the fairy tale "How the fox was khan" ("Oegen xan suuqsa-ni"), a fox smeared with blue paint pretends to be the queen of all animals, born according to the will of the heavenly lord Khurmusta himself. However, he pretends to be a fox yapping and loses his life ^{[14, pp. 59-61; 15, p. 542]}. Within the framework of the commentary literature, the plot is known as "The Blue Fox" ^{[4, pp. 69-70]}.

Two plots about the loss of a fox are connected with the motive of finding out the seniority among the animals. In the fairy tale "The Fox and the Hedgehog" ("Oegen zar? xoyor"), being confident of her victory in the dispute over seniority, the fox argues that her mother sang her a lullaby at a time when the earth was the size of a hearth, the sky was no bigger than a handkerchief, and the parrot was a fledgling chick. To which the prudent hedgehog remarks that in this case she is the same age as his younger brother ^{[15, p. 539]}. This plot is known within the framework of the commentatory literature of Buddhism ^{[4, p. 79]}.

Thus, in all the texts of animal tales known to us, the fox always acts as a trickster, deceiving not only his relatives, but also people.

The second most popular character in the animal fairy tale of the Oirats of Xinjiang is a wolf. Most often, in fairy-tale plots, he is paired with a fox, who constantly deceives him. Although the wolf is always depicted as strong, but its main quality in the tales of the Oirats of Xinjiang is boundless stupidity.  Therefore, despite his strength, he always remains a loser. It is easily carried out not only by a fox, but also by many other animals — a horse ("Mottled lonchak and wolf", "Alaq d? ? an boln ?ono"), a bull ("Lonchak, bull and wolf", "D? ? an b?rono ? urba"), a resourceful hare ("The Tale of the Gray ovechke", "Boro xoyini ? liger"), etc.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that among the fairy tales about the wolf, there is a prosopoetic text "The Lonely White Camel cub" ("? n ? in cay a n botyon"), in which the she-wolf provides protection and patronage to the lame camel cub and helps him find his mother. 

Among other characters in the tale of wild animals there are a bear, a leopard and a lion. They are represented in the plots of fairy tales as the strongest animals, but at the same time they are stupid and self-confident that having strength and power, they do not need a mind. Therefore, a fox or a hare easily deceives them.

In the content of Oirat tales about animals, there are often plots in which birds surpass their inherent wisdom and ingenuity of their powerful enemies. Most often, they protect themselves by lulling their vigilance with hints about their nobility and intelligence, which they lack. For example, in the fairy tale "The Beautiful Gray Sparrow" ("S?ral sayixan boq?oryo"), built on the motive of an imaginary threat, a fox threatens to knock down a tree on which a mother sparrow incubates chicks, drink all the water in the area and eat all the grass. A naive bird believes in an imaginary threat and loses its eggs. A wise quail tells her how to save the remaining egg. The fox catches a quail, but it is freed from its mouth by a cunning trick ^{[14, pp. 528-530]}.

In the plot of the fairy tale "The Fox and the Crane" ("Oegen to ? oruun xoyor"), a cheat, presenting herself in the image of a kind neighbor, tries to profit from the chicks of a crane pair. Having guessed her evil intentions, the birds arrange for the fox to fall into a trap ^{[15, pp. 535-536]}.

Some of the plots in which birds act are known in the commentatory Tibetan-Mongolian literature of Buddhism. A turtle travels with wild geese by grabbing a twig held by a pair of geese in the text "Geese and a Turtle" ("yaluun bo yasutu mekelei"). In the fairy tale "The Reborn Fox and the Khan of Garuda" ("Xubil ? an ? negen bolon X?n ? arudi"), the cheat uses cunning to make Garuda her riding bird ^{[14, pp. 38-39; 15, pp. 542-543]}. This story is known within the framework of the commentatory literature of Buddhism under the name "Vishnu and Garuda" ^{[4, pp. 124-125]}. "The Tale of the Wise Parrot" ("Cecen toti-yin ? liger") is a contamination of two parables from the commentatory literature of Buddhism — "The dove Chitragriva and his friends" ^{[4, p. 93]} and the plot about birds caught in the net ^{[4, p. 164]}.

In the fabulous tradition of the Oirats, including animal tales, there are samples of texts that have a peculiar composition built on a chain of commutative episodes-actions that complement each other. The final episode leads to the resolution of the current situation. This type of cumulative fairy tales includes a plot called "The White-browed Sparrow" ("Betege cay 'n boq ? iryo"), which is well known in Kalmyk folklore.

One of the features of the animal tales of the Oirats of Xinjiang is the rich, imaginative, vivid language of the characters' dialogues. As true nomads who know the habits of wild and domestic animals well, Oirats often use onomatopoeic words in the texts of animal tales. For example, a fox, according to the Oirat language, makes a sound when running — ‘guv-guv'. The quail sings — ‘bug-buldag, bug-buldag' or in another version — ‘Bul, bul! Bul! Bul, bul! Bul!’. An owl cries in a dark forest — ‘Goo, goo, goo!’, and the frog croaks — ‘Nir r, tsur r'. The mosquito buzzes — ‘Dooo, dooo'. The hungry wolf howls — ‘Oh, aah! Ah, wow!’.

Among the presented samples of animal fairy tales there are texts, the content of which is based on the quarrel of the characters. Fairy tales of this kind belong to texts in which the main thing is not the event itself, but the rich figurative language of the work. In the text "The Frog and the Crane" ("Mekelei to ? oruun xoyor"), the cause of the quarrel is a frog that finds itself on the way of a crane marching to a pond. The arrogant crane tells her to get out of the way. The frog disagrees and gets into an altercation. Blinded by anger, a crane, trying to peck a frog that jumped into the water, dies by piercing its neck with a sharp reed stalk.   

In another text, "A rooster who has become a laughing stock for a frog" ("Mekelei-yin z?q boluqsan taka"), a frog cannot cross a deep dry ditch. When she sees a rooster, she asks to indicate to her the place of a possible crossing. The arrogant rooster pushes her into the ditch and falls there himself and twists his leg. Once at the bottom of the ditch, he continues to accuse and peck the frog. Suddenly, the ditch is filled with water. The frog escapes, but the arrogant rooster drowns.

Thus, myths and fairy tales about animals represent the ancient genre of fairy-tale folklore of the Oirats of Xinjiang. Their content preserves mythological elements associated with the archaic ideas of the ethnic group about the living beings of the world around them. The figurative language, saturated with expressive poetic expressions, an abundance of visual means, a large volume of vocabulary of the original language of the Oirats, largely lost in the Kalmyks language, testify to the preservation of the fabulous and mythological fund and the performing tradition of the Oirats of Xinjiang.