Don Kalmyks: the Folk Tradition of Riddle-Telling Revisited (a Case Study of I. Popov’s Materials)

Abstract

Goals. The article aims to describe common riddle-telling patterns of the Don Kalmyks as of the late 19th century traced in works by I. Popov, a famous collector of Kalmyk folklore samples. Materials. One of the nine handwritten books constituting his academic heritage which is only partially introduced to researchers is titled ‘Riddles of the Don Kalmyks’. It includes 367 Clear Script texts accompanied by Russian translations and the author’s foreword which provides a brief description of the genre and reconstructs standard game situations explicitly demonstrating the functioning of riddles in the folk tradition. Results. Our hypothesis is that here I. Popov was following M. Castrén’s ‘Attempted Essay on the Buryat Language’ (sixteen riddles from the latter included in Popov’s book) because the ethnologist gives similar information on the Selenga Buryats. Results. According to I. Popov’s description, riddle-telling among Kalmyk children was a team game. As for individual players, there were tolgachi, i.e. leaders of two teams participants were divided into, and tuulchi — a master of riddles highly esteemed by other players. An important component of the game is mockery of losers, which can be found in many cultures as a form of punishment. I. Popov gives an example of one game where two teams ask numerical riddles (related to figures from one to ten) to each other. Comparison with traditions of other Turko-Mongols, such as Buryats and Altaians, shows that the Kalmyk tradition of riddle-telling shares similar features, e.g. connection of riddle-telling with the winter period, punishment as a compulsory element of the game. Still, it has some specific features. Firstly, for Kalmyks and Buryats this is a collective game, while in the Altaian tradition participants can play individually. The second important distinctive feature is the difference of age categories of players: in the Kalmyk tradition those are children, in the Buryat — young married couples, and in the Altaian — adults. The Appendix provides a facsimile of the I. Popov’s foreword to his ‘Riddles of the Don Kalmyks’.