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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
One of the most important works of the great Tatar poet Gabdulla Tuqaj (27th April, 1886, to 15th April, 1913) 1 is said to be the poem “Şyrale (The Forest-Demon) ”, written in 1907. There is no doubt about the literaryimportance of this work, although many “enlightened ”Tatars disparage it as a mere nursery-tale 2 ;but it is likewise important for folklore and literary history.
page 73 note 1 See “Biography of the Tatar writer Tukaieff”(Tatar text, transcription, and German translation) in Tatarische. Texte. Nach den in der Lautabteilung der Staatsbibliothek befindlichen Originalplatten Jierausgegeben, übersetzt und erlclärtvon Gotthold Weil, Berlin, 1930, pp. 84–8 ;furthermore Hamid Zubeir, Abdoullah Tokay, un poète tatare moderne (in the Kőrōsi Csoma- Archivum,1921, pp. 64–71), Köprulüzade Mehmed Fuad, Abdullah Tokayef (in Türk Turdu,4 (1913), pp. 497–515).
page 73 note 2 Cf. e.g. oiabdulla Tuqaj,Mukden, 1938, p. 60.
page 73 note 3 According to the Complete Works Edition, oiablulla Tuqaj Maçmyoidje Asarb,Tokio, 1933, vol. ii, appendix pp. 1–10. The above text is transcribed in the official Tatar Latin alphabet, which was used with some slight alterations, from 1928 to about 1940, when it was replaced by the Russian alphabet, which is hardly fit for reproduction of the Tatar sounds.
page 74 note 1 The “qbş, kezhren= in winter and autumns”in the Tokio edition seems to be one of the numerous misprints;it may easily (by altering one single type) be corrected as above.
page 75 note 1 About these countryside festivals the Tatar writer Fatikh Karimi has gathered some material. In his work Tatarlar(= the Tatars) he gives a popular “explanation ”for the fact that, in contrast to Mohammedan customs, the women participate in the public amusements. He says: “The Çibn Bajrambis celebrated more grandly than the Plough Festival (Saban Bajramb).Usually the Çibnis in June. The astonishing fact is that in these festivals the Tatar women and girls participate together with the male folk, and in the time of this festival they even give up the reserve towards males which otherwise is imposed to them....When this festival came into fashion and why it is celebrated is not known even by the Tatars themselves. People say a rich Tatar in old times arranged a grandiose festival on his daughter′s wedding, and permitted the girls to participate in it together with the men and to dance with each other, and the Çibnhas been celebrated in memory of it.”—Concerning the Majdan sabanbor Saban tujbv. G. Weil, loc. cit., pp. 103–6.
page 76 note 1 Regarding the “albaslb”,cf. Bernhard Munkácsi, ”Der ‘Alpdämon’im Ungarischen und Türkischen (in Keleti Szende,14 (1913–14), pp. 218–223).
page 80 note 1 Compl. Works,iv, 45–7. This story nearly literally corresponds to the Chuvash tale of an Arzurriwhich we find in Ashmarin′s Thesaurus linguee Tschuvaschorum,vol. i, pp. 31434-31585 (a variant, vol. iii, 255 ;iii, 258), and which has been recorded too by Gy. Mészaros (loc. cit., I PP- 5030-5111).
page 80 note 2 I content myself with pointing to the Tatar monça“sauna, bath ”<Chuvash monca′I munca(according to Chuvash phonetic laws <Bulgarian *manja, banja<Russ. Banjaparticulars are to be found in the publications of the Finno-Ugrian Society), and to the Tatar boraj“spelt ”, from Bulgarian *buraj>Chuv. pariid. (cf. ZDMG.,98, 1944, p. 26).
page 81 note 1 The meaning of Upateand Arzurriis “ape ”and “half-man ”respectively.
page 81 note 2 In the following, the Roman figures show the volume of the “Thesaurus ”, the Arabic numerals indicate the page and the line.
page 82 note 1 The Chuvash gods are arranged in nine classes with nine deities each. A detailed account of this in the Chuvash language is found in the Thesaurus,vol. iii, 66–8.
page 82 note 2 Cf. Mészaros, loc. cit., pp. 49–51, esp. p. 5013. pp. 4934 and 5122 two other names of this ghost are mentioned which I have not yet found in Ashmarin′s Thesaurus:Varman, aşşe(Forest- Father = Upate),and Varman amas(Forest-Mother = Arzurri).
page 84 note 1 It is a quite general feature with the mountain-ash that all demons keep themselves away from it.
page 84 note 2 Now the capital of the Chuvash Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic.
page 85 note 1 With this demon we may equate the Çez-lumşuq(i.e. Metallic Nose) of the Kirghiz, which is believed to be a hag with a metallic nose (cf. Şyr∂ley. 63) and metallic nails.
page 85 note 2 Other Tatar poets and writers have followed him. I only mention here the Tatar and Chuvash popular tale of the Maiden in the Moon, which has received literary treatment from Amirkhan (+ 1926).
page 85 note 3 Complete Works,vol. ii, 90–4. The Chuvash, too, know the Water Hag (Şyv amasê).
page 85 note 4 Complete Works,vol. ii, 94–7.
page 85 note 5 Ĉuvaśskie razgovory i skazki (in the Kazanskie Oubernskie Vëdomosti,1853, Nos. 33–7).