"Gogoleva Marina Trofimovna YAKUT FOLKLORE: EDUCATIONAL POTENTIAL Monograph Krasnodar UDC 372.882 BBK 74 G 585 ..."

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The nature of the existence of Yakut folklore in the pre-revolutionary era contributed to the widespread dissemination of genres in the traditions of oral verbal creativity. There was a constancy in the functioning of only some genres of folklore: some genres could be considered an everyday occurrence in everyday life, others were performed only if there were appropriate conditions and as needed. The former include small genres of folklore: riddles, proverbs, sayings, fairy tales, partly folk singing, chabyrgakhi tongue twisters. Their performance did not require special skills, the existence of these genres was dictated by the daily need for education and entertainment in the family circle. The evening time was considered to be a favorite time, when it was possible to take a break from the monotony of everyday worries and communicate with children, teach them the wisdom of life. The process of raising a child in a family is involuntary, the child learns the cultural values ​​of his people without coercion, and when great importance is attached to familiarizing with folk wisdom in the family, he grows up in an environment of artistic perception of the world. The periods and methods of using the means of folklore in the upbringing of the younger generation are outlined in general terms, as they are dictated by the urgent needs of the ethnic group interested in continuing cultural and historical traditions, as well as the age characteristics of children.

The principle of nature-based education suggests a productive idea - the initial stage of children's development is more consistent with those genres of folklore that can be adapted to the child's level of development of thinking and speech. Children's counting rhymes, humorous rhymes-chabyrs, children's songs, fairy tales, riddles, proverbs, sayings are traditionally considered small genres of folklore, they are easy to remember, easy to use in raising young children, they are indispensable in the development of thinking, memory, speech skills, creating a special psycho- emotional sphere in the personal development of the child.

In another conventionally identified group, folklore genres are focused on a more mature age, when a person, on the basis of mastering the ideological and artistic values ​​of oral folk art, consciously approaches the problem of moral and ethical choice, the development of his abilities, the formation of worldview attitudes. The genres of the first group require close attention to the psychological aspect of the development of children, and the second - to general pedagogical problems. This explains the fact that we consider the above-mentioned genres of the first group separately, where the main attention is paid to understanding the psychological and pedagogical problems of the process of familiarization with the genres of folklore. And the syncretic genres of folklore: ritual songs, lyrical epic works-toyuki, heroic epic olonkho, mythological stories, historical legends, legends - having a rich arsenal of means of influencing the formation of various qualities of children's personality, are presented from the point of view of their general pedagogical value. We also included proverbs and sayings related to small genres in this group due to their concentrated "generalization of the life experience of the people in the form of complete, complete judgments, conclusions, teachings".

We have taken a conditional division in order to avoid repetition in the pedagogical description of genres, which reflects the entire process of the formation of a person's personality in terms of:

development of speech, thinking - children's counting rhymes, riddles, chabyrakh (patter);

the formation of morality - fairy tales, mythological stories, olonkho, proverbs, sayings;

aesthetic education - children's songs, poems, dance osuokhai, olonkho;

formation of worldview - historical legends, myths, olonkho, ritual folklore.

Proverbs, sayings as pedagogical sayings Any genre of folklore has an educational function, this statement especially applies to such common types as chabyrgakh, proverbs, sayings, fairy tales. A proverb, the smallest genre of folklore, is distinguished by its pronounced pedagogical content. In modern literary criticism, a proverb is defined as "a short, rhythmically organized, stable in speech, figurative folk saying". As G.U. Ergis: “Not every judgment becomes a proverb. A proverb is a traditional judgment (teaching, conclusion, etc.) that has come into use in the speech of a whole group of people, nationalities, nations. Traditionalism requires easy memorability, which is achieved by a refined art form and visual means. Therefore, many Yakut proverbs, like the sayings of other peoples, are short poems. The subject of the statement is considered in the light of generally accepted truth, and an aphoristically condensed sentence is created according to the principle of analogy. Proverbs as laconic sayings, which are moralizing in an artistic form, could not but attract the attention of teachers. So, G.N. Volkov, when defining a proverb as a pedagogical tool, points out an important point - temporal correlation with today: “Proverbs are not antiquity, not the past, but the living voice of the people: the people retain in their memory only what they need today and will need tomorrow. When a proverb talks about the past, it is evaluated from the point of view of the present and the future - it is condemned or approved, depending on the extent to which the past reflected in the aphorism corresponds to the people's ideals, expectations and aspirations. A well-known scientist studied the pedagogical value of proverbs, revealed the main ideas expressed in folk sayings. For us, the author’s conclusion about the need to comment on proverbs is important: “Commenting on proverbs in judgments, in conversation, disputes has always been widespread among the people. Such commentary in many cases translates into the category of pedagogical proverbs that, at first glance, are not. In school practice, it is not always important to comment on proverbs, considering the meaning contained in them to be well-known. As you know, of all the genres of folklore, the proverb is the most commonly used in people's everyday speech, therefore, it has the greatest impact on the consciousness of the younger generation.

The pedagogical potential of aphoristic means and forms of education among the peoples of the North Caucasus, studied by Z.B. Tsallagova, gives an idea of ​​the similarity of the ways of formation of the forms of the artistic word among different peoples as the common aspirations of the human soul. The researcher's conclusions about the "mechanism of the functioning of these genres, which consists in solidarity with a holistic system of traditional education, encryption, brevity and figurativeness of information, anthropocentrism, situational adaptation" are also characteristic of Yakut proverbs and sayings.

Very interesting as national features of the vision of the world are the original sayings of various peoples:

Adyghe paremiological tirade (one hundred truths), Adyghe khorybza, Ossetian anti-curse, Abkhazian innuendo.

NOT. Emelyanov, during a comparative study, established the Turko-Mongolian parallels of the Yakut proverbs. In the early medieval texts of M. Kashgari, “Lugat it-Turk” by Yusup Balasaguni, in “Samples of Folk Literature of the Turkic Tribes Living in Southern Siberia and the Dzungar Steppe”, collected eight centuries later by the Turkologist V.V. Radlov, one can find sayings similar to the Yakut proverbs, which speaks in favor of the assumption of the presence of common roots. The special attraction of proverbs and sayings, widespread among kindred peoples, apparently, is that they, reflecting the general picture of the vision of the world, through images understandable to everyone, contribute to the civic education of the younger generation.

Folk song as an effective means of aesthetic education

The genres of oral folk art that require special training from the performer include:

2) heroic epic - olonkho;

3) historical legends and epic poems.

These genres are performed by talented singers, storytellers, connoisseurs of antiquity, and olonkho by olonkhosut storytellers, especially revered

- people who were put on a par with blacksmiths and shamans for their important role in the life of the Yakut society.

The most common and accessible of the syncretic genres of folklore is the folk song, which has traditionally been given great educational value. The first collectors and ethnographers were amazed by the rich artistic world of songs: S.E. Malov, S.V. Yastremsky, V.L. Seroshevsky, I.A. Khudyakov, having become acquainted with the song creativity of the Yakuts, noted the wonderful poetic abilities of the people.

A folk song is a huge layer of folklore creativity, including verbal, musical, stylistic diversity, united under the general name "singing" only by the nature of the performance.

In Yakut folklore, four sections are distinguished by thematic content:

1) songs about nature and native land;

2) songs about love, marriage and family life;

3) songs about work and life;

4) songs and poems with social protest against oppression and justice.

But not all songs fit into this framework in terms of their main characteristics, we are talking about varieties of the Yakut musical and song folklore, which, in terms of content and performance, also belong to this genre of folklore. For example, kuturuk salaiyar yrya (the final distracting song - lit. control of the stern or tail. - our note. - G.M.) when performing olonkho; the lost art of khabar yryat - throat singing with text (only recently, isolated imitators have appeared), singing accompanied by a khomus (a small lyre-shaped musical instrument), etc. In Yakut folklore, classification, genre characteristics, poetics of folk songs have received quite detailed coverage. In 1976, the academic publication of a four-volume collection of Yakut songs was started. The first part is “Yakut folk songs.

Songs about nature "(1976); the second part - "Songs about work and life" (1977);

the third part - "Songs of the Soviet period" (1980); the fourth part - "Yakut folk poems - toyuki" (1983) - these publications, with the exception of the last, which included large works of the lyric-epic warehouse - toyuki, were compiled according to the classification of G.U. Ergis by thematic principle.

Song folklore, until recently, was the most widespread and beloved of all types of oral folk art. The establishment of Soviet power, the faith of the people in a bright future led to the birth of a new song expressing a new revolutionary content. The first Yakut writers created songs of a new content, using the artistic and visual techniques of folk songs. Many songs to poems by poets A.I. Sofronova, P.A. Oyunsky, V.M. Novikova, A.G. Abaginsky, S.R. Kulachikov were recognized as popular, became massive. Talented singer-songwriters stood out from among the folk singers, who at the end of the 30s joined the Writers' Union of the USSR: among them were S.A. Zverev, E.I. Ivanova, N.I. Stepanov, D.M. Govorov, P.P. Yadrikhinskiy. The peculiarities of the existence of a folk song in the new conditions and the process of transformation of the genre outlined with the emergence of written folklore contributed to the fact that gradually the folk song turned from a mass phenomenon into an individual form of creativity. The scientific study of folk songs continues, in the latest research, folklorists strive to delve into theoretical issues through a functional-structural analysis of texts.

Musical characteristics of song folklore

Researcher of folk poetry of the Yakuts G.M. Vasiliev considered music the only condition for the real existence of a folk song.

Musical folklore, embodied in folk songs and olonkho, occupies a significant place in the cultural heritage of the Yakuts. Proceedings of F.G. Kornilov, V.M. Belyaeva, M.N. Zhirkova, G.A. Grigoryan, G.M. Krivoshapko, E.E. Alekseeva, A.P. Reshetnikova, A.S. Larionova and others presented the world of Yakut ethnic music, which is distinguished by vivid images and great originality. In the article by A.P. Reshetnikova about the music of the olonkho "Kyys Debiliie" it is said that already in the first musicological studies two main styles of the folk song degeren yrya and dzhieretii were distinguished: rhythm was quite easy to note fixation. Another song style - dzhieretii - turned out to be so unusual in terms of sound presentation, rhythm and harmony that the authors of the first notes expressed their regret about the impossibility of conveying with notes all the intonational originality of songs of this type. It should be noted that not only for the first researchers, but also for their followers, the greatest difficulty was the iconic image of the complex two-timbre sound kylysakh - a purely specific phenomenon in national music. We find the characteristic of this sound in E.E. Alekseeva: “Kylysakhs, distinguished by their high and pure timbre, like either sharp, sparkling strikes, or flickering, as if in the distance, sparks, are superimposed on the sound of the main melody, often giving rise to the illusion of a bifurcation of the singing voice. Decorating and coloring it, they give the Yakut singing a unique originality. Further, the researcher emphasized that the method of their formation varies depending on the nature of the song and on the timbre-register conditions [ibid.]. There are many songs in large epic holonkho works, for example, G.G. Kolesov performed 131 songs during the recording of "Nyurgun Bootur Swift". There are no special works on how good singers were brought up in the old days, in brief remarks one can trace the process of becoming a singer: “Having heard the singing of the masters, young people decided to perform in the presence of old singers in order to listen to their opinion. Young singers readily accepted the comments and advice of their older comrades. So they gained experience, mastered the skill of singing. The stock of songs was enriched, the singer's voice matured and strengthened. “The lack of a specific musical form just explains the fact that improvised lyrical songs usually remained in the individual repertoire of the singer-songwriter himself. .. Other singers, if they had to listen to these songs, as a rule, did not adopt them completely and completely, but creatively mastered, borrowing only the motifs and images they liked, individual artistic means and techniques, but always creating their own, something new. So there was a well-known exchange of creative experience between singers, the development of collective poetic skills, techniques and traditions in the improvisation of songs.

Here, the interest of the listener and the talent of the improvisational singer are highlighted as necessary conditions for creating songs. The Yakuts valued singing so much that they believed in its magical power, they say, from good singing, a withered tree turns green. It is not surprising that the singers enjoyed universal respect, and this was of great educational importance for the younger generation.

In introducing children to the genre of folk song, it is advisable to highlight two points:

1) attention to the ideological and thematic content, poetics of works;

2) taking into account the musical and choreographic side with the conditions of performance, which goes back to the traditional ritual culture of the people.

In the pedagogical literature, we have not found special works that study the folk song from the point of view of their pedagogical value, with the exception of the works of G.N. Volkov, where separate chapters are devoted to the folk song, its pedagogical potential. He revealed new facets in the pedagogy of folk songs: “The lullaby is the greatest achievement of folk pedagogy, it is inseparably connected with the practice of raising children at that very tender age, when a child is still a helpless creature, requiring constant caring attention, love and tenderness, without which he just won't survive." “Everyone sings and listens to songs ... Of course, songs also have their “favorite age”: girls of fifteen or twenty years old sing as many songs as they have not sung before this age and will not sing until the end of their lives.” The last remark reflects the specifics of the Chuvash folk song, as for the Yakuts, singing is a favorite pastime for a person of any, even the most advanced age. A detailed review in this regard was undertaken by G.U. Ergis, he formulated the main conclusion: “Folk singers expressed their attitude to the surrounding nature, aesthetically assessed it from the point of view of the people of their time, and not only described what they saw and heard. Nature is glorified as a source of life, it gives water and nourishment to a person, provides him with well-being in life, joyful feelings of perception of beauty. The songs of this section reflect the poetic views of the Yakuts on nature, love for their native land, the beginnings of national patriotism. In the chanting of natural phenomena, the skill of the singers, the richness of the visual techniques of folk poetry is manifested. It is noteworthy that the author highlights changes in the nature of the image of reality from contemplation to the expression of dissatisfaction with social conditions, which reflects the dynamics of the development of the consciousness of the working masses, but in accordance with the ideological guidelines of his time, he defined "the public consciousness of the Yakut masses as backward", since "they do not contain call for an open revolutionary struggle of the masses against the exploiters. Accepting the idea that some songs correspond to a certain age in general, we would not strictly distinguish between thematic and genre diversity of songs by age categories, since young people learned to sing from the older generation, and children imitated them in performing the songs they liked. Such were the features of the existence of songs, with the exception of ritual ones, which require certain preparation and an appropriate performance environment. Further deepening into the study of the genre features of song folklore allowed researchers to approach the explanation of the choice of objects of chanting in works from a slightly different perspective. “The narrative part of the ceremonial song is dedicated not to the singing of animals, birds, ysyakh and spring flowering of nature. It plays a different role in the composition of the song (...) The main organizing link of the narrative component is the reception of a causal linkage of images, the narrowing of images or their linkage. Such an understanding of the function of images is attractive because they highlight the features of folklore poetics, which clearly reflects the national vision of the world.

The song “Uol oo barakhsan” (“Good fellow”) sings of the ideal of a young man, whose “right hand is money” is his earnings, and “left hand is sable” - crafts, and “who always cares about tomorrow”, “even being old, infirm,” knows how to be useful to people, “and who can compare with him, if his heart is good.” The song sings the image of a fine young man strong, smart, kind, with an honest soul. The wisdom of the people is manifested in the fact that the song speaks of a young man - the hope and support of people, so that a young man from an early age realizes his destiny - to be the main and responsible for the fate of the people. Of course, songs of this nature are intended for effective education. From simple everyday songs to philosophical toyuks glorifying the universe, from playful, perky to serious, intended to accompany various rituals - the Yakut folk song is as many-sided as life itself.

The singer-improviser uses generally accepted, formulaic constructions and expressions, but at the same time the performer is given the right to introduce elements of his creativity. In the art of creating an artistic image, only the singer who has his own style and a variety of artistic depiction techniques is truly appreciated. “In the art of a singer-improviser, the ability to use the richest arsenal of figurative means of language and the possession of great skill in the technique of free alliterative warehouse of poetic speech has always been of decisive importance - if not to talk about his natural ability”

Mastering the artistic and visual means of folk poetry is a long process of spiritual enrichment through the comprehension of the methods of artistic perception of the world. The cognitive significance of studying the images of folk poetry was convincingly stated by the researcher N.Z. Kopyrin: “Studies of poetic imagery, figurativeness of literatures are necessary, on the one hand, for a comparative study of literatures, their features, relationships, mutual influences and convergences, and on the other hand, for the knowledge of aesthetic and ethical views, psychology, the nature of perception and understanding of the world around them, as they change, enrich, etc.” .

This statement is true in relation to all genres of oral folk art of the Yakuts. The theme and imagery of the folk song are prompted by the conditions of life in the northern region, reflect the peculiar mentality of the people, in this regard, the Yakut songs can be considered a complex, syncretic phenomenon of art.

Osuohai is a syncretic genre of folklore

Osuokhai is a synthesis of song and dance arts.

Circular dances, according to researchers, in ancient times reflected the cult of the sun, and initially singing and dance movements had a sacred meaning - the praise of the god Aiyy in the form of a heavenly body. Over time, having lost its innermost meaning, osuokhai transformed into a mass art form that could be performed at any celebrations, but mostly in the summer, during the celebration of the Yakut New Year. The singers competed in eloquence, the strength and beauty of the sound of the voice, the ability to hold the tyusulge - a circle of dancers. Famous singers could improvise on various topics for two or three days in a row. S.A. became famous as an unsurpassed improviser. Zverev, a native of the Suntarsky ulus. The Yakuts themselves refer to Osuokhai as the art of dance rather than singing, this genre is denoted by the Yakut word k, the etymology of which goes back to the meaning of “worship”.

The beneficial effect of osuohai on a growing person is noted:

1) as a dance art - develops physical qualities;

2) as a song genre of folklore, it contributes to aesthetic development;

3) as a verbal art - develops speech, imagination, creativity.

The obvious advantages of osuohai include the psychological aspect of the issue; It has been established that during the dance a person receives a huge boost of energy, relieves stress, feels spiritual unity with other people. Unfortunately, today this art is also losing its mass character, although individual enthusiasts are actively working to promote this genre among the population: the Osu ohai association has been created, singing contests are organized annually at the initiative of cultural institutions, texts and popular science books are published. Philologist N.E. Petrov wrote a manual for schoolchildren "Osuokhai at school", which includes the texts of osuokhai for students from the fourth to eleventh grade (1989). The experience of teachers in the Verkhnevilyuisky and Suntarsky uluses of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) indicates that the effectiveness of mastering the osuokhai dance directly depends on how early the teaching of this art to children began, since the necessary performance skills, the ability to improvise, are instilled only as a result of painstaking work with students.

The educational value of ritual poetry

Ritual songs stand out as a separate layer in song folklore due to the multidimensionality and syncretism of the material. On the example of the study of ritual poetry, let us consider the modern formulation of the question of the classification of the genre. G.U. Ergis, quite justifiably considering the concept of ritual poetry in inseparable unity with the mythological views of the people, gave the main characteristic of this complex phenomenon: “Thus, myth and ritual, mutually interconnected, become the basis for the development of a special type of poetic creativity - ritual poetry. In Yakut, a rite, ritual is called a "duom"

or “tuom”, custom, rule - “sier”, and wishes, blessings or spells, prayers, dedicatory chants performed during the ceremony are called “algys” (from the verb algaa - bless, benevolent, greet, conjure, pray, glorify). When classifying (following V.Ya. Propp), he proceeded from the subject of algys, as the fundamental features that determine the essence of the phenomenon. “Based on the collected materials, the ritual poetry of the Yakuts can be divided into the following groups: 1) pastoral,

2) trade, 3) rituals and algys of blacksmiths, 4) family and household, 5) tribal.

Shamanic rituals and rituals stand apart. The development of folklore, in particular, its methodological principles, has led to an understanding of the need to take into account versatile essential features in the classification of genres. In this regard, a detailed study of the system of genres by S.D. Mukhopleva. Based on the analysis of the works of previous authors and the use of the functional-poetic principle, the researcher proposed a reasonable classification of the Yakut ritual songs. To show how complex the phenomenon is the concept of a ritual song, we will give an example from this work: “Combining the concept of genre and type, we can say that the genres of Yakut ritual songs are spell songs, ritual and plaintive. The genre of incantational song consists of such types as song - contract, song - command, song - narration; the ritual song genre - from the ceremonial song and the notification song; the plaintive genre - from the "author's" song and role-playing. The types of songs, for their part, fall apart according to their everyday use into subspecies: maternity, wedding, calendar, etc. Ritual songs not only fall into genres, types and subspecies. In general, they are divided into two large groups. One group consists of genres that are poetic and musical in nature. Another group includes poetic-musical-choreographic genres, i.e. songs performed in circle dances. Such a division of songs allows taking into account important aspects of scientific interest: functional diversity, poetics, genre syncretism. Folk ecological education in the form of ritual poetry is an important part of the spirituality of the people. The cognitive significance of ritual poetry is great, in it every detail is informative and significant, since the variety of rituals reflects the whole complex of ideas about the relationship of man with nature, where the fundamental idea is the unity of man with nature.

Ecological function of algys

The Yakuts had a folk calendar corresponding to the lunar calendar, in which every fourth year had an “extra” month - “tirge yya” in August, that is, a month for catching ducks with homemade devices made of rods called tirge. The Yakut year began in May, when the long-awaited Yakut spring came after eight or nine months of cold weather and rainy days. During the year, all important events were accompanied by various rituals, during which spells and blessings were necessarily performed, united by the single term algys. The most important national holiday of the Yakuts - Ysyakh - initially reflected the ancient cult of the sun, then the worship of the sun was replaced by the ritual of turning to the celestial gods so that they would send down the next year fruitful, favorable and happy for people. Rites and spells on Ysyakh were performed by a specially trained person - algyschyt - a caster, from among the most respected and talented, and in the old days this mission was entrusted to white shamans, a kind of priests of the Aiyy cult. Ethnographic literature contains many examples of such spells, where each word has a sacred meaning. There were many rituals in everyday life: on the occasion of moving to the letnik-sayylyk, calving of cows; blessing the spirits of fire, localities, good wishes in honor of the wedding and other celebrations, the birth of children; the spell of Bayanay - the patron saint of hunters, the spirits of rivers, lakes, so that there is no hunger; algys - request - protection from evil spirits and vices, etc. - many of them, according to the established sier-tuom (rules of conduct), were improvised at the time of performance, for this a proper environment was created with indispensable attributes. At the same time, the words of everyday algys-spells were easily and naturally memorized, thanks to the formulaic nature of the language, the static structural and stylistic organization of texts.

An example of the existence of ritual poetry sheds light on the question of traditional ways, methods of introducing young people to certain genres of oral folk art: creating an environment, serious attitude to the performance of the rite, unquestioning observance of the ritual, instilling faith in the magical power of the words algys, learning by doing, honoring nature, attention to the inner world of man. A person brought up on the traditions of respect and love for the surrounding nature does not find in himself aggressiveness towards others. This is the ecological meaning of ritual poetry. Algys attracts with a general psychological attitude towards the success of the undertaking, the positive attitude of the participants, and the denial of the bad sides of life. At the time of the nihilistic attitude to folklore, some types of algys acquired a new content corresponding to the spirit of the times, so the tradition of blessing, well-wishes did not go away along with the time that gave rise to it, like other types of algys - shamanic spells. Our research confirms that algys is currently experiencing a period of growth in the new Yakut reality, this can be explained by the fact that human nature is responsive to a kind word, and a positive attitude is always and everywhere in demand. In pedagogical practice, the above-mentioned features of algys could bring undoubted benefits in the psychological rehabilitation of children, solving many practical issues in everyday life.

Pedagogical content of mythology

Initially, mythological stories had a socially significant purpose - the interpretation of the surrounding reality from the standpoint of morality. In the widely circulated version of the story "A Collection of Birds", it is said about a woodcock, which, out of envy for birds with many children, tries to kill itself.

The people do not favor this bird, this is clear from the hidden irony. Everyone has their own destiny, do not envy anyone - this is the moral of the myth. Most of the myths relate to the wildlife of the northern region. In sparing words, but very accurately, the distinctive features of the animal world are conveyed. These myths cannot be considered only a naive explanation of natural phenomena and the origin of the animal world; such stories testify to the sharp observation of the creators, their moral and ethical views.

Consider examples:

The black grouse and the pike The black grouse and the pike were fighting, shooting each other with a bow. The black grouse fired from above and hit the pike in the back with an arrow. And she shot from below, and her arrows fell into the legs of a black grouse. Those arrows are still held on the back of one and on the legs of the other.

Some myths explain the behavioral model of a certain group of people united by ties of kinship or beliefs. The origins of these beliefs go back centuries, sometimes discovered by researchers in the opposite end of the world among many peoples. This is the attitude towards the eagle totem in the story below. It is noteworthy that the pattern of the tangalay caftan has a sacred meaning. Knowledge of such moments allows us to understand the roots of folk traditions, common origins.

The ancestor of the Batyly people A man named Batyly arrived in modern Buustakhsky in the old days (...). The ancestor of this Batyla was, they say, a bird - an eagle. Batylintsy do not kill him and honor him very much. The women of the Batyla clan, if they saw a soaring eagle, put on, they say, an ovduk caftan called tangalai, revering it as the daughter-in-law of their father-in-law. Here we come from Batyla.

The moral lesson in myths is presented as an unshakable truth that does not need proof. In the perception of a modern child, the myth does not lose its attractiveness due to its original imagery, fantasy, and at the same time, the relief and simplicity of the depicted world. In myths of this kind, questions of honor, fidelity to duty, gratitude for kindness, compassion for someone else's grief, and poverty are raised. Below is the text of the myth recorded by the politically exiled ethnographer V.M. Ionov.

The orphan boy and the moon The Yakuts say this about the spots that are visible on the moon. In ancient times, one orphan was a slave of a wealthy family. The lady said: "Go for water."

Then the boy, taking a bucket and a yoke, went to fetch water. Returning with water, he stopped at a young larch and, leaning against it, wept, yearning for the fact that he was an orphan. At this time, the moon descended to him and took him to her.

Offending an orphan is a sin. If you make an orphan cry, then his cry passes through the nine heavens and becomes audible to Aiyy toyon. Then Aiyy toyon will punish the person who offended the orphan.

The study of myths contributes to the expansion of horizons, the education of morality, the formation of intercultural competence in the younger generation.

Cognitive value of historical legends, legends

The most common genre of Yakut folklore is undoubtedly kepseenner - stories. Under the general name bylyrgy kepseenner, sesenner, prose genres of Yakut folklore are presented: from small everyday stories - everyday stories, to stories about prominent personalities, from romantic legends to religious and mystical stories and historical legends. The unpretentious living conditions, the participation of almost anyone in telling entertaining stories made this genre of folklore very popular among all ages. Skillful masters of the word, the keepers of antiquity, were especially revered, they were called sesennyitter - narrators.

The pedagogical value of these works is great, their impact on the formation of the worldview, moral and ethical qualities of the personality of students has not yet been studied; in the works of ethnographers, historians, folklorists, only separate information was given regarding the functional role of the genres of folklore prose. The main feature of the most significant genre - the historical legend - is that for the most part they truthfully reflected various events and facts that took place in the history of the people. This was noted by A.E. Kulakovsky, G.V. Ksenofontov, G.U. Ergis, G.M. Vasiliev and other researchers who had to compare folklore information with archaeological and archival data. Historical legends are of great historical and ethnographic value, the cognitive value of which can hardly be overestimated. The high accuracy of the information contained in them was ensured by strict rules of narration - the legend heard had to be recounted without adding or subtracting anything from oneself. Truthfulness is perhaps the main personal quality of the Yakuts, apparently, this is how it was brought up in the old days.

Over time, some facts were erased from the memory of generations - legends turned into legends - stories with fantastic and mythological elements. Legends perpetuate the unusual destinies of people, important, significant events in the life of the people. Stories about famous runners, successful hunters, skilled blacksmiths, tireless mowers, famous heroes, singers, etc. excited the mind and imagination, gave confidence and energized. The compilation of a family tree, undertaken by many today, is evidence of an increased level of culture, a desire to find support in the experience of the past. In the legends, the ancestors of the Yakuts Omogoi and Elley are opposed to each other precisely in cultural terms. The noble head of the Buryat family, Omogoi, is smart and rich, hospitable, fair in his own way, but lives in the old fashioned way. A young man of the Tatar tribe named Elley arrives along the Lena River, having only a head on his shoulders and skill in any business. Hired as a worker, Elley works tirelessly: he cuts windows in the yurt, improves the stove, builds a chimney, builds pens for livestock, etc. Even in choosing a wife, he is guided by the qualities necessary for procreation and improvement of life. In the actions of Ellay, pragmatism is seen, dictated by the need to survive in the harsh conditions of the Yakut nature. There is no antagonism in the relationship between Omogoy and Elley, despite the tragic circumstances in connection with Elley's marriage to Omogoy's unloved daughter. The legend states that the adoption by the Yakuts of a culture of a higher level occurred of good will, the foundation of the culture of the Yakuts was laid by the Turkic-Mongolian tribes. As the story goes, Elley fled from his fellow tribesmen, saving his aged father from imminent death; on the way, his father's wise advice protects his son from many dangers. Elley is calm and patient, does not hold a grudge against Omogoy when he kicks him out with his wife, but extends a hand for reconciliation - invites you to the Ysyakh holiday, receives the blessing of the old people. It was from this blessed union that the Yakuts originated. Many generations were brought up on such examples. This legend is also notable for the fact that Buryats and Tatars are mentioned in it. According to the legend, the Mongolian and Turkic tribes took an equal part in the formation of the Yakut people, this version is partially confirmed in the works of researchers. A.P. Okladnikov, on the basis of a comparative study of Buryat and Yakut legends, established the similarity of motives: “the legends about Elley and Omogoi are based on an ancient world story about innocently persecuted divine twin heroes and that it cannot be considered as a specific historical chronicle of the journey of the ancestors of the Yakuts of the Baikal region or Southern Siberia to Lena". On the issue of the historicism of the legend, we are more impressed by the cautious statement of G.U. Ergis: “It is possible that both Buryat and Yakut genealogical legends contain ancient motifs about persecuted heroes, but the main content of the legends that have come down to us reflects rather historical phenomena than mythological ones. Regarding the Kurykan origin of the plot about Omogoi and Elley, as well as about Adzhiray Bukhe and Kharamtsai Mergene, it is difficult to say anything to confirm or refute A.P. Okladnikov, since we do not know any specific monuments of Kurykan folklore. This version is also supported by genealogical tables, where the descending line represents the ancestors of all known genera to their modern representatives.

A significant part of historical legends are stories about prominent people, especially revered by the Yakuts. The cult of physical strength, endurance, speed can be traced in stories about famous strongmen, wrestlers, runners. Strongman Ivan, who raised a fifty-pound bell, an invincible wrestler in the national wrestling - hapsagayu Mas Meheele, Runner Nechcheke, who outstripped the horse at a distance of several tens of kilometers, the national hero of Manchaara - the Yakut Robin Hood and others, were especially popular. The heroes of these stories are endowed with the best human qualities, and strength and dexterity are glorified only by those who are kind, modest, for a true hero of tradition always stands up for the poor and offended. On such examples, we are once again convinced that the truly national is always international. Bogatyrs from Russian epics, heroes of Central Asian epic tales, Greek myths, Western European epics - all are united by a heightened sense of justice, patriotism, and love for people.

In the Yakut historical legends, a significant place is given to the image of labor. The attitude to work is elevated, and this is not surprising, because everyday hard work is necessary to survive in the north. On the verge of the fantastic and the real, it tells about peculiar labor records: how the old woman Mogoos wins at the mowing of all the mowers, how several dozens of carts of firewood were chopped by another. Surprisingly, these stories, in fact, did not turn out to be an exaggeration. G.M. Vasiliev gives such an example from real life: “Egor Romanovich Tolstoukhov, a collective farmer from the Terasinsky nasleg of the Tattinsky ulus, on a shock day on August 1, 1937, mowed 4.88 hectares in the Nammara trd area ... it happened when a lumberjack, armed only with an ax, chopped for a day up to 70 carts of firewood with longevity, or up to 5 fathoms (10 cubic meters) of firewood with a firewood. The legend ennobles even hard physical labor, for this is a necessary condition for the existence of the people, therefore the labor achievements of people are elevated to the rank of a feat - such is the educational value of these stories.

In the variety of everyday stories, stories about shamans and various spirits stand out as a separate topic, but these stories are more likely to belong to the realm of fantasy, which has an entertaining value than to superstition itself. Part of the "terrible stories" concerns shamanic legends, in whose supernatural abilities many Yakuts believed. But even in them, the affirmation of moral principles prevails: one must not treat people badly, violate the laws of hospitality, destroy nature, be intemperate in language, etc. After all, you have to answer for everything. In pre-revolutionary times, stories of religious and mystical content were very common, but today they have lost their former significance, and can only be familiarized with the appropriate comments.

In artistic terms, the prose genres of folklore are distinguished by great compositional and stylistic diversity, the methods of depicting events in the narrator's retelling are presented from simple stories to revealing satire and dramatic collisions. Researchers also note the predominance of the use of hyperbole in these genres of folklore prose, but "more moderately than in the heroic epic olonkho".

The positive experience accumulated during the active existence of genres, in the critical analysis of works from the point of view of their pedagogical expediency and the validity of the choice of material, can be effectively used in the process of school education. In this regard, we would like to highlight the stories about the ancestors of the tribe, stories about outstanding people, events that have a special educational and educational value.

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native tales that tell about the heroic struggle of the heroes of the epic tribe aiyy with evil monsters from other worlds. The average size of these legends is 10-15 thousand poetic lines, and according to the olonkhov expert I.V. Pukhov, the largest recorded olonkho contains 52 thousand poetic lines. Olonkho in a special artistic and aesthetic form reflects the form of the public consciousness of the people, their worldview, historical memory and the level of spiritual culture. The figurative word olonkho represents the highest form of development of oral poetry of the Yakuts. It contains the germs of many types of folk art: music, singing, poetry, theatrical and visual arts. The exceptional importance of the olonkho for the spiritual development of the Yakuts was emphasized by researchers of the past, ethnographers, members of the expeditions of the Russian Geographical Society, in whose works the first fixed samples of the folk epic appeared. The term olonkho was first used by Academician O.N. Betlingcom in his fundamental work "On the language of the Yakuts"

AND I. Uvarovsky, the author of "Memoirs", the first literary monument of the Yakuts. In the future, we will use this term both in the genre designation of the heroic epic, and in the meaning of individual works of this genre, as is customary in scientific literature.

The diversity of olonkho is due to the inseparability of poetry and music, which is characteristic of the syncretic form of culture that arose at the junction of mythological and real perception of the world. Apparently, this diversity made it difficult to determine the olonkho genre at an early stage of research. When defining the genre, the first collectors of oral art of the Yakuts were based on the content side of the epic, on the similarity of plots and motifs with mythological stories, as well as on the fantastic nature of the elements, which gave some commonality with fairy tales, which made it possible to classify olonkho as a fairy tale genre.

According to folklorists, the Yakuts themselves referred to both heroic epics and fairy tales under the general name olonkho, they only distinguished olonkho with singing (yryalaakh olokho) and olonkho without singing (satiy olokho). The term fairy tale in the designation of the heroic epic was used until the 1930s.

The scope of the generally accepted term is also evidenced by the fact that P.A. Oyunsky, being an olonkhosut himself, undoubtedly, like no one else, knew the difference between an olonkho and a fairy tale, but he titled his article, published in 1927: “The Yakut fairy tale (olonkho), its plot and content”.

Arguing the position on the historical-stage development of folklore, the founders of the historical-typological theory pointed to some separate genre feature of olonkho, common with the epics of other peoples, therefore there are various definitions: “epic poems”, “archaic epic poems”, “heroic tales” . The last term was proposed by V.M. Zhirmunsky: “The heroic epic, if it existed in this ancient era (which is not excluded in principle), probably had the character of a non-historical epic (like works of the feudal era, like the Kazakh zhyrs or even the Kyrgyz “Manas”); it should have approached a more archaic type of a heroic fairy tale, far from specific memories of the history of the people and the state and colored with elements of fairy-tale mythological fantasy - like the epic of the Altaians, Shors, Khakass, Tuvans, Yakuts, which preserved this ancient tradition from the time of the Turkic Khaganate and before the recent past."

Fairytale-mythological fantasy is the main feature of the archaic epic, just like E.M. Meletinsky. “For the archaic epic, a purely mythological figure of the “mother” or “mistress” of demonic heroes is typical.

Such are the old abaasy shaman in the Yakut poems, the old partridge - the mother of the Altai monsters, the ugly Mangdhaika among the Buryats, the "swan old women" among the Khakass, the mistress of the North Louhi among the Finns and Karelians.

With the advent of special works, folklorists dealing with the problems of the Yakut epic, in their writings, adhere to the term “heroic epic”, justified by I.V. Pukhov: “So, the plot and composition, the historicism and the heroic nature of the content, the language and style of narration, the poetic rhythm and character of the performance, and finally, the volume of the works - all this convinces that the Yakut olonkho undoubtedly belong to the genre of the heroic epic, and not to the genre of a fairy tale, including the heroic one, as its variety or some kind of transitional form from a fairy tale to a heroic epos. I.V. Pukhov, a recognized authority in olonkho studies, here draws attention to those aspects by which the olonkho genre is defined.

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Folk art of the Yakuts

The folk art of the Yakuts developed somewhat one-sidedly, but in certain areas it reached a high artistic level. Along with the rich, varied, deeply poetic oral art (folklore), the Yakuts have much less developed singing and almost no instrumental music, while the dance is rather poor and monotonous. In the field of fine arts, the Yakuts developed only its applied forms - artistic decoration and ornamentation of household items.

In the verbal creativity of the Yakuts, a number of genres and forms can be distinguished. One of the most interesting is heroic epics - olonkho.

The latter represent a very old kind of folk poetry, a product of the era of tribal life. The olonkho language is archaic, with many obsolete, almost incomprehensible words and phrases, and at the same time rich, colorful and figurative; the dictionary of epics contains almost twice as many words as the everyday language. These works are therefore difficult to translate into another language. The plot of the olonkho is the exploits of fairy-tale heroes (bootur), their struggle against evil forces - abaasy. Around the images of some especially beloved heroes (Khan-Dzhargystai, Nyurgun Bootur, Bert-Khara, the “White Youth”), entire cycles of olonkho were created; some of these cycles are so extensive that they require several days in a row to complete. The performers of olonkho were special storytellers - olotghokut "s. A good olongkhosut enjoyed great respect among the people. He must have a huge memory, because it is required to know tens and hundreds of thousands of verses by heart, great artistic flair and at the same time a good voice and ear for music, since olonkho were performed partly in a singsong voice. Special training was given to perform olonkho. They tried to treat the invited narrator better, many people gathered to listen to him. Sometimes olonkho was performed simultaneously by several narrators, who more or less dramatized the epic, dividing the roles of characters among themselves: one sang the part of the hero, the other - his opponent, the third took upon himself the narrative and descriptive part of the bylina.Knowledge and performance of olonkho by the beginning of the 20th century more and more fell into decay, there were fewer good olonkhosuts; the collective singing of bylinas almost completely went out of use.

Next to the epic epic are various historical legends of the Yakuts - bylyrgi sekenner (“old stories”) or ebuge sekennere (“ancestor stories”). Their plot is true historical events, the heroes are historical figures; of course, both are greatly modified and decorated with legendary motifs; Traditions are replete with anachronisms, and it is impossible to attribute them to a certain era without comparison with documentary sources. The latter show that there is usually a historical grain in legends. The most famous of these legends are the stories about the "Yakut king" Tygyn (in reality, the Kangalassky toyon, who lived in the 17th century), about his rival Legoy (the Borogonsky toyon of the same era), etc. Probably, the historical core is also present in the widespread legends about the progenitors of the Yakuts - Omokhoi and Elley, who sailed from the south along the Lena; these legends, however, are spread mainly among the Yakuts of the Lena-Amga uluses and are less known in Vilyui and in the northern regions.

The fabulous epic of the Yakuts is also rich and interesting (ostuoruya - from the Russian “history”, or kepsen), especially fairy tales about animals. Unlike epics, fairy tales are not sung, but told; their language is completely different, simpler and more ordinary.

It should also be noted numerous and varied proverbs, sayings (vs khokoono) and riddles (taabryn), sometimes extremely well-aimed and witty. Here are some examples of riddles: “A silver bowl floats in the middle of the sea” (the sun); “in the evening my mother gave birth, in the morning I gave birth to my mother” (freezing and melting of ice); “four children make a bed” (horse hooves); “Snow that has fallen on ashes, they say, does not melt” (gray hair); “two people from both sides of the lake beat with poles” (eyelashes); “the mother neighs, and the cub runs away” (gun, bullet); “Through the dungeon the thief walks, they say” (net). Samples of proverbs and sayings: “a hand does not leave a sore spot, you do not take your eyes off your beloved, as they say”; “the silent one is always reputed to be smart”; “Need whips the vines more painfully”; “without wind, the tree does not sway” (“there is no smoke without fire”); “he who is rich in his wealth is not satisfied, as they say”; “This demon is only that person who absorbs food” (about the rich), etc.

Yakuts are very fond of eloquence. The ability to deliver a good speech at a meeting is highly valued, the speaker is greeted with exclamations of approval.

As for the songs (yrya), their melodies are simple and monotonous, but their types are different, and the images are often artistic. One can single out love songs (girlish and youthful), dance, comic, shamanic, etc., as well as improvisation songs when a person sings about what he sees or does. The motive of such a song is very simple and usually consists of the repetition of two or three notes.

Any other music, except for vocal, was absent from the Yakuts. There were no musical instruments, except for the shaman's tambourine and khomus "a - a small iron tooth wargap, known to almost all the peoples of the Old World.

Yakut dances are very peculiar. Of particular interest is the round dance okuohai, performed during the holidays.

The dancers stand in a circle, holding hands, and in time, to the singing, move majestically to the left in the direction of the sun. Different localities have their own special variants with their own names: haigatar, Olekminsky okuohai, etc. There are also a variety of mobile dance games, such as: atah-tepsii, dieretgkei, kulun-kumuruku, etc.

The decorative art of the Yakuts has reached a significant development. Artistic carving on wood and mammoth bone; artistic casting and chasing from silver, copper, gold; embroidery and applique on leather and fabrics; applique and mosaic work made of fur; artistic weaving from horsehair - such are the works on the material accessible to the Yakuts, in which the artistic taste and skill of their masters were especially manifested. The Yakuts, as well as in general in folk art in the past, essentially did not have independent works of fine art that did not serve decorative purposes, except for the cult figurines of animals and people made by shamans, and later carved sculptures - imitation of Russian models.

The style of the Yakut ornament is peculiar, although it contains Tungus, Mongolian, and other elements. Geometric motifs predominate, sometimes quite complex. In the carving on wooden utensils - a circular ornament of straight, jagged and wavy lines with dots, transverse and oblique dashes, etc., covering almost the entire surface. In embossing, casting, as well as in embossing on birch bark, symmetrical rounded figures predominate - curls, palmettes, meanders, etc. with linear frames, concentric circles, etc. The ornament covering saddles and saddles is especially characteristic: here it catches the eye the large central figure of a two-horned lyre is a purely Yakut motif.

The blackening of silver, the coloring of wood and alder with alder broth were developed.

In the selection of colors, a preference is found for black, red, partly yellow and blue. This is also evident in the selection of fabrics of appropriate colors. This is how the culture of the Yakut people developed before the Great October Socialist Revolution. The fate of the oppressed, the Yakut working masses, downtrodden by want, was hard. The gifted Yakut people under the yoke of tsarism could not develop rich creative inclinations and remained in the position of one of the backward peoples of the Russian outskirts. But even in those difficult years, the pulse of folk art was beating, and much that was created by the Yakut people over the long centuries of its history remains of high value today.

Especially important was the cultural assistance that the Yakuts received in the pre-revolutionary years from the fraternal Russian people. Not only ordinary Russian settlers, peasants, industrial people brought with them to Yakutia the skills of a higher cultural order. Back in the 18th century, in connection with the deployment of large academic expeditions, Russian educated people and scientists began to appear in the Yakutsk region. In the 19th century The conductors of culture in Yakutia were mainly political exiles, starting with the Decembrists. There were other advanced Russian people who spread the beginnings of education among the Yakuts. They laid, in particular, the foundations of the Yakut writing system. The Yakut native Uvarovsky wrote down several Yakut texts in Russian letters, and in 1851 academician O. N. Betlingk gave the first scientific analysis of the Yakut language based on them. On the initiative of the outstanding Russian scientist I. E. Veniaminov (a former missionary to the Aleutian Islands), priest Dmitry Khitrov in 1858 published the first “Short Grammar of the Yakut Language”. Several (church) books were published in the Yakut language. After the revolution of 1905, fiction and journalism in the Yakut language also began to appear: the newspapers Sakha-Doyduta (Yakut Territory), Sakha-Ologo (Yakutia), the Sakha-Sangata magazine (Yakutskaya thought").

Education among the broad masses of the Yakut people continued to remain, of course, at a low level. There were no national Yakut schools. Russian schools - church and state - began to appear in Yakutia as early as the 18th century, but their number was very small. Back in the early 1900s, there were only 11 primary rural schools in all of Yakutia, and 57 parochial and literacy schools. For the broad masses of the people, these schools were not very accessible, and even less accessible were the few secondary educational institutions: there were only 5 of them. And that's just in the city. From the Yakuts, mainly children of the Toyons could get there. The literacy rate by 1917 did not exceed 2%.

However, by the end of the 19th century began to appear, albeit small, the Yakut intelligentsia: teachers, officials, lawyers, doctors, who received their higher education primarily at Tomsk University. Individual lovers of native antiquity and folklore came out of this intelligentsia - the first Yakut ethnographers-gatherers; of them, one can name the names of A. E. Kulakovsky, S. A. Novgorodov, V. V. Nikiforov. But in terms of their class affiliation and their ideology, these first Yakut intellectuals gravitated more towards the Toyon environment and were infected with nationalism. Along with this bourgeois-Toyon intelligentsia, in the last years before the October Revolution, from among the Yakut youth, under the influence of the Social Democratic, Bolshevik propaganda of political exiles (especially from the circle led by E. Yaroslavsky), a small stratum of advanced figures of Yakut culture began to stand out, striving for close alliance with the Russian working people to achieve general liberation from tsarist and capitalist oppression.

YAKUT FOLKLORE. The most cereal. genre Ya. f. is heroic. epic - olonkho (a separate legend is also indicated). Main its content is heroic. heroic deeds for the benefit of the aiyy aimaga and uraangkhay sakha tribe, therefore the legends are called by the name of Ch. hero ("Er Sogotokh", "Nurgun Bootur", "Kyys Debiliye"). Olonkho is genetically close to the legends of the Turko-Mong. peoples of Siberia. The epic people are being performed. storytellers - olonkhosuts. The speeches of the characters are sung, the rest of the text is recitative, usually without instruments. escorts. In myths, legends and traditions, the basics are interpreted. milestones of ancient Yakut history. ethnos. They show elements of a person's early idea of ​​the environment. world, reflected ethical. norms of behavior and rules of life. Special legends are widespread. Yakut speakers. Folklore is called legends, legends and myths "kepseen (sehen)" - "stories (legends)". Fairy tales are divided into 3 groups: about animals, magic. and household. The first explain the way of life of birds and animals, their color and behavior. In magic. In fairy tales, weak people come out victorious in a conflict with monsters (Magys or others). Plots and images of everyday life. fairy tales are based on real everyday experiences. the life of the people, morals are revealed in them. and societies. people's ideals. The song (yrya) has several. varieties: olonkho yryata - epic singing, khabarga yryata - a special way throat singing with a closed mouth, dieretii yrya - a drawn-out song, degeren yrya - a “frequent” song, sung in recitative without graces, with a clear rhythm; chyychaakh yryata - “singing of birds”. Special songs. genre - toyuk (long song). In music. he occupies the center of Yakut folklore. place, representing an identity. nat. feature of the Yakuts. singing. Toyuk performs everyday life, celebrations, love. songs, speeches olonkho characters. Peculiar. Yakut view. people. poetry is chabyrgah (patter). The essence of the performance is to recite the entire work rhythmically and expressively without taking a breath. The Yakuts have many proverbs and sayings that are genetically common with the sayings of the Turko-Mong. peoples. Poetic. works accompanying most of the traditions. rituals, the Yakuts call "algys". In fact, by this word they mean difference. works of ritual poetry - good wishes, blessings, prayers, incantations, spells and hymns. Osuokhay, a round dance, is a special kind. a dance that arose in the bosom of the rite of traditions. Yakut. Ysyakh holiday, where Ch. the moment was the worship of aiyy deities.

I. f. folklorists and ethnographers G.U. Ergis, A.A. Popov, G.V. Ksenofontov, I.V. Pukhov, G.M. Vasiliev, N.V. Emelyanov, P.E. Efremov S.P. Oyunskaya, V.V. Illarionov, N.A. Alekseev, Yu.N. Dyakonova, S.D. Mukhopleva, A.S. Larionova, musicologists N.N. Nikolaeva, Yu.I. Sheikin, V.A. Nogovitsyn and others.

Lit.: Ergis G.U. Essays on Yakut folklore. M., 1974; Kyys Debiliye. Yakut heroic epic. Novosibirsk, 1993; lore, legends and myths of the Sakha (Yakuts). Novosibirsk, 1995; Mighty Er Sogotokh: Yakut heroic epic. Novosibirsk, 1996. Vol. 10; Encyclopedia Yakutia. M., 2000. T. 1; ritual poetry Sakha (Yakuts). Novosibirsk, 2003.

T.V. Illarionov

LESSON ON THE THEME "YAKUT FOLKLORE".

The talented and hardworking Yakut people, like other peoples, has a rich and original folklore. Yakut folklore has various genres, reflecting the features of the historical development of the people.

This is a rich mythology, fairy tales, heroic epos-olonkho, ritual poetry, folk songs, historical traditions and legends, proverbs and sayings, riddles, chabyrgakhi tongue twisters.

Researchers believe that the ancient ancestors of the Yakuts lived in the south of Siberia, in the Baikal region, and from there, gradually pushed back, they moved north and reached the banks of the Lena River. Here they met with the indigenous inhabitants of the North - the ancient tribes of modern Evens, Evenks, Yukaghirs. They were taiga hunters, reindeer herders. Sea St. John's wort.

And the ancient Yakuts, who called themselves Uraankhay - Sakha, belonged to the group of Turkic peoples. They were pastoralists and in their new homeland they taught the northern tribes to breed horses and cattle, and they learned from them animal trade and hunting.

But the Yakuts have not forgotten their distant warm south, its descriptions are preserved in folklore.

ritual poetry.

Ritual poetry arose when ancient people explained the surrounding world and natural phenomena in their own way. According to their concepts, every mountain, lake, river, valley, as well as every plant, grass, any object had its own special spirit - ichchi. Good deities lived in the sky - aiyy, who ruled the world. Evil creatures lived in the Lower World - abaas, who harmed people.

Ancient people treated with admiration the upper deities and spirits -ichchi, tried to earn their favor and not anger them. Therefore, in their honor, various ceremonies were performed with sacrifice, doxology in their honor. These doxologies or prayers were called spell songs - algys. These songs, based on the characteristics of each rite, are divided into different types. Among them, maternity, wedding, calendar songs in honor of various festivities stand out.

The most complete in terms of rituals and algys is the summer holiday Ysyakh. According to the calendar ideas of the ancient Yakuts, June is the New Year. On the ancient Ysyakhs, the White shaman offered up a spell song to the upper deities - aiyy and spirits - ichchi of nature. The shaman tried to get in touch with them and asked the deities for the arranged holiday of universal grace to those who had gathered, fertility to the horned and horse cattle.

Literature.

"Yakut folk songs"

Yakut book publishing house. 1988

Puzzles.

In the old days, the Yakuts had a custom of amulets, when some things were not called by their proper names. In such cases, people used "secret" speech. Especially this language was used by hunters. They thought that spirits and animals understand human language, therefore, in order not to reveal their hunting secrets, they used "secret" speech. According to scientists, the riddles are close in their images to these words of the amulet. The main thing in riddles is figurative allegory in the form of an intricate question. The person who guessed riddles practiced ingenuity, quick wit, it was a kind of gymnastics of the mind.

Literature.

"Yakut mysteries". Compiled by S. P. Oyunsky.

Yakut book publishing house 1975

Who is the most precious in the world? (Mother)

They say the golden bowl floats by itself. (Sun)

Without a bottom there is a golden bucket (Sun)

In the middle of the alas stands a golden pillar (Sun)

Burns, burns, but does not burn out (Sun)

More expensive than gold, more alive than sable. (Human)

They say that white flowers bloom at night and wither in the morning.

They say that one shepherd tends thousands of cows. (moon and stars)

They say the silk sash hung down. (Rainbow)

They say there is an old man, a mumbling talker who knows all languages.

They say that he himself is invisible, but very ferocious. (Freezing)

They say that the cauldron boils in the forest. (Anthill)

No seeds, but growing. (Hair)

And in severe frost, the hole does not freeze. (Eyes)

The two twins always walk together. (Legs)

They say that a Russian girl sits at the table of the eldest in the family.

(Samovar)

They say a one-eyed old woman from the south side comes here and embroiders patterns. (Needle)

There is, they say, something that is smaller than a berry, but stronger than a bull. (Bullet)

Proverbs and sayings.

Proverbs are short folk sayings that summarize the life experience of the people in the form of complete judgments, conclusions and teachings.

Sayings are short sayings that figuratively define an object or phenomenon.

The main feature of proverbs is their brevity.

Literature.

"Collection of Yakut proverbs and sayings" Compiled by N. V. Emelyanov.

Yakut book publishing house 1965

Conscience is not a gray horse; you can’t borrow it from anyone.

The seed loves the fertilized soil, the people love the good man.

The most expensive thing for a deer is a deer, for a gun - gunpowder, for a person - health.

A good friend is not easy to find.

A bird with its color, a man with its mind.

Don't worry about someone else's - you'll lose yours.

A good name and loud fame have fast wings.

The bad and the good side by side.

A non-crying child is not fed.

Do not be proud that you are rich, do not humiliate yourself that you are poor.

The hearth of the poor is warm, the hearth of the rich is cold.

An old man's advice brings happiness.

A kind word is more valuable than wealth.

Breaking is easy, making is hard.

Stupid man with no eyes and no ears.

Even the fire rejoices in a family with children.

Folklore and traditional rites of the Yakuts

The folklore of the Yakuts includes poetic works performed during traditional rituals - regulated actions dedicated to various moments in the life of the human team and its individual individuals. In the past, the Yakuts performed many rituals related to the veneration of the surrounding world, hunting, fishing, cattle breeding and crafts, as well as the life of the family, clan, tribe, community, ethnic group, etc.

It should be noted that the Yakuts had both religious and non-religious rites. Unfortunately, their ratio has not yet been the object of research.

The attention of scientists was attracted more by the rituals associated with the traditional religious beliefs of the Yakuts. A significant contribution to the study of this problem was made by I.A. Khudyakov, V.L. Seroshevsky, G.V. Ksenofontov, A.A. Popov, I.S. Gurvich and N.A. Alekseev. Thanks to their efforts, the procedure for conducting rituals is mainly described, based on the requirements of the traditional beliefs of the Yakuts, from the worship of spirits and deities, i.e. regulated by Yakut mythology.

Less studied are non-religious rites, which were based on the rational experience of the people, fixed the customs that support the cultural, social and gender and age relationships of the ethnic group. The well wishes of the younger senior members of the team, the good wishes of the bride and groom, the good wishes of the guest to the hosts were not the subject of a special study by ethnographers and folklorists. The specifics of ritual poetry from the folklore point of view have been studied even less.

The first attempt to classify the ritual folklore of the Yakuts was made by G.U. Ergis. He singled out the following groups of rituals: pastoral, commercial, family and household. From the field of view of G.U. Ergis completely lost the rituals associated with the craft. In addition, pastoral rites were not presented in full. Thus, the cattle-breeding group did not include rituals in honor of the patron deity of horse breeding, Josögyoy, rituals at the birth of calves and foals, and rituals performed during haymaking. In the fishing rites of G.U. Ergis included only a part of the hunting ones. This group should also include the rituals of fishermen, as well as rituals associated with the extraction of a bear, lynx and fox, actions taken in the event of a prolonged failure in hunting. Far from being fully covered by G.U. Ergis and family rituals. He touched briefly on the cult of fire and wedding ceremonies. Undoubtedly, the rites performed when asking the deities for a child, the birth of children, related to the upbringing of children, and funeral rites should be attributed to the number of family and everyday rituals.

Due to the fact that ritual poetry as a genre of folklore of the peoples of Siberia was not the subject of in-depth study. The main editorial board of the series "Monuments of Folklore of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East" held in 1985 a special scientific and practical conference devoted to this problem. The conference was chaired by Doctor of Historical Sciences B.N. Putilov. A report on the classification of rituals was made by N.A. Alekseev, one of the authors of this article. The report indicated that many Yakut rituals were accompanied by the performance of works of ritual poetry. It is noted that the Yakuts and other indigenous peoples of Siberia widely used spells, good wishes, hymns, dance songs, curses, laments, etc. In addition, it was proposed to cover the rituals associated with hunting, fishing and cattle breeding, according to the calendar principle.

The book by S.D. Mukhopleva "Yakut folk ritual songs", in which the author, on the basis of the functional-poetic principle, conducts a genre classification of ritual songs. The work deals mainly with maternity, wedding, calendar song complexes and songs accompanying the ritual. Thus, only the first steps have been taken in the scientific study of the ritual poetry of the Yakuts.

The situation is more favorable with the fixation and collection of works of ritual poetry. But here, unfortunately, in most cases, only the texts of spells, chants of a round dance, etc. were recorded, and no attention was paid to the musical side. The recording of works of ritual poetry began in the 19th century. Of the pre-revolutionary researchers, the most notable contribution was made by the political exiles I.A. Khudyakov and V.M. Ionov. The first one studied the Yakut language, ethnography and folklore in 1867-1868. Among the works of oral folk art recorded by him, there are examples of ritual poetry. They were included by I.A. Khudyakov in the book "A Brief Description of the Verkhoyansk District", published only a hundred years after it was written.

A significant number of works of ritual poetry in the Yakut language were collected by V.M. and M.N. Ionic. The main part of their materials refers to 1894 - 1896, by the time of the Siberian expedition. Of particular interest to V.M. Ionov showed to the beliefs of the Yakuts, so religious spells predominate in his collection. Most of the materials of the Ionovs were included in the collection prepared for publication by A.A. Popov in 1940. These were spells associated with the veneration of the spirits of the Upper, Middle and Lower worlds, as well as with various aspects of human life. A.A. Popov made an interlinear translation of these materials. Unfortunately, the collection remained unpublished and is stored in the archive (AIV, f. 22, op. 1).

In Soviet times, a significant number of texts of works of Yakut ritual poetry were recorded. It is known that A.A. Popov carried out in 1925 an intensive collection of material in the Vilyui region of the YASSR. His notes are stored in the archives of the Kunstkamera (formerly the Leningrad part of the Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology of the USSR Academy of Sciences), but the leadership did not allow N.A. Alekseev to these materials. Therefore, it was not possible to include A.A. Popov in this volume and give their folklore analysis.

The main fund of the Yakut ritual poetry was accumulated by the staff of the IYALI YaF SB AS USSR (now IGI AS RS (Y)) and folk poetry lovers. The most valuable records were made by S.I. Bolo, A.A. Savvin, A.S. Poryadin, G.U. Ergis, G.M. Vasiliev, I.S. Gurvich and others.

Speaking about the sources of ritual poetry, one should pay attention to the fact that until the 80s. 20th century the researchers wrote down the texts mostly by hand. And, as you know, the works of ritual poetry are examples of not only poetic, but also musical creativity of the people. This gap in the fixation of ritual poetry was filled to a certain extent during the complex folklore expedition of the IIFF SB AS USSR and IYALI YaF SB AS USSR in 1986 (hereinafter referred to as CPE), when the participants of the expedition recorded on tape samples of various spells, good wishes and chants of a round dance -dry.

A number of valuable tape recordings were made by E.E. Alekseev in the 1970s - 1980s. For the first time, he collected materials on lamentations in a dream, incantations for initiation into blacksmiths, samples of shamanistic rituals, etc.

The culture of the Northern Yakuts has its own characteristics, therefore the corpus of the volume includes samples reflecting the main occupation of this group - reindeer herding. Partial information about local variants is given in the comments to the volume.

The poetic works that accompany most of the traditional rituals are called algys by the Yakuts. The ambiguity of this word was also noted by E.K. Pekarsky: algys - “1) blessing, well-wishes ...”. In essence, the Yakuts used the word algys to designate various types of works of ritual poetry - good wishes, blessings, prayers, incantations, incantations and hymns.

As you know, the Yakut rituals were divided into individual and collective. They had to be accompanied by certain poetic texts. Of course, not every Yakut who performed the ritual individually was a poet. In the course of the long existence of ritual poetry, a set of traditional clichés developed, which had to be pronounced when performing specific rites.

In the collective conduct of rituals, the performance of algys was entrusted to the most respected or most gifted person, who had the gift of performing algys. The Yakuts called such people algyschyt (literally "caster, well-wisher"). They knew the ritual traditions well, skillfully performed Yakut songs in the diie-buo style (see the musicological article). Yakut algyschyts, apparently, created a huge number of poetic works. A few of them are included in this edition.

When compiling the volume, we considered it necessary to begin it with samples of spells in honor of the master spirits of the earth (area, homeland). According to the beliefs of the Yakuts, each territory had its owner. With a respectful attitude towards her, she patronized those living on “her” land or those who arrived in her “domains”. In this regard, in the past, the Yakuts made sacrifices to her. According to customs, a special sacrifice to the spirit-mistress of the earth was arranged once a year - in the spring, when the first grass grew, the leaves on the trees blossomed. As a gift, bundles of horse hair, strips of cloth or salam were hung on a sacred birch - a ritual rope woven from horse hair, decorated with bundles of hair from a mane or ribbons, they treated the mistress spirit with dairy products. During the ceremony, a spell was said or sung. It usually began with an appeal to the host spirit, then the benefits that were asked from her were listed: protection of livestock and children, concern for increasing wealth and offspring (text No. 1). The size of the spell depended, as a rule, on the talent of the algyschyt. For example, he could colorize an appeal to the spirit-mistress of the earth with figurative descriptions of her appearance, supplement the spell with a colorful enumeration of dairy products offered to her, etc. (text no. 3).

The spring sacrifice to the spirit-mistress of the earth belonged to the preventive rituals of the Yakuts. The spirit-mistress of the earth was also addressed in those cases when a family suffered misfortune. So, the rite of sacrifice to the spirit-mistress of the earth was arranged during epidemics. An example of a spell cast in case of misfortune is text No. 4 in our volume. It begins with an appeal to the spirit-master of the earth, then the conjurer speaks of his misfortune and asks for deliverance from it.

Thus, the content of the spells of the spirit-mistress of the earth varied depending on the occasion for which she was sacrificed.

It should be noted that rituals in honor of the spirit-mistress of the earth were also performed temporarily on its territory. They expressed their respect for her and begged her not to harm them.

Numerous works of ritual poetry were performed in rituals associated with hunting and fishing. This part can be conditionally divided into two groups of rituals performed: 1) to obtain good luck in the fishery or save it; 2) with prolonged failures in hunting and fishing.

According to the beliefs of the Yakuts, the result of the hunt often depended not on the skill and knowledge of the hunter, but on the will of the master spirit of the forest Baai Bayanay, the spirits subordinate to him, as well as the spirits that prevent hunting. Therefore, before the start of the hunt, the Yakuts made sacrifices to them, treated them with food or vodka, cast spells in which they turned to the spirits with a request to be supportive and bestow prey. Treats and requests were based on the fact that all spirits, having a fantastic or zoomorphic appearance, supposedly could understand human speech, take food, i.e. like people in appearance and needs.

Sometimes, to make a sacrifice, an anthropomorphic image of the master spirit of the forest, an idol, which was called hoiguo, was first made from a piece of wood. He was stuck in the ground and half of the face of the hoiguo was smeared (“treated”) with fat or fresh blood of freshly caught game. The other half was promised to be smeared with luck in the hunt. A certain cunning can be traced here: the spirit was, as it were, lured by the opportunity to receive the sacrifice again. It is with this custom that the phrase haannaah hoiguo is associated - literally, “with blood”, “bloody hoiguo”.

Before going hunting, they performed divination by casting lots for happiness with some object: a wooden cup, a tambourine beater, a deer hoof, etc. Divination began with a spell (No. 10 - 12). If the prediction was successful, the hunters went fishing in high spirits.

In conversations among themselves, the participants of the hunt used allegorical speech. Bear - "old man", "forest animal", elk - "long-legged", etc. This specificity of the speech of the hunters was reflected in the published spells. In them, the name of animals in most cases is replaced by descriptive epithets. For example, a deer was called "branch-horned" - ergene muostaakh (No. 5); elk - "having convex knee joints" - tuora tobuktaah; predatory animals - "having sharp fangs" - ardai abyylaakh (No. 6), etc.

With a long failure in hunting, the Yakuts considered it mandatory to conduct the Barylaakh tardar rite "Invoking (or attracting) Barylaakh". Here the word Barylaakh "Possessing everything", or "Abundant" is allegorically called the master spirit of the forest (for a detailed description of the rites, see). In general terms, the ceremony was carried out as follows. A hunter or a specially invited shaman made a new anthropomorphic idol from a piece of wood about one meter in size. A treat was placed in front of the idol: a bowl of boiled meat, a cup of salamat, a bottle of vodka. Then the performer of the rite pronounced or sang a spell. It was in many ways similar to the incantation of the master spirit of the forest before the start of the hunt. In addition, fragments were introduced in which the hunter asked the master spirit of the forest what caused his discontent, asked him to soften and generously endow him with prey (No. 12).

The ceremony in case of loss of hunting luck was carried out in the same way among all local groups of Yakuts, only among the northern Yakuts the hoiguo was called Chychypkan.

Yakutia is rightfully considered a country of thousands of lakes. In the lakes, carp and loaches are found in abundance. The rivers are rich in various fish. Almost all types of river fish are found in them. Of these, nelma, white broad white, sturgeon, sterlet, muksun, omul, whitefish, lenok and tugunok (Sosvinskaya herring) are especially valuable. Lake fishing was of great importance for the Yakut farms. This was due to the fact that fishing was carried out in the summer with the help of tops, fixed nets and ties. They were examined daily between times by one of the family members. Caught fish immediately went to food. Fish were caught with a seine net in autumn and early winter. In early spring, crucian carp were caught on the lakes with a kuyuur "large hair net with a long handle." In places of winter hibernation of fish, a hole was dug through and carp, sleepy and inactive, were scooped out through it. The catch was very rich. Fishing on large rivers was practically conducted by rich Yakuts who had seines. Those who lived near the rivers set their baits on the rivers flowing into large rivers, fished with tops and nets. In the annual menu of the pre-revolutionary Yakuts, fish occupied a prominent place: by the spring, meat supplies were running out, and spring ice fishing saved them from hunger strikes. From early spring to autumn cold, the Yakuts rarely slaughtered livestock for meat, preferred to eat fish and game (hunting for migratory birds, catching ducklings that did not fly, autumn hunting for ducks, geese, upland game and hares). According to V.L. Seroshevsky, each Yakut family consumed from 320 to 480 kg of crucians and small lake and river fish per year. Thus, fishing played a significant role in the economy of the Yakuts.

The rites associated with catching fish are in many ways similar to those of hunting. According to the beliefs of the Yakuts, fishing luck depended on the will of the master spirits of lakes and rivers. Therefore, before fishing, the Yakuts made sacrifices to these spirits and turned to them with a spell, asking for a good catch. Thus, in text No. 17, the conjurer complains that the spirit-mistress of the earth and his other spirits-protectors gave too little of "their abundance" this year, i.e. livestock products, and asks the mistress of the lake to give fish. In his appeal, he says that the spirit-mistress of the lake is the elder sister of the deities Aiyysyt and Ieyiehsit, i.e. she is superior to them. According to Yakut mythology, Aiyysyt and Ieyiehsit belonged to the main deities of the aiyy, the patrons of the clan and tribe. Although the fishermen each time turned to the master spirit of a certain body of water, the analysis of the texts shows that they were in the process of forming ideas about the main patron spirit of fishing. In text No. 17, he is named Toyon Eriehiye Baai. The one who cast the spell called him the owner of the great river, waters, all alaas with lakes, taiga lakes, the patron of all fishermen: those who set up fishing rods, and those who catch with the help of ties and nets, and those who use boats for fishing. In text No. 25, the spirit-mistress of the river is recognized as the manager of the fish, as if she divides the fish between all her tributaries.

An analysis of the published texts shows, firstly, that the Yakuts had a mixture of the functions of the master spirits of the tribal or personal territory and the spirits of water bodies. In some cases, the Yakuts asked for good luck in fishing from the host spirit of the area where they were fishing. This was due to the fact that she was considered the owner of all those who live on her territory - animals, birds and fish (No. 19). Secondly, in the spells, it is clearly seen that the cattle breeder is making a request. In text No. 24, a fisherman asks the spirit-mistress of the river to become like cattle givers:

Boil white milk

Oil-fat exude always,

Spirit-mistress of my [river] - grandmother! (St. 50-52).

In text No. 21, a fisherman treats the spirit-mistress of the water with the best livestock products: koumiss, butter, cream. Sometimes incantations emphasize that the spirit-mistress of the lake is a savior in difficult times for a cattle breeder - in years of drought, lack of food, during periods of hunger strikes (No. 17, 20, 21, 23). In the past, poor Yakuts often ran out of food at the end of winter, and in early spring, before the appearance of greenery and the arrival of migratory birds, seasons of forced hunger strikes began.

The mixing of the functions of the master spirits of earth and water can also explain the fact that in No. 24 the spirit master of the river is equated with the epic spirit master of the native land that lives in the sacred family tree Aal Luuk mai. As you know, she feeds some epic heroes with her breasts, endows them with heroic strength, letting them suck her breasts three times. In the analyzed text, the fisherman asks:

From your two breasts, similar to Elastic furs [from the skin] of rich neighbors, Let me suck milk, Carefully feed us! (St. 40-44).

In this case, as in the epic, the milk of the spirit-mistress of the river is presented as a magical agent that gives strength or maintains life.

The master spirits of water bodies, according to the Yakuts, could, like the spirit masters of forests, deprive the fishermen of good luck and leave them without a catch. This, as a rule, was explained by the “desecration” of the fishing gear by a woman, the participation in fishing of a person who was recently present at a funeral, etc. . In such cases, the Yakuts performed a rite of purification by fire of fishing gear. The first part of the spell consisted of asking for help from the spirit master of the fire (see more below), and the second part coincided with the usual spell before starting fishing, only a fragment was added with a request to forgive the sin committed [Ibid., p. 61 - 63].

In general, the worship of the master spirits of the earth, forests and water bodies was associated with the need to establish regulated relations between man and nature.

An important part was the rituals associated with traditional life and economy. These are, first of all, the rituals that were performed during the construction of the Yakut estate and hearth. According to the customs of the Yakuts, having built a new yurt, it was necessary to read a spell based on ideas about heavenly and earthly patron deities. It emphasized that the yurt was built at the behest of the head of the bright heavenly deities Aiyy Toion, who predetermined the owner to have children, breed cattle and horses, and create a prosperous cattle breeding economy. Then they asked the bright patron spirits to protect from any misfortune. A significant part of the spell was dedicated to the master spirit of the hearth. He was begged to protect those living in this house from evil spirits. In conclusion, they turned to the head of the light deities Aiyy Toion with a request: “Send your light breath right on my house.” This came from the belief that each Yakut is connected by an invisible thread with the Upper World, where the bright deities of the aiyy live. As long as this connection is intact, the person lives safely; if it is interrupted, the person will die. In other words, the owner asked Aiyy Toyon to guard his dwelling (No. 27).

The rite of sacrifice to the master spirit of the yurt was also performed when moving from the winter road to the summer road and back. The spell during these rites practically coincided with the spell when moving into a new yurt. This ritual was part of the ceremonies held at the place of long-term residence, which were winter and summer estates. This complex included rituals in honor of the master spirits of the yard, the hitching post and the hearth. According to the beliefs of the Yakuts, the mistress of the yard ensures milk abundance, fertility and safety of livestock, so they sacrificed to her on the day of arrival for summer or winter road, as well as in cases when livestock fell ill. The sacrifice was accompanied by a spell, in which the spirit-mistress of the yard was asked for well-being for their livestock and its multiplication (No. 28).

The master spirit of the hitching post (serge) was considered a celestial being. This, apparently, is due to the fact that the patron spirit of horse breeding, Josögyoy, lived in heaven. The master spirit of the hitching post was recognized as the protector of the entire court, i.e. its functions coincided with the functions of the master spirit of the court. In the spell of the master spirit, the hitching posts were asked to protect people and cattle from evil spirits (No. 29).

The most revered of the guardian spirits of the clan and family was the master spirit of the hearth. Any fire, according to the beliefs of the Yakuts, had a master spirit, more precisely, the properties of a living being, an independent entity, were attributed to fire. Fire was recognized as a mediator - an intermediary between people and spirits. Spirits were treated through the fire, which were "saturated with the smell, burning and steam of the burnt treats", i.e. the sacrifice turned into a substance accessible to the spirits. Along with this, the Yakuts believed in the master spirit of the hearth, which was the protector of the family and clan from the machinations of evil spirits, from any misfortune. Such a multifunctionality of fire led to the fact that in many rituals they first turned to the master spirit of the hearth. For example, before the start of the ritual, the shaman made a sacrifice to the smoldering fire on the stove, asked to protect those present and help them. The ritual itself took place in semi-darkness. Perhaps this was partly due to the fact that shamanic spirits were protected from fire, since, being angry, they could harm the inhabitants of the yurt, where the shamanic mystery was performed.

The master spirit of the hearth constantly guarded the dwelling; in the past, the Yakuts treated him to the first spoon and the first piece of cooked food. At the same time, aloud or silently asked him to eat and treat himself. In especially important cases, the master spirit was treated with a spell. The volume and artistic merit of spells depended on the talent of their performers. Here, the properties of fire, its power and greatness were often masterfully sung. For example, in one of the published texts it is said that the sparks of the fire are free, scarlet and huge (the size of a horse's head); its heat upwards reaches the three-layer high white sky, penetrates deep into the dwelling place of the eight tribes of evil spirits, etc. Then the caster asked for protection from evil spirits and misfortunes for everyone, noting that the master spirit of the fire protected the owners of this house in the past, begged to protect the owners now, and in the future and their descendants (No. 32).

The cycle of spells and good wishes refers to wedding ceremonies. The main part of the traditional Yakut wedding was the rite of tyusya barar (literally, “to arrive to consolidate the marriage agreement”), which was arranged after paying a part of the kalym - a ransom for the bride, seeing her off to the groom’s place of residence and a wedding feast in the house of his parents (for details, see) .

The tyusya barar ritual was performed in the house of the bride's parents. The bridegroom came to the feast accompanied by relatives. The groom's train was led by his parents or a respectable senior relative who agreed to be the senior matchmaker. From the side of the bride, her parents, close relatives and respected, most often wealthy, people from her father's family took part in the celebration. The main part of this rite is an abundant feast for future relatives. The father of the bride distributed part of the kalym to the invited relatives, who were supposed to participate in the collection of dowry for the bride. Guests of honor were also presented by the groom, who, as a rule, contributed a certain share of the bride price.

It should be noted that all relatives took part in the payment of kalym in turn, i.e. this was part of the tribal mutual assistance, due to the customary law of the Yakuts. The most specific of the spells and good wishes performed during the ritual of tyusya barar was the spell cast by the groom when he treated the spirit-owner of the fire in the bride's house. In it, in addition to the traditional fire spell, the groom's request was added to take him under protection.

After the feast at the tyusya barar ceremony, the bride and groom spent their wedding night. From that time on, the groom received the right to visit his future wife in her house until the full payment of the bride price (in-law). Only after that the groom came for the bride and took her away. This stage of the Yakut wedding was also accompanied by a feast and a number of rituals. At the feast, traditional pre-wedding good wishes were pronounced. In the wishes of the father of the bride, it was said that he addresses the future spouses on behalf of himself and his patron spirits, wishes them to become the owners of a fertile home, caring parents of children who will be the successors of the family, owners of numerous livestock, "breadwinners for the hungry and warming for the freezing." Especially in his spell, the father noted the need for harmony in the family and expressed the wish that the insidious forces would not touch the new family (No. 36). The mother of the bride and other relatives also wished her happiness in her future family life (No. 37, 38). In the morning, before leaving, the bride treated the spirit-owner of the hearth, thanked for the protection and said goodbye to him. A thanksgiving spell was also performed by the bride at the departure of the wedding train from the ancestral territory. When entering the groom's land, the bride treated the host spirit of this land and cast a spell asking her not to offend her, considering her a foreigner, and to take her under her protection (No. 41). Sometimes this spell was pronounced by a member of the wedding train, who had a poetic gift, skillful in performing ritual songs.

The final part of the wedding ceremony began from the moment the wedding train entered the alaas, where the yurt of the groom's parents stood. In the distant past, rituals in the house of the bride's parents, and especially in the groom's native alaas, were a demonstration of the strength and wealth of the clans, united by family ties. This was most clearly manifested at the end of the 19th century. in the rituals performed upon the arrival of the wedding train at the place of residence of the groom. As soon as the wedding train appeared on the horizon, a horseman rushed towards it from the groom's house. When he got there, he turned around and ran back. A man accompanying the bride, riding on the best horse, set off in pursuit of him. If the owners were ahead, then it was believed that they ensured the happiness of the future family, and if vice versa, then the bride's relatives.

The next competition was a fire-making contest. It was held at the entrance of the wedding train to the estate. The bride drove up to a special wedding hitching post set up to the east of the house. None of the visitors dismounted from their horses. Only one person from the bride's entourage jumped off his horse, ran to the door of the house and began to strike fire with a flint and flint. His rival from the side of the groom climbed onto the yurt and began to make fire over the chimney of the stove. If the visitor was the first to light the fire, he threw it inside the house towards the fireplace, and if he was standing at the top, then into the chimney. The one who was ahead of them cast a spell in which he emphasized that it was his family that bestowed happiness on the newlyweds (No. 42). Only after this rite did the greeters take the reins of the bride's horse and lower her from the saddle, and with honor received the rest of the guests. The bride was taken to the house, where she was greeted with a wish to become the mistress of an abundant house, to have many children, numerous cattle, etc. (No. 43).

A component of the wedding ceremony was the ritual of treating the bride to the master spirit of the hearth in the house of the groom's parents, introducing her to the fire of his family. Having treated the host spirit, the bride conjured him to take her under his protection. Basically, this spell was a variant of the regular fire master spirit spell.

On the day of the bride's arrival, a feast was arranged, at which a lot of good wishes were pronounced. Then various competitions, games were held, osuokhay was started, sometimes olonkho "heroic tales" were performed.

As correctly noted by P.A. Sleptsov, only rich Yakuts performed a full range of wedding ceremonies. The less affluent were limited to a gala dinner, but the performance of the spells of the master spirit of fire and good wishes to the newlyweds was an indispensable component of any wedding. Yakut wedding rituals also had local features. We found it possible to include in that as an example of wedding poetry the entry of V.M. and M.N. Ionovs about the participation of the spirit of Bologur ayyyta as an honorary matchmaker (for a description of these rites, see text No. 44). This material is also an example of the participation of black shamans in wedding rituals. In ordinary weddings, they did not play a special role. White shamans also did not always participate in the wedding, but only in those cases when the newlyweds were their close blood relatives.

Concluding the review of poetry related to the Yakut wedding, we note that in Soviet times the basics of this rite were observed. A feast was also arranged, the spirit-master of the fire was often treated, good wishes were pronounced. In that, we included only one text of well-wishes at a modern wedding. His analysis shows that the main outline of traditional wedding wishes has been preserved: the newlyweds are wished happiness, large families and wealth, only at the end it is added that they need to become leaders in production and well-known people in the republic (No. 45).

In the concept of life of the Yakuts, an important role was assigned to procreation, the birth of children in the family. Large families, healthy, mentally normal children were considered one of the components of human happiness. The souls of children (kut-sur), according to the beliefs of the Yakuts, could be obtained from the light deities of the aiyy, as well as from a tree with a branched crown. The main donor of the souls of children - the goddess Nelbey Aiyysyt - lived in the eastern part of the earth, outside the places mastered by the Yakuts. She could give or not give a woman children. This goddess and the spirits accompanying her, the owners of grasses and trees, determined the fate of the newborn: the length of his life, whether he would be happy, healthy, etc. After the birth of a child, the goddess Ieyieh-sit, the personal patroness of a person, became one of his main protectors. The image of this goddess was close to the image of the goddess Aiyysyt.

In a spell cast at the birth of a child, both of them were addressed. The eldest woman or the one who took delivery asked the goddesses to be supportive, to come and facilitate the birth. The incantation during childbirth usually had a sublime character close to epic traditions; hyperbole and colorful descriptions were widely used in them. For example, the plaque on Aiyysyt's cap was comparable in size to an ice hole, and the breath of the goddess Ieyiehsit was likened to a warm wind. The description of the costume of the goddess Aiyysyt was as detailed as the description of the clothes of the main characters of the olonkho epic (No. 46). Note that this spell also contains a very archaic characteristic of the goddess Ieyiehsit. Yakuts in the 19th - early 20th centuries. considered it an anthropomorphic creature. At the same time, part of the myths says that she appeared to people in the guise of a white mare:

With a wavy tail

With a black stripe down the spine

With patterned spots on the shoulder blades...

(stk.80 - 82).

The rest of Ieyiehsit's characterization refers to her anthropomorphic appearance (No. 46).

If the birth went well, the Yakuts on the third day after the birth arranged the rite of seeing off Aiyysyt. (For a detailed description of the rite and the content of spells, see No. 48, 49.)

When childbirth was difficult and the woman in labor could not be relieved from the burden, the Yakuts invited a shaman. He called on his spirits and performed a ritual with a sacrifice to the evil spirits of the abaasy, who steal the souls of children and interfere with childbirth. The spell said that the shaman catches these spirits and drives them back with the help of his helper spirits (see #47).

In the case of a long absence of children, the Yakuts performed a ceremony of asking Aiyysyt for the soul of a child. It was performed by a white shaman (aiyy oyuuna) - a priest of the cult of the patron spirits of the family and clan (a brief description of one of the variants of this rite is prefaced to text No. 51; for more details about this rite, see). The spells described the grief of a childless married couple, ordered this couple to live in harmony, without quarrels, and it was predicted that in this case the goddess would give a child. At the end of the spell, the performer of the rite asked that none of the evil spirits interfere with the fulfillment of his prayer (No. 51).

One of the Yakut rituals performed during the upbringing of children was the consecration of the cradle. At the same time, a spell was pronounced in which Aiyysyt was asked to protect the cradle and the child, it was indicated that the nest (cradle) was located on the sacred family tree, i.e. it is protected by the host spirit of the tribal territory. In addition, at the end of the spell, the modesty of the hosts and the person uttering the spell was emphasized. It was noted that they rarely ask, and only on the days that are intended for sacrifices (No. 50).

In family life, in addition to obligatory rituals, there were rituals associated with various everyday situations. Occasionally, rites of bewitchment of a girl, woman or man were performed. For example, V.M. Ionov recorded the ritual of bewitching the departed wife. It is based on an archaic belief that trees are like people in everything - they talk to each other, get sick, die, visit each other, etc. One of the aspects of understanding the life of trees was the idea that trees growing together, as if embracing, have a magical gift to unite divorced spouses, restore the integrity of the broken, destroyed. In the ceremony, the abandoned husband makes a sacrifice to two trees growing together, entwining each other from the very root to the top. In the spell, the man colorfully described his suffering. In particular, he said that he came:

Suffering from aching bones

From the uneven flooring of the boards on the bed ...

(No. 52, lines 28-29).

At the end of the spell, he asked for a magical remedy that softens the hearts of women and men, tames the bad habits of cattle (st. 62 - 72). The analyzed record states that the trees heeded the request of the abandoned husband, gave him a love remedy, and he managed to return his wife (No. 52).

For all ethnic groups, family rituals included funeral and memorial ones. Among the Yakuts, death, according to traditional beliefs, was a migration to another world, in essence, a change in the form of human existence. At funerals and commemorations in the XIX - early XX centuries. special ritual works were not performed (for funeral and memorial rites, see). Longing for the dead was expressed in individual lamentations. The features of this genre in the Yakut folklore have not been studied enough. Apparently, there were three types of lamentations: cap tuonuu "mourning the unfortunate fate", sulanyy "mourning the fate", mun-atyyyy "crying about one's sufferings". These cries, in fact, were a form of individual psychological relaxation and at the same time performed a symbolic function that corresponded to the ethical standards of the Yakuts, they were an expression of bitterness from the loss of a loved one. According to the Yakuts, the deceased becomes a spirit and comes to the living if he is not accepted in the other world. In such cases, a shaman was invited, who performed a special ritual in order to catch him and send him to the world of the dead.

An important part of the system of Yakut rituals were rituals associated with their main occupation - breeding horses and cattle. The Yakuts, faithful descendants of their nomadic ancestors, were more fond of horses. According to Yakut beliefs, successful horse breeding depended on the benevolence of the deity Dzhyosegoy. The Yakuts made the first sacrifice to him in early spring, at the birth of the first foal. In prayer, they said that they were treating them to the best koumiss and asked to increase the number of horses belonging to the owner (No. 53).

A family ritual associated with cattle breeding was also a sacrifice to the mistress spirit of the area where they moved for the summer. She was treated to koumiss and asked to give prosperity in this place, to ensure the offspring and safety of all livestock (No. 56).

The growth of a herd of cattle, according to the beliefs of the Yakuts, depended not only on the light gods aiyy, but also on the poroz belonging to this family. Proceeding from this, at the beginning of summer, a ritual was performed of spraying the bull-producer with suorat "Yakut sour-milk product" with a request to increase the offspring of livestock (No. 57). According to the beliefs of the Yakuts, a herd stallion and a sire bull, when slaughtered, could take the souls of horses or cattle with them to the other world. Therefore, before the slaughter of these producers, the Yakuts performed a special ceremony. They were slaughtered in the same way as sacrificial animals - they tore their aorta. At the same time, they cast a spell in which they asked not to take cattle with them, but, on the contrary, to give a large offspring in the future. At the end of the spell, they traditionally said that they were forced to score because of the onset of a hungry year (text No. 60,).

The Yakut family labor rituals included rituals performed during the preparation of hay for the winter. Before the start of haymaking, having arrived at the place of mowing, they made a fire and through the fire made a sacrifice to the host spirit of the area in the form of milk food (they threw butter or sprinkled koumiss on the fire), conjuring to give a share of herbs to feed livestock (No. 61).

At the beginning of the mowing, the eldest of the mowers performed the ritual of “watering” the scythe. The scythe, according to the beliefs of the Yakuts, like any object, was recognized as alive. She was endowed with the ability to be offended, inflict wounds on purpose, mow better or worse, and also eat and drink. Therefore, starting mowing, they treated the scythe with a drink of sour milk. The person who was entrusted with carrying out this ceremony mowed the grass three times, then took a bunch of freshly cut grass, dipped it in a drink and lubricated the scythe. After that, the entire drink from the cup was sprinkled around in three doses on the growing grass and a spell was cast asking for a rich herbage, sunny weather and a successful haymaking. In the final part of the algys, they turned to the spit, begging it not to break or deteriorate (No. 63).

At the end of the haymaking, a spell was cast - Blessing of large pitchforks. It noted that the haymaking was completed successfully, and asked for the same well-being in the future, during the life of nine generations of descendants (No. 64).

Part of the Yakuts in the process of developing the basins of the Olenek and Anabar rivers in the 17th - 19th centuries. began to engage in reindeer husbandry, combining it with hunting and fishing. Ritual poetry of this group of Yakuts is poorly studied. The volume includes three spells related to reindeer herding (No. 65 - 67), performed by a shaman. Possibly, these are examples of incantations performed by a shaman in extreme cases or for preventive purposes. Thus, the first spell refers to the beginning of deer calving (No. 65), the second and third are performed during epidemics (No. 66, 67).

Returning to the characterization of the rituals and ritual poetry of the main part of the Yakuts, it should be noted that during the autumn-winter period there were no significant actions related to cattle breeding. In case of cattle illness, the usual rite of purification by fire was performed, a sacrifice was made to the master spirit of the barn, or a shaman was invited to perform the ritual.

Along with family rituals, general tribal, tribal, intertribal, communal and national holidays and rituals were of great importance in the life of the Yakuts. The main one is ysyakh, consisting of sacrifices to deities and spirits, singing or reciting a hymn in their honor, a feast, osuokhay circular dances, combat competitions, sports competitions and various games (see for details).

The study of materials about Ysyakh shows that it originally arose as a tribal and inter-tribal holiday, in the 19th century. it already had a communal and intercommunal character and began to be recognized as a common Yakut. During the period of collectivization, the holiday was banned. The reason for this was that the Yakuts, like other peoples who organize horse races, loved to bet during the competition. In addition, during the Ysyakhs there were card games. In the last year of World War II, the ban was lifted. Ysyakhs of Victory began to be held in cities and villages. Since that time, Ysyakh has become a common holiday of summer and friendship for all residents of Yakutia.

According to Yakut mythology, the founder of the Ysyakh was the ancestor Elley. The first anthem in honor of the spirits was performed, according to myths, by the son of Elley Labyngkha Syuyuryuk, who became the first priest (aiyy oyuuna) of the cult of the guardian spirits of the clan and tribe. Apparently, until the middle of the XIX century. hymns in Ysyakh were recited by white shamans (No. 69). Later, respected old people, experts in folk traditions or skillful singers - masters of performing Yakut songs - began to perform this function.

The rite of opening Ysyakh was held as a theatrical performance. The main character was the performer of the hymn in honor of deities and spirits. He was echoed by eight innocent girls and nine innocent boys. In the hymn, the performers turned with a prayer of thanksgiving to the deities and spirits. At the beginning of the spell of the white shaman, it was emphasized that all life on earth was created by the will of the head of the deities of the aiyy Yuryung Aiyy Toyon, his power was noted and the idea was expressed that the ysyakh was organized as a gift for his mercy. After that, the conjurer listed all the deities and spirits, treated them and asked them for protection, begged them to give happiness, wealth and good luck, to protect them from the machinations of evil spirits (No. 69).

Such a structure, apparently, was originally inherent in the hymn recited at the opening of the Ysyakh. At the end of the XIX - XX centuries. the performers of this hymn did not strictly adhere to the hierarchy of light deities. They could start with an appeal to Dzhyosegoy - the patron saint of horse cattle, or to Aiyysyt, on whose will the birth and life of children depended (No. 70, 72). In some cases, the conjurer described the wealth, splendor of the organized Ysyakh: the abundance of refreshments, the abundance of festive dishes, etc. Then the conjurer said that he treats the bright spirits with the best types of dairy food and asked them for protection (No. 70).

After the performance of the anthem in honor of the bright patron deities and local spirits, a festive feast began, consisting of treats with koumiss, boiled meat and other dishes. In the old days, when drinking koumiss, they sometimes listened to songs praising ysyakh. The songs were performed by the best singers. They sang about the beauty of their native land, about how abundant ysyakh is and how it is designed to ensure happiness for people and their future descendants (No. 75).

At the end of the festive feast on Ysyakh, circular dances of osuokhai, horse races, sports competitions and games began. It should be noted that the circular dance osuokhay was performed not only on Ysyakh, it was an integral part of any Yakut holiday. It probably originally had a sacred character. In the past, in the osuokhay chant, as well as in the hymn at the opening of the ysyakh, they praised the bright deities-ayyy, asked them to be favorable to people, emphasized that these gods give happiness and prosperity to the Yakuts (No. 76).

Perhaps the chanting of the bright deities was the theme of the first osuokhai dance, which opened many hours of mass fun. On Ysyakh, one round dance was replaced by another. As soon as the singer finished her round dance, the next singer began a new one. There were cases when several round dances started at the same time. The duration of the dance depended on the talent and desire of the lead singer. Experienced singers could dance for several hours. The most traditional in Ysyakh, in addition to singing the deities of the aiyy, were chants praising the onset of summer, glorifying famous horses and describing the beauty of their native land. Any theme was revealed by the singers in their own way, each created an independent poetic work (No. 77 - 86).

In that volume we could not include the full texts of the osuokhai verses. The main reason is the limited volume. Therefore, we have placed only samples of the ancient beginning of osuokhay (No. 76), the beginning of the verse performed by the famous storyteller, folk singer S.A. Zverev (No. 78), and deciphering the osuokhai chants recorded during the complex expedition to Yakutia in 1986. Then the task was set before the best osuokhai chants from the group of Vilyui districts - to briefly perform the chants, preserving their structure: the beginning, the main chants and the finale ( No. 82 - 86). These texts give an idea of ​​the specifics of the osuokhai chant as a special genre of folklore. In addition, osuokhai's songs have their own local features.

The osuohai dance had several variants. One of its varieties was the Nyakhin dance. In terms of choreography, this dance is close to one of the variants of the Buryat round dance, yokhor (for more details, see the article on ritual dances in this volume). In the chorus of the Nyakhin dance, the non-Yakut word galin is repeated twice, apparently derived from the Buryat gal "fire". The etymology of another word tanki, incomprehensible to the Yakuts, is possibly associated with the Buryat onomatopoeic word tan, which expresses ringing (No. 79).

The traditional osuokhai consisted of three parts: the beginning, the main slow round dance and the energetic, fast round dance ketuu (literally, “flight”). The beginning of the osuokhai was performed in the style of a drawn-out toyuk. At first, she sang the phrase, then it was picked up by those who echoed - two or more participants in the dance, walking to the right and left of him. The success of the dance to a certain extent depended on the experience of the followers. The main and final parts of the round dance were performed in the form of a seven-syllable.

The singer was obliged to strictly follow this size. If there were five or six syllables in the line of the verse text, then repetitions of the syllable of one of the words were added, or interjections were inserted between the words. If there were more than seven syllables in a line, then the extra ones were pronounced at an accelerated pace, and two syllables sounded like one. The beginning in the style of toyuk provided a solemn, majestic mood for the performers of the osuokhai, and the main rhythmic chant of the round dance contributed to the unification of the dancers, the creation of a common aura of joy and fun, which gives a charge of optimism, strengthens the unity of the participants in the holiday and has a beneficial effect on their psyche. It is no coincidence that the traditional refrain Esieheidiir esie-hei, osuokhaidyr osuokhai is also used in the chorus. He finds an echo in the soul of the Yakuts, sets them up to participate in a round dance. Along with this, this refrain was used by the soloists as a marker for the beginning and end of a separate theme in the chorus and the transition to a new theme.

The Ysyakh holiday lasted from one to several days. The epic often speaks of a ysyakh held for nine days.

Researchers have long noted that "algys is more than any other genre characterized by the stability and conservatism of the artistic form." This is primarily reflected in the composition, structure of ritual songs and their functional purpose. Often, at the beginning, the names of those Spirits-ichchi are given, to which the pronouncing spell or algys addresses. If this is a hunter, then he lists Bayanai, Ergene Bergen, Baai Baryylaakh, etc., while the fisherman refers to the owners of lakes, rivers - Suule Baaiu, Ebirien Baai Khotun, Uokaa Dzharalyku, Kunuleer Toyonu, Dalgyra Khatyn, etc. Depending on the dialect, ulus ethnographic features, the addressees change, although there are also common ones.

The algyschyt singer, to the best of his abilities and talent, endows each spirit with different epithets praising their power. It is generally accepted that the more colorfully the owner of this or that type of hunting is described, the more generously he gives good luck. After that, the essence of the request is stated, in which the names of the animals are given descriptively, since there is a ban on this. Sometimes an element of andagar "oath of self-cursing" is introduced into a separate algys: "if I violate certain conditions, let me feel bad." A certain order also exists in the Ysyakh hymns. However, this does not prevent the performers from expressing their talent as an improviser in varying the structure of ritual songs. But the language of algys, its visual means remain common to Yakut folklore, and many cliché definitions used in folk songs and especially in epic stories are often encountered during the performance of rituals.

For example, in the spell of the master spirit of the forest, as in the epic, it says:

stepping on toes,

Girdled in the middle,

Using fire,

With turning [in different directions] head

swarthy uraanghai,

Yakut man...

(No. 8, lines 5 - 10, as well as olonkho "The obstinate Kulun Kullustuur"; "Kyys Debiliye").

In the next spell, the hunter asks:

In your narrow [place] hide,

Hide in your wide [place]!

(No. 9, lines 26 - 27, as well as the olonkho "The Recalcitrant Kulun Kullustuur",).

Variation of this cliché:

Hidden in your armpits by you,

In your groin covered by you

(No. 17, lines 47 - 48).

In the spell of the fishermen there are formulas:

I, having joints, bow to you,

Having a neck with vertebrae, bowing before you

(No. 17, lines 5 - 6).

Having a neck - I bow,

Having vertebrae - I bend

(No. 23, lines 13-14; see also the olonkho “The Recalcitrant Kulun Kullustuur”,; “Kyys Debiliie”,).

The stable formulas used in olonkho were also used in wedding spells.

Eight-rim-octagonal

My primordial mother earth master spirit

(No. 19, lines 1 - 2, No. 50, lines 16 - 17, No. 69, lines 19 - 20; see also olonkho "The obstinate Kulun Kullustuur"; "Kyys Debiliye"; "Mighty Er Sogotokh").

So that on the eight-rim-eight extreme,

With strife, straighten,

Decorated with buzzing greenery

Primordial Mother Earth...

(No. 43, lines 84-87).

Another formula, present in the epic:

Like the ribbed larynx of a white horse,

Along the laid out

illustrious

A wonderful road with...

(No. 37, line 57 - 60; see also olonkho "The obstinate Kulun Kullustuur" ; "Kyys Debiliie" , "Mighty Er Sogotokh").

In the hymns dedicated to Ysyakh, and in the chants of osuokhai, there are also clichés typical of the language of the epic:

Looking there - smile,

When you look here, smile.

(No. 13, lines 20 - 21).

Variant of this cliché:

Turned in that direction - laughed merrily,

She looked in this direction and smiled touchingly...

(No. 71, lines 8 - 9).

On the strong back of a horse,

Like a black grouse,

He took off and landed.

(No. 78, Stk. 40-42; see also olonkho "The Obstinate Kulun Kullustuur"; "Kyys Debiliie"; "Mighty Er Sogotokh").

The coincidence of stable formulas in the epic and works of ritual poetry was apparently due to two reasons. Firstly, the mutual influence of the poetic system of genres: storytellers often used osuokhai chants, and osuokhai chants, undoubtedly, were present at the performance of olonkho and replenished their poetic arsenal from the epic. Secondly, the commonality of the poetic fund: the creators of the epic were based on the achievements of other genres of folklore - they creatively interpreted mythology, weaved formulas for spells and well-wishes, included proverbs and sayings in the texts, i.e. used in their work a well-established, polished set of poetic expressions.

Along with stable formulas coinciding with epic ones, there are clichés in the works of ritual poetry that are characteristic of this particular genre. First of all, a detailed definition of the master spirit of fire should be recognized as an example of such formulas:

piebald shin,

spotted side,

Chest - sieve

Neck - skobel,

gray beard,

Terrible, eminent,

With gray hair

Scorching my lord,

My master is grandfather

Spirit-owner of my sacred fire!

(No. 30, lines 13-22).

Litter - ash,

Blanket - ashes,

gray beard,

gray head,

silver face,

Mr. Nohsol Toyon is my grandfather...

(No. 33, lines 2 - 7).

The description of the spirit-owner of the hearth is close in essence and structure to the poetic description of the spirit-owner of the lake:

Master spirit of my lake

The shore is a pillow [your],

Swamp - litter,

Slime - blanket,

Topi - courtyard,

Small crucian - the basis of life [your], -

Green Bolloch

Toyon-grandfather!

(No. 2, lines 157 - 163).

With a house - a quagmire,

With a window - a slit,

With a litter - swamp,

With a blanket - duckweed

Spirit master of water...

(No. 18, lines 5 - 9).

Descriptions of these two spirits, in contrast to other parts of the spell, performed in a singsong recitative, were read in a patter, i.e. and had a common style of pronunciation.

A number of stable formulas in the works of ritual poetry were associated with a prayer for the mercy of the deities, for protection from troubles and misfortunes. Thus, the offering of a sacrifice was sometimes accompanied by a request that has become traditional in form and essence:

Consider insufficient sufficient

Consider incomplete as complete.

(No. 53, lines 31-32).

The fisherman's spell says:

With evil eyes

Maybe he looked

With sinful hands

Maybe he held

evil-tongued,

Maybe he cursed

With fiery eyes

Maybe he screwed up...

(No. 22, lines 1 - 8).

Variants of this cliche are found in the spells of the goddess Aiyysyt:

Let the evil-tongued-squabbling

Can't curse

Let the slippery

Don't look straight ahead!

(No. 48, lines 18 - 21).

fiery-eyed

Let it not look straight ahead

flat-eared

Let him not hear!

quarrelsome-evil-tongued

Let them not be able to curse!

(No. 51, lines 49 - 54).

Among the stable formulas of wedding wishes, for example, was the cliché:

Welcoming horse,

Leaving the pedestrian for the night,

Feeding the hungry

Warming the chilled ...

(No. 37, lines 47 - 50, 55).

Variants of this cliché:

hungry food,

frozen heating,

Helping Sirom...

(No. 36, lines 57 - 59, 63).

Support the orphan

Give food to the horse

Give lodging for the night!

(No. 43, lines 81-83).

A similar formula is also found in the spells of the goddess Aiyysyt at her seeing off after the birth of a child; the conjurer wishes the child to become a support for everyone:

Let him become a walking staff,

Let him become a whip for the equestrian,

Let the starving one feed on him,

Let the emaciated be satisfied...

(No. 49, lines 10 - 13).

In the hymns recited at the opening of the ysyakh, the epithets of the light deities aiyy are repeated:

With warm breath

With a blush on your cheeks

With blessed speech

Our mother Ieyiehsit...

(No. 71, lines 2 - 5).

These epithets are common in materials about the cult of the patron deities of the Yakuts (for details, see).

There are many common clichés in the ritual texts of Ysyakh and in the songs of Osuokhay. Thus, they often emphasize that ysyakh and osuokhay were first arranged by the legendary first ancestors of the Yakuts Elley and Omogoi (No. 75, line 9-11; No. 82, line 53-54).

Starting osuokhai, traditionally the lead singer addresses the participants as follows:

For five fingers

As for the loops, holding on,

Let's drive osuohai

For ten fingers

intermingled,

Let's drive osuohai..

(No. 85, lines 25-30).

Variations of this formula occur in the following texts included in the volume:

For five splayed

holding fingers,

Like a loop to a loop, stringing ...

(No. 78, lines 74 - 76).

For ten fingers

Intertwining them, holding on...

(No. 81, lines 3 - 4).

In ritual poetry, the technique of hyperbolization is widely used. The master spirit spell says:

The spirit-owner of my sacred hearth

With eight belts

The master spirit of my venerable hearth

With nine belts

The master spirit of my venerable wide fire

With seven belts...

(No. 31, lines 5-10).

The Yakuts, on the other hand, tied the entire frame of the fireplace from poles coated with clay with a girdle in three places.

Hyperbole as an artistic technique is also in spells during the consecration of a child's cradle:

On the nine-nine-rim

my homeland

On its southern side proudly grown

Mighty oak, in the middle of it located

With nine hoops

My main cradle of oak

Don't let it collapse!

(No. 50, lines 24 - 30).

In a festive hymn performed in Ysyakh, when describing the deity Dzhosegyoy, it is said that he owns “a midge from yellow foals”, “a gadfly from mouse-gray foals”, “a mosquito from red foals”, etc. (No. 70, lines 88, 89, 91).

The analysis of the works of ritual poetry shows that algyses are intonationally different from other everyday songs, they are mainly dominated by a high style, since in this case the conversation-conversation is conducted with powerful master spirits. Therefore, often even passages containing certain requests are performed loudly, solemnly, especially when spectators are present.

The rhythmic structure of ritual songs is peculiar. Apparently, the fact that this genre developed in antiquity, was performed by recitative and singing, is affecting, therefore, in most cases, the basis of rhythmization is “rhythmic-syntactic parallelism with a relatively free count of syllables”. The "Blessing when moving to the summer camp" (Sailykka takhsarga algys) says:

Unaar saiyn of a sultry summer

Uigutun somustaratgyn,

Let us scoop up abundance,

Kueh saiyn

green summer

Kundu beelaedin ketehterentgun,

Give us a precious gift in our hands,

Utue sayyn

Have a great summer

Utue urdunen en ur Aentgin

Let us get enough of the best cream...

(No. 56, lines 20-25).

In this example, the number of syllables in the lines is 4 - 9 - 3 - 11 - 5 - 9, which indicates the unconditional unequal syllables of the latter. But if we take the total number of words in rhythmic-syntactic parallels (there are three of them), then we get quite comparable values: 13 - 14 - 14, i.e. approximate balance. This phenomenon goes back to the ancient Turkic written monuments of the 5th - 7th centuries. and is defined by some poetic scholars as emotional repetition. But unlike other Sakha songs, in ritual poetry the principle of alliteration (the consonance of the initial sounds of lines) is not strictly observed and usually extends from strength to 2-3 adjacent verses. In the algys "Blessing of the fishing fence" (Elie algyba) we read:

Aaspyty abattar,

Feed the hungry

Syrdan silaattar,

Kill the hungry

Thordon toroluttar!

Feed the emaciated one!

Chugas kere satyyr gyna,

To be seen up close

Yraah iste satyyr gyna,

To be heard from a distance

Dari dehei dethirgitien kulu!

Give us equal gifts always!

(No. 20, lines 24-29).

As you can see, the singer ignores the initial consonances, but especially emphasizes the endings of the lines with grammatical rhymes and repetitions common in Yakut folklore. Here, as in all ritual poetry, the main rhythm of the work is created by a syntagma phrase, tirade combinations. When performing, another factor comes into play, and "usually the intonation periods are regulated by the volume of breath".

Of the genres of ritual poetry, the rhythm of the Ysyakh songs has undergone a significant change. This is what the examples in this volume show. In the "Song of the Ancient Dance" (Bylyrgy ukkuu yryata, No. 76) there is no clear rhythm, and its performance, in all likelihood, was accompanied by movements, dance, different from the modern osuokhai. Modern lead singers use this lingering motif only as the beginning of the osuokhay, almost immediately switching to a seven-syllable meter.

The seven-syllable line is strictly maintained throughout the osuokhay dance, appearing in different versions: 3 - 4, 3 - 4, 2 - 2 - 3, 3 - 2 - 2. In some cases, the lead singers use fewer syllables, but then they are one syllable they stretch, making, as it were, two, and more syllables are pronounced at an accelerated pace, while maintaining the basic rhythm.

In general, the language of ritual songs is more archaic, especially in the algys of hunters, fishermen, in the algys of the spirit of fire, forest. In them, a figurative system of comparisons, epithets is created on the basis of the names of everyday items that have been used since ancient times. Over time, the language of ritual poetry did not remain unchanged. In it, as well as in the modern Yakut language, there are borrowings from the Russian language and culture. In spells, for example, the word bokuluon is found - from the Russian "bow" (No. 23, line 12), luoska - from "spoon" (No. 36, line 16), alleyyayttan - from "alley" (No. 61, line 12). 4), etc. Some texts also reflect borrowings from Christianity. So, in the spell of the goddess Aiyysyt, it says: “When I became young, instead of Nikola, you were to me” (No. 46, lines 10 - 11). The Wonderworker Nicholas was one of the most revered saints among the Yakuts who converted to Orthodoxy. In number 48 there is a wish:

May God patronize [you] Nikola,

Let Christ God take care of [you].

(stk. 30 - 31; see also olonkho "The obstinate Kulun Kullustuur"; "Kyys Debiliye"; "Mighty Er Sogotokh").

It is curious that in the hymn at the opening of the ysyakh there is a statement that the spirit-owner of the fire “For thirty years you lay motionless” (No. 69, lines 204-205). This is associated with the fate of the hero of Russian epics, Ilya Muromets, who until the age of thirty could not walk.

An in-depth scientific analysis of the Yakut ritual poetry is the task of future researchers. We are forced to confine ourselves to a brief general description of the traditional Yakut rituals and the layer of oral folk art associated with them so that the reader can more easily comprehend the specifics of the unique examples of spiritual heritage included in this book.

ON THE. Alekseev, E.N. Kuzmina, N.N. Toburokov