Фольклор удэгейцев: Ниманку, тэлунгу, ехэ. - 1998. (Т. 18.)

3. A fox asks a heron to give him her nestlings as if for wives and eats the little ones. An eagle-own opens the foolish heron’s eyes and she refuses the fox. Then the fox catches a halcyon and is about to swallow it but the bird tells the fox first to ask Bua the spirit for permission. The fox opens his mouth and the bird flies away, while the fox fells into a precipice (N 37; versions of the first part of the nimanku may be observed among all the Manchu- Tungusic peoples). Unlike the nimanku, the telungu speak of real authentic actions that can evoke no doubt among narrator’s listeners. Telungu reflect either the ethnic mentality or the people’s concept of themselves and the surrounding world. Some of the telungu speak of the tribal norms and of the punishment for violating them. Here are some telungu subjects. 1. Once there were two suns shining above the earth. And it was unbearably hot. A yegdyga (a young man) shot into one of them and it turned into a moon. Life became nice and beautiful. The myth is spread in the Amur region (N 5). Arseniev’s version: The moon was a man, and the sun — a woman; they shone together and everything was dying from the scorching heat. Three old men decided to shoot into the sun. After that the moon began shining at night (N 81 (7)). 2. A man was chased by singmu — a monster. For a long time the man was rushing up and down the hill, then he threw away what he carried and thus managed to get rid of the persecutor (N 59; all the Manchu-Tungusic peoples of the Amur region have such a myth; see N 60). 3. Once some Udehe went upon the ice hunting for seals. Suddenly the storm began and they were carried off to Japan where they live now. These are the Udehe from the tribe of Bosa (N 118 (44)). 4. The Udehe from the river of Shoomi took wives from the river of Nakhtoku but they did not give their daughters in exchange. Then the settlers of Nakhtoku took the Shoomi girls and women by force. When the men were returning home two of their boats were crashed by the landslide and got drowned. It was supposed that the evil spirits punished them for taking the married women and thus violating the tribal law (N 120 (46)). Nimanku and telungu differ considerably. Nimanku are characterised by all the tropes and all the beauties of the language. The main peculiarity of the heroic nimanku are the sung monologues — a kind of arias ,sung at the culminating moments of the narration (see N 15, 16, 19, 23, 25, 30, 34 and others). The singing of monologues is always begun by some special words that have now lost their initial semantics. This device is peculiar to the folklore of all the Manchu-Tungusic peoples and it must have been connected with some rituals in the past. Telungu are usually not very long, they are performed in the every-day language, and have no alliteration, rhythm or tropes. The main personages of the Udehe folklore are belie, a young girl, and yegdyga, a young man, who embody the ideal features of a man and a woman.