berezkin pleiades as path of birds and girl in the moon

Copyright © 2010, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.aeae.2010.02.012

ARCHAEOLOGY,ETHNOLOGY& ANTHROPOLOGYOF EURASIA

Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37/4 (2009) 100–113

E-mail: [email protected]

Seven objects of the night sky attracted most of the attention of Eurasian cultures outside of the Tropical zone. These are the Moon with its dark spots on its disc, Venus, the Milky Way, the Big Dipper, the Pleiades, the Belt of Orion, and Polaris. Other planets, stars, and constellations were singled out by some cultures but ignored by others. Though the number of Eurasian cosmonyms is great, most of them are either rare or mere variants of a few dominant forms of interpretation. The conservatism of cosmological vocabulary and of corresponding mythopoetic ideas makes them a source of data on ethno-cultural development in the remote past.

THE PLEIADES AS OPENINGS, THE MILKY WAY AS THE PATH OF BIRDS, AND THE GIRL IN THE MOON:

NORTHERN EURASIAN ETHNO-CULTURAL LINKS IN THE MIRROR OF COSMONYMY*

*This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project 07-06-00441-a), INTAS (Project 05-10000008-7922), and the programs of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “Adaptation of Peoples and Cultures to Environmental Changes, Social and Technogenic Transformations” and “Historical and Cultural Heritage and Spiritual Values of Russia.”

The Baltic-Finnish and the Baltic cosmonyms mostly coincide, while the Baltic and Slavic ones are different. Baltic-Finnish variants nd parallels in texts of the peoples of the Middle Volga. The interpretation of the spots in the Moon as a girl or young woman with water-pails is widespread across all of Northern Eurasia, being also typical of the North American Northwest Coast, the Algonquians to the north of the Great Lakes, and of the Maori. Part of Siberian, North American and Maori texts include a motif of a bush clutched by the person. The interpretation of the Pleiades as a “sieve” can be a variation of an Eurasian image of stars as openings in the sky. The Milky Way as the path of birds is typical of the Balts, Finno-Ugrians, and some Turkic peoples, as well as of the Amur Evenki and the Algonquians. These cosmonyms spread from the East to the West. They are almost completely unknown among the Samoyeds.

Keywords: Cosmonymy, the Pleiades, the Milky Way, lunar spots, Samoyeds, Turks, Siberian peoples, Indians of the North American Northwest Coast, Algonquians, Salish.

The areal distribution of several cosmonyms recorded recently or preserved in the written sources do not coincide with the borders of linguistic families. In particular, cosmonymic vocabularies of the Balts and the Baltic Finns are identical even though the languages of these peoples belong to two unrelated families. Everywhere in the Eastern Baltic, the Milky Way is the “path of (migratory) birds,” the Pleiades are a “sieve,” a girl with pails in her hands is seen in the Moon. However, everywhere to the south and west of the Baltic Sea (excluding those areas of Poland and Belarus where Baltic languages were relatively recently replaced by Slavic languages (G adyszowa, 1960: 19, 28, 30; Niebrzegowska, 1999: 149; Vaišk nas, 2004: 169–170), the Eastern Baltic-type cosmonymy is absent. Exceptions are few. The “path of birds” is known to the Luzhitsa Sorbians (Azimov, Tolstoi, 1995: 118); the interpretation of the Pleiades as a sieve was recorded among the Hungarians (Mándoki, 1963: 519–520; Zsigmond, 2003: 434) and northern Italians (Volpati, 1933a: 206); the “girl in the Moon” is typical

Yu.E. BerezkinMuseum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences,

Universitetskaya Nab. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia.E-mail: [email protected]

100 ETHNOLOGY

Yu.E. Berezkin / Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37/4 (2009) 100–113 101

of most of Bulgaria and Macedonia, with an isolated case in Romania (Cenev, 2004: 47; Marinov, 2003: 28; Mladenova, 2006: 137, 263–264, map 29).

Despite these exceptions, there is no doubt that a basic cosmonymic border divides the Balts and the Slavs, but is absent between the Balts and the Baltic Finns. What historical processes could have produced such a boundary?

The Pleiades as openings in the sky

Putting aside the association of the Pleiades with a group of people (images of this sort are recorded in various areas but are very different from each other), three basic variants of interpretation of this star cluster are widespread in Europe (Fig. 1).

The cosmonyms “a hen with its chickens,” “brood,” “chickens,” “pullets” and the like are typical of Western, Southern and Central Europe, the Balkans, and Western Ukraine (Andree, 1878: 106; Boneva, 1994: 12; Chubinsky, 1872: 14; Jankovich, 1951: 141; Krappe, 1938: 152; László, 1975: 604; Mati etov, 1972: 49; Mladenova, 2006: 89–93; Niebrzegowska, 1999: 145; Smith, 1925: 124; Svjatskii, 1961: 120; Volpati, 1932: 194–205; 1933a: 507). Inside this zone, they are absent only across most of the territory of the former Yugoslavia and among the peoples of the Pyrenees

(other than the Basques). Outside of Europe, “a hen with its chickens” is typical of West Africa and Sudan (Hirschberg, 1930: 326–327; Meek, 1931: 200; Schwab, 1947: 413; Spieth, 1906: 557; Volpati, 1933a: 507), Northeast India, and of Southeast Asia (Andree, 1878; Smith, 1925: 114; Vathanaprida, 1994: 39–41). It is possible that in the past the same cosmonym was known in the Near East and North Africa (Volpati, 1933a: 195), though now the Arabic ‘Suraia’ (‘chandelier’) is the only word that is used for the Pleiades. The Touaregs call the Pleiades “chickens” (Rodd, 1926: 226). Because this cosmonym is absent in ancient sources and because it is related to the domestic hen, one can suggest its relatively late spread in Europe.

Cosmonyms that mean a “nest (or an egg, eggs) of wild duck,” “a ock of ducks” are typical of the Nenets (Khomich, 1974: 232), Komi-Zyryans (Svjiatskii, 1961: 120), Udmurts (Wichmann, 1987: 214, 273), as well as of the Ob Ugrians (Munkácsi, 1908: 255; 1996; Steinitz, 1966–1993: 1412, 1636). In Siberia and in Northeast Europe, a correlation of this cosmonym with Uralic languages is noticeable, although there are a number of exceptions. Among the Selkups, the Pleiades are “hare’s shelves” or “hare’s droppings” (Tuchkova, 2004: 212). The meaning of this name has been lost, no parallels in other traditions are known. Among the Nganasans, the Pleiades are “hunters who catch the souls of dead men and reindeer” (Popov, 1984: 48). The Enets name ‘Kondiku’ (Dolgikh, 1961: 24) either has no Samoyed etymology

1

23

Fig. 1. Major variants of folk-names for the Pleiades in Europe.1 – hen and chickens; 2 – brood or nest of (wild) duck; 3 – sieve.

102 Yu.E. Berezkin / Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37/4 (2009) 100–113

or was so distorted during the recording that it became unrecognizable*. Among the Khakas who speak a Turkic language, the Pleiades are also a “duck’s nest” or a “ ock of ducks” (Butanaev, 1975: 238). The “duck’s nest” among northern Russians (Potanin, 1883: 730; Rut, 1976: 15) is a clear legacy of the pre-Slavic substratum. Moving to the east of the Urals, the Russians brought the “duck’s nest” to Siberia. Citing U. Harva, some authors claimed the existence of such an image among the Yakuts and the Kamchadals (Lundmark, 1982: 105; Mladenova, 2006: 196), but these statements result from a misunderstanding: Harva mistook the Russian cosmonym “duck’s nest” for a translation of the name of the Pleiades from native languages (Harva, 1933: 135). M. Rut seems to have made a similar mistake discussing Enets materials (1987: 47).

A continuous and compact area of the “duck’s nest” that is basically located inside the territory of the former spread of Uralic languages but crosses the language borders of both the Samoyeds and the Finno-Ugrians allows us to suggest a connection of this cosmonym with some extinct people. If this people spoke a language of the Uralic family, no direct language descendents remained from them.

The designation of the Pleiades as a “sieve” is characteristic, as was mentioned, for the Eastern Baltic where it was recorded among ancient Prussians, Lithuanians, Letts, Livonians, Estonians, Finns (Allen, 1899: 397; Andree, 1878: 107; Kerbelite, 2001: 65; Kuperjanov, 2003: 183–185; Mándoki, 1963: 519; Nepokupnyi, 2004; Vaišk nas, 1999: 167; 2004: 169). There is no data on the Votians and Vepses (Votian ideas probably did not differ much from Estonian ones), while for the Saami the Pleiades are girls (Charnolusky, 1930: 48; Lundmark, 1982: 105). In the Middle Volga region, “sieve” as a name for the Pleiades has been recorded among the Chuvash (Mándoki, 1963: 520; Sirotkin, Ivanov, 1970: 128; Yuhma, 1980: 266; Zolotnitsky, 1874: 22), Mari (Aktsorin, 1991, No. 37: 83), Tatars (Potanin, 1883: 729; Vorobyev, Hisamutdinov, 1967: 316), Bashkirs (Maksyutova, 1973: 383), and Udmurts, probably the southern groups only (Nikonov, 1973: 376; Wichmann, 1987: 107). In the Volga region, only the Mordvinians name the Pleiades a “beehive” (Svyatsky, 1961: 121). Such an interpretation or variants which are similar to it (“an apiary,” “a nest of wasps”) is also known to the Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, and Hungarians (Mladenova, 2006: 115). Among the Russians, a “sieve” as a name for the Pleiades has been recorded in Vologda Province and among Russian migrants in areas beyond the western border of the Russian ethnic territory (Rut, 1987: 15; Svyatsky, 1961: 121).

The “sieve” is typical not only of the Eastern Baltic and Middle Volga areas but also for Dagestan where it is recorded among the Kumyks, Laks, Avars, Andi, Dargins, and Tavli (Gamzatov, Dalgat, 1991: 304–305; Potanin,

1883: 729–730). G. Potanin found a “sieve” as a name for the Pleiades among the Kazakhs of the Middle Zhuz and among Astrakhan Tatars (1881: 126; 1919: 84). A suggested Persian parallel (Nepokupnyi, 2004: 80) is not correct: the words ‘Parvin’ (“the Pleiades”, from the “ rst”) and ‘parvizan” (‘sieve’) are not from the same root*. Among the Chukchi and Koryak of the Asian northeast, W. Bogoras and W. Jochelson recorded cosmonyms ‘Ke’tmet’ and ‘Kä’tmäc’ (Bogoras, 1939: 29; Jochelson, 1908: 122) and translated them as a “small sieve,” though at least among the Chukchi the basic image of the Pleiades was a “group of women” (Bogoras, 1939: 24). A word similar to ‘Ketmet’ really means “sieve” (for washing salmon roe) though not in the Paleoasiatic but in the Yukaghir language**.

There are two basic, compact, and large areas for the Pleiades as a “sieve,” the Eastern Baltic and the Middle Volga. Historically, they have in common a Baltic substratum or Baltic in uence (Napolskikh, 1997: 158–161), and the Battle-Axe and Corded Ware cultures spread there in the earlier period (I do not here address the question as to whether there was a continuity between the bearers of these archaeological cultures and the proto-Balts). Later in the Volga region, this cosmonym was transmitted from the Finno-Ugrians to the Turkic peoples.

The “sieve” could have reached Dagestan and Kazakhstan from the Volga region in times of the Golden Horde (Napolskikh’s suggestion) though so late a diffusion does not fit well with a specific parallel between the Lithuanians and the Laks: the sky sieve was used by God to winnow cereal grains (Halidova, 1984: 160; Nepokupnyi, 2004: 77). Unfortunately, the Lithuanian mytheme is known only from A. Mitskevic’s poem Pan Tadeusz, which is not suf cient for drawing reliable conclusions. The position of Hungarian materials is also unclear. Though the Hungarian word ‘szita’ for the Pleiades is borrowed from Slavic (Mándoki, 1963: 519–520), the constellation in the sky is really viewed as something that has openings (Zsigmond, 2003: 434). The fact that the Hungarians are the only people in the Balkans who have this concept makes it doubtful that such an interpretation of the Pleiades was borrowed from the Slavic population of Pannonia. And if the Hungarians brought it from the East, what was the source? In Western Europe, the cosmonym “sieve” (“crivello”) is recorded only in the Alto Adige district of Northern Italy (Volpati, 1933a: 206; 1933b: 21). It deserves to be mentioned that “crivello” is both a “sieve” and “shovel for winnowing grain.”

To sum up, the origins of “sieve” as a designation of the Pleiades in Europe is far from obvious. It is not clear whether all versions had a single source. But if we look at the names of the star objects in the pan-Eurasian perspective, the given cosmonym can be interpreted as a particular case of a more

*Personal communication of I.P. Sorokina (2008).

*Personal communication of I.M. Steblin-Kamensky (2008).

**Personal communication of O.A. Mudrak (2008).


general and more widely known image, i.e. the conception of stars as openings.

S i b e r i a n p a r a l l e l s a r e important, which include not only the Paleoasiatic data mentioned above. The etymology of the name of the Pleiades in Turkic languages (Ulker, Yurker, Yurkar, etc.) is disputable. According to one of the hypotheses, it is a “vent,” “to pierce” (Nikonov, 1980b: 296). A. Dybo, the leading specialist in Altaian languages, does not consider this suggestion to be substantiated*. At the same time, it is supported for the Yakuts by a folklore text: the hero makes mittens of wolf skin to stop up holes in the sky from which an icy wind blows and these holes are the Pleiades (Holmberg, 1927: 418). Among the Orochi and the Uilta (the Oroki) of Sakhalin, the Pleiades in some cases also are “seven openings” (Podmaskin, 2006: 432) though the “seven women” are more usual for the Lower Amur region. No special narratives exist related to this name but the same word is used to denote the branchial openings of the lamprey**. Beyond Northern Eurasia, the conception of the Pleiades as stars surrounding an opening can be found among the Ojibwa (Speck, 1915: 48). Given that there are other Asiatic – North American parallels in mythology (Berezkin, 2006), a historic connection between this image and the Siberian ideas is not excluded.

If we consider not just the Pleiades but any stars regarded as openings in the sky, such a motif is known in Africa, particularly in Liberia, the mouth of the Congo and South Africa (Koekemoer, 2007: 75; Pechuël-Loesche, 1907: 135; Schwab, 1947: 413), in western Indonesia, particularly among the Mentawei, Klemantan and Kayan (Hose, MacDougall, 1912: 142, 214; Schefold, 1988: 71), and in Southern China among the Miao (Its, 1960: 107). Nevertheless, the conception of stars as openings is predominant only in Northern Eurasia, in the American Arctic, and possibly in Borneo (Fig. 2). As isolated cases it is recorded among the Estonians (Kuperjanov, 2003: 125), Mari (Aktsorin, 1991, No. 26: 59–60), Komi (Ariste, 2005, No. 136: 163), and seems to be a norm among the Nenets (Nenyang, 1997: 214, 224; Helimski, 1982: 399), Nganasans (Popov, 1984: 45; Simchenko, 1996: 191), Khanty (Lukina, 1990, No. 8: 67–69), Kets (Alekseyenko,

1976: 79; Dulzon, 1966: 15–17; 1972: 83–86), Yakuts (Ergis, 1967: 134; Gurvich, 1977: 199), Evenki (Vasilevich, 1959: 161–162; Voskoboinikov, 1960: 296), Lamut (Burykin, 2001: 114), and Negidals*. Indirect or vague information of a similar nature exists for the Chukchi and Kamchadal (Ergis, 1974: 134; Jochelson, 1961: 71–74). In North America, the concept of stars as openings is typical of the Arctic where it is registered among the Central Yupiq, including Nunivak Island, Inupiat, the Mackenzie Delta, Caribou, Netsilik and Iglulik Eskimo (Lantis, 1946: 197; MacDonald, 1998: 33; Nelson, 1899: 495; Ostermann, 1942: 56, 58; 1952: 128; Rasmussen, 1930: 79). This fact should be considered in relation to a hypothesis of a relatively recent Siberian origin of the Eskimo, different from the origins of other American natives. The image of a particular star (usually Polaris) as an opening through which one can penetrate into the Upper World is known to many American Indians, but the general concept of stars as holes in the rmament is only rarely recorded in North and South America among groups isolated from each other such as the Thompson River Salish, Totonac, Tucuna, and Tupari (Boas, 1895, No. 4: 17–18; Caspar, 1975: 188; Ichon, 1969: 36; Nimuendaju, 1952: 123–124). An absolute majority of American natives as well as the peoples of Africa, Australia, Oceania, and the Indo-Paci c borderlands of Asia interpreted stars taken as a particular class of objects in only one way, i.e. as persons, spirits, or living creatures of some kind.

*Personal communication of A.V. Dybo (2008). **Personal communication of A.M. Pevnov (2008).

1

2

Fig. 2. Areal distribution of the interpretation of stars as openings in the rmament. 1 – continuous distribution is probable; 2 – particular areas where data has been received.

*Personal communication of A.M. Pevnov (2008).


The Milky Way as the “path of birds”

The second cosmonym whose western limit coincides approximately with the border between the Lithuanians and Poles is the designation of the Milky Way as the “path of birds” (Fig. 3) or, more precisely, of migratory birds like geese, ducks, swans or cranes. Researchers sometimes see in the “path of birds” a variant of a more general interpretation of the Milky Way as the “route of dead souls” (Kuperjanov, 2001). The two ideas are quite similar in meaning (Azimov, Tolstoy, 1995: 118), but the cosmonym “path of birds” is still speci c enough and sometimes coexists with the “route of dead souls” as a distinct image (Aichenwald, Petrukhin, Helimski, 1982: 164). The area of its spread covers only part of the territory where seasonal migrations of birds is a particular theme in folklore traditions.

“The path of birds” (“path of cranes,” “birds’ path,” “trace of the route of birds,” etc.) is known mainly to peoples from three language families, i.e. the Balts, Finno-Ugrians (but not Samoyeds), and Turks. These include the Letts and Lithuanians (G adyszowa, 1960: 77–78; Kerbelite, 2001: 57; Vaišk nas, 1999: 173), Livonians (Toivonen, 1937: 123), Estonians (Kuperjanov, 2003: 150–151; Pustylnik, 2002: 268), Finns (Erdödi, 1968: 110–111), Saami (Erdödi, 1968: 111; Toivonen 1937: 123), Mari (Aktsorin, 1991: 55–56; Erdödi, 1968: 110; Vasiliev, 1907: 12), Mordvin (Devyatkina, 1998: 118), Chuvash (Ashmarin, 1984: 26; Rodionov, 1982: 168; Zolotnitsky, 1874: 22), Volga Tatars (Vorobyev, Hisamutdinov, 1967: 316), Bashkirs (Barag, 1987: 33; Rudenko, 1955: 315), Udmurts (Erdödi, 1968: 110; Moshkov, 1900: 197; Potanin,

1883: 740; Vereschagin, 1995: 81), Komi (Erdödi, 1968: 110; Napolskikh, 1992: 6; Potanin, 1883: 943), Kazakhs (Karutc, 1911: 35; Potanin, 1881: 126–127; Sidelnikov, 1962: 268), Kirgiz (Abramzon, 1946: 65; Fielstrup, 2002: 217, 227; Potanin, 1881: 127), and Karakalpak (Nikonov, 1980a: 248). The Turkmen preserved a cosmonym of a “path of birds” up to the middle of the 19th century (Nikonov, 1980a: 248; 1980b: 293). It was known also to the Khanty and Mansi (Erdödi, 1968: 109–110; Munkácsi, 1908: 254; Napolskikh, 1992: 8), and up to the 16th century to the Hungarians (Nikonov, 1980: 248) who seem to have brought it from their eastern homeland. Another name for the Milky Way which is widespread among the Ob Ugrians is “ski trail,” connected to the myth about the hunt of the sky elk (Erdödi, 1968: 116). It is either the only or the most dominant name among Samoyeds and the peoples of Eastern Siberia, Lower Amur, and Alaska. Among the Ob Ugrians, both names are found, but they are connected with different cycles of mythological ideas.

The Russians called the Milky Way, a “path of geese” in Vologda, Vyatka, Perm, Tula, Smolensk, and Kaluga Provinces and in Siberia (Gura, 1997: 671; Rut, 1987: 13), as did the Belorussians in Polesie near Pinsk (Gura, 1997: 658), and the Ukrainians in Volyn near Lutsk (Chubinsky, 1872: 15; Moshkov, 1900: 205). Across approximately the same areas of Polesie and Volyn, the designation of the Pleiades as a “sieve” has been recorded. At the same time, the areal correlation of “sieve” and “path of birds” is not complete; the spread of the latter cosmonym is wider. Important is the addition not so much of the Saami but especially of the Turks beyond the Volga region, i.e. the

Kazakhs, Kirgiz, Karakalpak, and Turkmen. However not all of the Turkic people share this concept. The absence of the “path of birds” across the Sayan-Altai region as well as among the Uzbeks (and most probably the Uigurs) makes it doubtful that this cosmonym had a proto-Turkic origin. In Southern Russia, across most of the Ukraine and among Southern Slavs, this cosmonym is absent.

The “path of birds” is known to the Evenki of the Middle Amur area (Vasilevich, 1969: 210) and in America to the Algonquians who live to the north of the Great Lakes, in particular to the Ojibwa, including two groups near Huron Lake (Miller, 1997: 60; Speck, 1915: 79) and the Saulteax (Hallowell, 1934: 394). It is not clear if the materials of the Tutchone Athabascans who

Fig. 3. Areal distribution of the interpretation of the Milky Way as the path of migratory birds.


live in Canada near the border with southern Alaska are related to the same concept. Among the Southern Tutchone, the Milky Way marks the path of the loon – the personage of a myth about a hunter who became blind and then received his sight again (McClelland, 1975: 78).

Taking into consideration the areal distribution of the “path of birds,” there are no reasons to connect the origin of this cosmonym with the Balts or Turks. To the Finno-Ugrians the “path of birds” most probably was known from ancient times. However, the lack of this motif among the Samoyeds makes a proto-Uralic attribution dif cult. At the same time, if this motif did not emerge independently among the Evenki and Algonquians, it had to appear in Eurasia long before the split between the two major branches of Uralic languages.

The water-carrier in the Moon

The third cosmonym whose western limits in Europe coincide approximately with the border between the Balts and the Slavs is the “girl with pails in the Moon” (Fig. 4). Two tales related to it are widely known. According to one, the Moon takes pity on an orphan girl, a poor stepdaughter, or the like, who was sent to fetch water and takes her up to him. According to the other, the Moon does this as a punishment for a girl or young woman who was arrogant and boastful. Since then the gure of a girl with pails can be seen in the Moon. Among Balts and Baltic Finns, in particular the Lithuanians (Kerbelite, 2001: 70; Laurinkene, 2002: 365; Vaišk nas, 2006: 158), Letts (Pogodin, 1895: 440), Estonians (Kuperjanov, 2003: 72; Peebo, Peegel, 1989: 282; Sullõv et al., 1995: 94), and Votians (Ariste, 1974: 5; 1977: 175; Ernits, Ernits, 1978: 579) both variants are recorded together with other, more rare, explanations. For example, among the Karelians, the girl holds in her hands a milk-pail (Evseev, 1981: 313). No details of the Vepsian “legends” are provided by the source (Egorov, 2003: 129). Among the Saami, the Sun takes the girl to give her in marriage to his son and throws her into the Moon where she is now seen with her yoke and pails (Charnolusky, 1962: 68–79). In the Volga-Permian region, the “water-carrier in the Moon” is present among the Komi-Zyrians (Ariste, 2005,

No. 109: 105; Limerov, 2005, No. 58: 55–56), Komi-Permiaks (Konakov et. al., 2003: 312), Udmurts (Potanin, 1883: 776; Vereschagin, 1995: 85–86; Vladykin, 1994: 322), Chuvash (Ashmarin, 1984: 25; Denisov, 1959: 15–16; Egorov, 1995: 120; Vardugin, 1996: 260), Mari (Aktsorin, 1991, No. 37–42: 83–87; Moshkov, 1900: 197), Bashkirs (Nadrshina, 1985, No. 6, 7: 12, 13; Rudenko, 1955: 315), and Volga Tatars (Vorobyev, Hisamutdinov, 1967: 314–315). In this area, the version with an orphan girl is widely known, while the version with the woman who made fun of the Moon is absent. The Bashkirs and Tatars have a story of the Moon who carried away the girl because he fell in love with her. As with the “sieve,” the Mordvinians represent an exception; a search for the motif of the “water-carrier in the Moon” in their folklore was unsuccessful. Among the Russians, the motif of the “water-carrier as a poor orphan-girl” seems to be recorded only in Vyatka Province (Belova, 2004, No. 1305: 521), while the motif of a young boy and girl who went after water and were looking at the Moon too intently was recorded in Arkhangelsk Province (Gura, 2006: 462). This data concerning the northern Russians is hardly exhaustive because this part of regional cosmonymy has never been in the focus of research. The Ukrainian “water-carrier in the Moon” was recorded only once, in the Volyn region (Gura, 2006: 262), i.e. in the same area where the “path of birds” was also present.

Just as the “path of birds,” the “water-carrier in the Moon” in its “poor stepdaughter” version is present among the Kirgiz (Brudny, Eshmambetov, 1968: 11–13) and the

1

2

Fig. 4. Areal distribution of the interpretation of spots on the Moon as of a person who went to fetch water, holds a water pail in her or his hands.

1 – girl or young woman; 2 – two children, small boy, lad, or man.


Kazakhs. The Kazakh materials were recently obtained in Ak Tüba Province*. Previously, the Kazakh ideas about the spots in the Moon were not investigated, so the lack of data on eastern groups of Kazakhs as well on Karakalpak is not signi cant. From the Kirgiz the motif of a poor stepdaughter who was sent to fetch water and was taken up into the Moon may have spread to the Pamir region, where it is known at least to the Vakhan**. “The water-carrier in the Moon” (in its two variants, the “poor stepdaughter” and the “woman of indecent behavior”) is recorded among the Siberian Tatars (Valeev, 1976: 329; Urazaleev, 2007: 4). The motif is not known either among the Northern Samoyeds or among the Northern Selkup. Among the Southern Selkup, it is a small girl who went to fetch water, or a young girl who teased the Moon (Golovnev, 1995: 330–331; Pelikh, 1972: 322–323). Among the Khanty, it is a small girl (alone or together with a boy) who teased the Moon (Kulemzin, Lukina, 1978, No. 4, 5: 15, 16) and among the Mansi it is a girl with pails; explanations for this image seem to be lost***. Among the Kets, the Moon was teased by a young girl or woman (Alekseyenko, 1976: 84). Among the Khakas, the story about a poor stepdaughter was widespread; the same is among the Kirgiz, Kazakhs, and Siberian Tatars (Butanaev, 1975: 232). For the Altai region, the motif is not typical. In only one of many narratives that describe how the ogre Tilbegen (Jelbegen, etc.) got to the Moon, the Moon took him when he went to fetch water and had a yoke and pails in his hands (Anokhin, 1997: 5–6). Data on the Shor and Tuvans are absent, and among the Tofa, the person who ended up in the Moon is an orphan boy sent to fetch water (Rassadin, 1996, No. 3: 10). In a tale of the Darkhats who live in Mongolia near Lake Khubsugul, two boys went for water and ended up in the Moon****. Three texts with such a plot were recorded, one of them from an informant whose parents were Halha Mongolians but lived among the Darhats of Hubsugul Aimak. The motif is unknown in other areas of Mongolia, and it seems that it is connected only with Siberia, not with Central Asia. The Hubsugul Darhats relatively recently shifted to use of the Mongolian language, and their culture is similar to that of Todzha Tuvans

(Zhukovskaya, 1980: 151). In the early 20th century, the Darhat shamans still used the Tuvan language to address spirits (Sanzheev, 1930: 7).

Different groups of Buryats also seem to inherit the “water-carrier in the Moon” from a pre-Mongolian substratum. Among them this tale was recorded many times in a form which was near to the “poor stepdaughter”: a girl’s stepmother or her own mother who married another man sends her to fetch water and expresses a wish that the Moon would take her (Galdanova, 1987: 17; Hangalov, 1958: 319; 1960: 14; Potanin, 1883: 190–193; Sharakshinova, 1980: 49–50). Among several groups of Yakuts (Alekseyev, Emelyanov, Petrov 1995: 197–199; Gurvich, 1948: 130; 1977: 199; Hudyakov, 1969: 279, 372–373; Ovchinnikov 1897, No. 5, 6: 179–181; Popov, 1949: 260–261; Seroshevsky, 1896: 667; Tolokonsky, 1914: 89), Evenki (Potanin, 1893: 385; Rychkov, 1922: 83–84; Vasilevich, 1936: 73–74; 1959: 165; Voskoboinikov, 1967: 159), and Lamut (Novikova, 1987: 43–44), the “water-carrier in the Moon” is known mainly in its “poor stepdaughter” variant though in rare cases the motif of two children who looked at the Moon and were drawn to it is also recorded (Hudyakov, 1969: 279). The “water-carrier in the Moon,” in a variant identical to the “poor stepdaughter” of the Evenki, is present among the Negidal (Hasanova, Pevnov, 2003: 55–56; Lopatin 1922: 330) and Nanai (Arsenev, 1995: 152; Chadaeva, 1990: 34, 35; Lopatin, 1922: 330), but not among peoples of Primorye and Sakhalin. This is an argument in favor of a connection of this motif in this region with the Tungus and not with a pre-Tungus substratum. To the Udige and the Nivh the very image of a girl or a woman seen in the Moon and holding a pail or a scoop was, however, known (Ishida, 1998: 24; Kreinovich, 1973: 32, 33; Podmaskin, 1991, No. 17: 125). The Ainu of Sakhalin and Hokkaido see in the Moon a girl who went to fetch water and was taken by the Moon to become his wife (Pilsudski, 1912, No. 3: 73-74; 1991, No. 3: 70–72) or who was envious and insulted the Moon, accusing her of being idle (Ishida, 1998: 24–25), or else the Ainu see in the lunar disc a boy who insulted the Moon in the same way (Batchelor, 1927: 260). The motif of a woman seen in the Moon with pails in her hands (no other details) is known in southern Japan*, while myths recorded on the Ryukyu Islands (Miyako and Okinawa) explain how a man with a water-pail ended up in the Moon (Nevsky, 1996: 267–269). In Northeast Asia, the “poor orphan” variant of the “water-carrier in the Moon” is recorded among the Yukaghirs (Nikolaeva, Zhukova, Demina, 1989, No. 2: 21–23) and among Russian-speaking dwellers of the village of Markovo who have Yukaghirs (the Chuvan) among their ancestors**. The “water-carrier” is absent among

*Personal communication of I.V. Stasevich (2006). **Personal communication of B. Lashkarbekov (2006). ***Personal communication of O.S. Ivanova (2009).****Arkhipova A.S, Dorj D., Kozmin A.V., Neklyu-

dov S.Yu. (head), Sanjahand I., Solovyeva A.A. Materials of the Russian-Mongolian Folklore Expedition of the Center of Typology and Semiotics of Folklore of the Russian University for the Humanities and Institute of Language and Literature of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences in Hubsugul and Bulgan Aimaks, August 2007 (within the framework of the project “Mongolian Mythological Traditions: Areal and Comparative-Typological Aspects”; Project 07-01-92070e/G sponsored by the Russian Foundation for the Humanities and the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science of the Mongolian People’s Republic.).

*Personal communication of K. Inoui (2005).**Hakkarainen M.V. Interview with Yury Dyachkov.

Markovo. 02.06.1999.


Paleoasiatic peoples, though the Chukchi (Bogoras, 1928, No. 2: 301–302; 1939: 22–23), Koryak (Beretti, 1929: 36), and Kamchadal (Porotov, Kosygin, 1969: 33) have a less speci c motif of a girl who ended up in the Moon.

A special detail is typical of many Siberian texts (the Khakas, Tofa, Buryat, Ket, Selkup, Khanty, Yakut, southeastern Evenki). When the water-carrier was taken up to the Moon, he or she tried to hold a bush and now is seen on the lunar disc holding both the pails and the bush. The same detail is present among the Vakhan of Pamir and the Koryak. In the Koryak story (Beretti, 1929: 36), there is no mention of pails, but the entire episode with a girl whom her evil stepmother drove to a river to fetch water is similar to the Yakut and Evenki variants. In Southern Siberia, among the Teleuts, Altaians, and Khakas, this motif is not linked to the water-carrier motif, and it was an ogre who attempted to hold a bush to prevent being pulled up to the Moon.

We can summarize that the motif of a girl or young woman who went to fetch water and ended up in the Moon is widespread across Eurasia from the Eastern Baltic to the Sea of Okhotsk. In the variants registered beyond this area but territorially adjacent to it, either the motif of water to be fetched by a person is lost, or else the actors are a boy, a man, or two children instead of a girl. Nowhere in this periphery, with the exception of the Koryaks, does the Moon take the water-carrier up to the sky because he feels sorry for her. In addition to the Mongolian, Japanese, and Paleoasiatic materials, the Scandinavian and Western European variants should be mentioned among these peripheral traditions. Thus in Ireland, people saw in the Moon two boys who carried a stick with a pail of water on it (Krappe, 1938: 120), while in Northern Germany it was a man with a pitcher in his hands, a child with a pail, a thief who carried two stolen pails with water, or two men who hold yokes with water-tubs (Ishida, 1998: 20–21; Krappe, 1940: 168; Wolf, 1929: 55–56). Also in Scandinavia (The Younger Edda), it was two children with a yoke and a pail (Mladshaya Edda, 1970: 20) or two old men who tried to drown the Moon with water (Krappe, 1938: 120).

In the New World, the “water-carrier in the Moon” is present in the folklore of most of the Indians of the North American Northwest Coast and of the Frazer River valley of the neighboring Plateau area. Some texts are similar to the “woman insults the Moon” version that is typical of Eurasia.

Tlingit. One of two girls says that the Moon is like her grandmother’s labret. Immediately both girls are in the Moon. The one who insulted the Moon falls to the earth and is shattered, while her friend is now seen on the lunar disc with a pail in her hand (Swanton, 1908b: 453).

Haida. A woman goes to fetch water and points at the Moon. It seems to her that somebody is sitting in the well and she points at this gure. At night she gets thirsty, returns to the well, somebody grasps her hand and pulls her up. She tries to hold onto a bush of berries and now is

visible in the Moon carrying the bush and a pail (Swanton, 1908a: 450–452).

Tsimshian (Ness River). A woman points at the Moon and at its re ection in the water. The Moon takes her to the sky while she is carrying a berry-bush. Now she is seen in the Moon with the bush and the water-pail in her hands (Boas, 1916: 864).

Bella Coola. A woman with a pail of water in her hands is seen in the Moon (McIlwraith, 1948: 225).

Oowekeeno. A little boy is crying, his sister puts him outdoors, and gives him a toy pail to play with. He keeps crying; she warns him that the Moon will take him away. The Moon descends and takes him; now he is seen in the Moon with a little pail in his hand (Boas, 1895: 217; 2002: 457).

Kwakiutl. The Moon descends to earth, and asks for some water. A girl goes out with a pail, and he abducts her. When he descends again to abduct another girl, the mother of the rst one warns her of the danger. Nevertheless she comes out with a pail of water and is now seen in the Moon holding the pail in her hands (Boas, 1895: 191; 2002: 409).

Shuswap. In the wintertime the Moon travels constantly. His wife asks where they are going to camp. The Moon suggests that she camps on his face. She jumps on it and is still seen there with her buckets and shovel, with which they melt snow (Teit, 1909: 653).

Thompson. The Moon sends his sister to fetch water. Coming back she nds no place to sit and he suggests that she sit on his face. Now a woman with pails in her hands is seen in the Moon (Teit, 1898: 91–92).

Quinault. The Moon was as bright as the Sun. Many girls desired him but he chose a Frog. Now she is seen on the lunar disc holding a box with her property and a pail in her hands (Thompson, Egesdal, 2008: 207–209).

In the latter three texts, the motif of water-carrier typical of the Northwest Coast is combined with the motif, typical of the Salish, of a person, usually a Frog-woman, clinging to the face of the Moon and seen now as spots on the lunar disc.

Beyond the Northwest Coast, the water-carrier is recorded among the Algonquians to the north of the Great Lakes. In a myth of Sandy Lake Cree, a woman, sending her son to fetch water, warns him not to look at the Moon. The lad disappears and is now seen in the Moon holding a ladle and a pail (Ray, Stevens, 1971: 81). In an Ojibwa myth, a woman cooks maple syrup and pours it from one pail into another. The Moon sees that the woman urinates on the same place. The Moon is offended and takes her to the sky. When the Sun, who was the Moon’s husband, learned of this, he punished his wife, making her carry the woman eternally. Now the woman with a pail is seen in the Moon (Jones, 1919: 637).

The “water-carrier in the Moon” is known to the Maori of New Zealand. As soon as Hina scooped water with her gourd vessel, clouds hid the Moon, Hina stumbled


and the water poured out. Hina scolded the Moon, the Moon seized her and Hina clutched at a bush. Now she is seen in the Moon with a bush and a gourd vessel in hand (Ishida, 1998: 26). In another variant, it was a man, Rona by name, who ended up in the Moon (Reed, 1999, No. 16: 190–192). In yet another version, Rona is the name of a woman (Dixon, 1916: 87–88). It seems that the variant was predominant which had a female person end up in the Moon. Some incomplete parallels for this myth are found on other Polynesian islands, and water containers are seen in the Moon together with a woman (Beckwith, 1970: 220–221; Dixon, 1916: 88; Williamson, 1933: 100). Though New Zealand is extremely remote from Siberia, the ultimate sources of the Maori myth should be looked for at a probable Austronesian homeland in East Asia because nothing of the kind is present in Melanesia and Indonesia. The motif of a bush grasped by a woman who came to the river and was pulled up to the Moon rmly links the Maori variant to those found among the

Haida and Tsimshian and among many Siberian peoples. To attribute the spread of tales with such speci c details to the in uence of the Europeans or to think that they emerged independently would be unrealistic.

Conclusions

Distributions of the three cosmonyms described above largely coincide. Here are major tendencies. All three motifs are typical of the Eastern Baltic and Middle Volga regions. In two cases out of three (“the Pleiades as a sieve” and “the water-carrier in the Moon”) the southernmost of the Middle Volga groups, i.e. the Mordvin, is the only one in this region for which no data on these images are found. All these motifs are typical of some or of many of the northern Russian provinces and not typical of southern Russia or of the Ukraine except for a small enclave at Volyn. It is clear that these motifs came to the Eastern Slavs from a substratum population. Northern Samoyeds (Nenets, Enets, and Nganasans) are not familiar with these three motifs, while the Selkups, more precisely only the southern Selkups, have just one of them, the “water-carrier in the Moon.” The “path of birds” is known to all Finno-Ugrians and “the water-carrier in the Moon” is known to most of them other than the Mordvin and the Hungarians. The “path of birds” and “the water-carrier in the Moon” are present among the Kazakhs and the Kirgiz, while the Altai-Sayan Turks lack them. Among the Kazakhs of the Middle Zhuz, a “sieve” is recorded as a name for the Pleiades. To the east of the Yenisei River, only the motif of the water-carrier in the Moon is widespread, and among the Yakuts, Evenki, and Buryats it was recorded many times. However, considering a “sieve’’ as a particular variant, applied to the Pleiades, of the motif of “stars as openings in the rmament,” the “sieve” still

connects Eastern Europe with Siberia. In addition, “the path of birds” was also known to the Amur Evenki. The Algonquians to the north of the Great Lakes have “the path of birds” and “the water-carrier in the Moon,” and also a possible parallel for the image of the Pleiades as an opening in the sky. “The water-carrier in the Moon” is also typical of different Indians of the Northwest Coast and of the Salish in the southern Northwest Coast and northern Plateau areas. Taking into consideration the complete absence of such motifs among American Indians who lived further to the south than the Salish and the Ojibwa, a Siberian source of these images is plausible. If so, we have to push the dating of their spread in Eurasia back to the Early Holocene at the latest.

When the ice caps melted, people of the northern territories of Eastern Europe came mainly from the south. Archaeologists trace the rst post-glacial cultures of the Eastern Baltic back to the Final Paleolithic Swiderian culture and this conclusion corresponds well to data from craneology and population genetics (Niskanen, 2002: 144–147). The spread of some mythological motifs also ts such a scenario (Napolskikh, 1990). However, the areal patterns of the motifs reviewed above make us suggest that some migration from the East also took place. Even if the Evenki and Algonquian data concerning “the path of birds” are ignored and the motif of stars as sky-openings is not considered speci c enough, the pattern of the spread of the “water-carrier in the Moon” makes the hypothesis of trans-Eurasian migration plausible. Remembering the detailed American and Polynesian parallels for the Eastern and Southern Siberian variants, the Northern Eurasian East, rather than the West should be suggested as the earliest zone of the spread of this motif. The Bulgarian-Macedonian enclave of the “water-carrier” clearly cannot be a source for Siberian, not to speak of Amerindian or Polyneisan myths, and Bulgarian materials rather demonstrate the existence of some late Baltic-Balkan links*.

During the Final Pleistocene – Early Holocene, more detailed ideas about the objects of the night sky probably had been forming in Northern and Central Eurasia. From Eurasia the corresponding ideas were brought to North America. In the Indo-Pacific borderlands of Asia, in Australia, South and Central America, the cosmonymy developed independently and does not demonstrate parallels with the North Eurasian – North American

*To determine the origins of the “water-carrier in the Moon” in the Balkans it would be desirable to compare the Bulgarian-Macedonian materials with Serbian ones. Unfortunately, Serbian interpretations of the spots in the Moon are of late origin and include only variants typical of most of Christian Europe (Jankovich, 1951: 108–109). A version which is speci c to Bulgarian variants (a boy and a girl come to a well and end up in the Moon) is found elsewhere only among northern Russians (Gura, 2006: 462).


set of images and plots, while in sub-Saharan Africa its development was minimal. Because new images in Siberia and Eastern Europe did not displace earlier ones but were added to them, small groups of migrants from the East probably were enough for spreading the new cosmonymy across most of Eurasia. If such migrants were forest hunters and shermen, the natural limit of their western spread had to be the Baltic Sea. I think that this is the ultimate reason for differences between sets of cosmonyms in the Eastern Baltic area and in Central Europe. It is possible that the set of three interpretations of the celestial objects discussed above which have trans-Eurasian spread and which most probably penetrated Europe from the East, included still another celestial image, i.e. the interpretation of the Big Dipper as a group of hunters who pursued game (Berezkin, 2005). In the Baltic area, however, this image was replaced with the image of the Great Dipper as a cart.

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