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The Adventures of Massang

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The Adventures of Massang is a Kalmyk folktale about a strong hero born of a cow, who finds three companions and has further adventures. The tale was published in the Siddi-Kur, a compilation of Kalmyk and Mongolian stories.

Summary

Slaying the Shimmu

In the tale How the Schimnu-Khan was Slain, of Tibetan or Mongolian provenance, in the first part, shows the birth of a youth named Massang "of the bull's head". A poor man's only cow gives birth to a half-man, half-cow hybrid and its owner is horrified by the creature. The cow-man, receiving clemency, flees from the old man and into the world. The youth meets a "black-coloured man (...) born of the dark woods", a "green-coloured man (...) born of the green meadows" and a "white-coloured man (...) born of the crystal rock" and the quartet soon move to a dweliing overlooking a hill. They take turns cooking the food while the others gather game nearby. One day, a small old woman appears and beats the three companions to steal their food ("milk and meat", as the story says). On the fourth day, Massang sees the little old woman and matches strength with the creature. After three tests, the little woman escapes and leaves behind a blood trail for the four heroes to follow. They soon come to an opening in the rock; down below, the witch's corpse strewn about near heaps and heaps of treasure. Massang descends to take the treasure to his companions but they betray him and leave him for dead in the pit. Massang sleeps on the witch's corpse - for years - and when he awakes, three cherry trees have sprouted, which he uses to climb to the surface. He visits his treacherous companions and discovers they have made a life for themselves with the witch's treasure, but they beg Massang to spare them.[1]

Origin of a constellation

In the second part of the tale, Massang decides to spare his former companions and carries on with his life. He finds a beautiful maiden carrying water in a jug and follows her. Massang arrives at the court of Churmusta Tengri, who bids welcome to the hero and tells him his arrival is most propitious. Churmusta Tengri explains that there will be a war between a white host of Tengri forces and the black host of the Schummu. Massang helps the white hosts by defeating the black host leader. At the end of the tale, a Schummu strikes a hammer agsint the ground and sparks fly out, originating seven stars of a constellation (Ursa Major or the Pleiades).[2] In this version of the tale, translated by British folklorist Rachel Harriette Busk, the narrator, in the framing device of the book, comments that he never returned to his master to bring him riches.

Versions

Charles Fillingham Coxwell translated the tale as Massang's Adventure. In his translation, Massang's companions are a "dark complexioned man (...) descended from the forest", a man of green colour "born of the turf" and a white man originated from crystal.[3]

The tale was also translated by Charles John Tibbits as The Adventures of Massang, wherein Massang is described as horned; the dark man is called Iddar, Son of the Forest, and the other two Son of the Grass and Son of the Sedges. In his translation, the Schummu smites Massang and from this action seven stars spring out.[4]

In a Russian language translation of the tale, titled "Массанг" ("Massang"), published in 1978, the hero's companions are given the following names: Idder (Иддер) of the dark woods; Geger (Гегер) of the green fields/meadows; and Adder (Аддер) of the white mountains. This tale also contains the origins of the constellation, but ends on a happy note.[5]

Massang also appears in a Tibetan and in a Kalmyk tale. In the latter, he is born from a human couple in the country of India, but still shows the bull/ox features, like horns and a tail.[6]

In a version of the tale translated by author Eleanore Myers Jewett with the title The Promise of Massang, sourced as Tibetan, removed the animal birth of the hero, thus making him a normal boy instead. The tale lacks the second part about the origin of the constellation, and ends with Massang bringing the cow's owner the riches he promised.[7]

Analysis

Parallels

Folklorist William Ralston Shedden-Ralston called Massang the "Calmuck Minotaur", in reference to the hybrid bull-man creature of Greek myth.[8] Charles Fillingham Coxwell also related Massang to the Greek Minotaur.[9]

Coxwell saw a parallel between Massang and Lorraine (French) hero "John of the Bear" (Jean de l'Ours), another strong hero with animal parentage.[10][11]

Tale type

W. R. S. Ralston related the story to a international narrative wherein a hero, joined by two companions (his brother or not), follow a creature to its underground lair; the hero is lowered by a rope and finds down there either kidnapped princesses or some treasure. Either way, the hero is abandoned by the other two in the underground to perish, but eventually escapes and punishes his traitorous companions.[12] These tales were later classified in the international index Aarne-Thompson-Uther as tale type ATU 301, The Three Stolen Princesses (or The Three Underground Kingdoms, in Russian academia).[13]

Other motifs

The second part of the tale of "ox-man" Massang (or Masn Mirü) involves his fight against a powerful enemy king and the origin of a constellation. However, scholarship suggests that this second part is an addition to the original tale.[14] Scholarship points out that the tale of Massang serves as an etiological tale to the origin of a seven-star constellation known as "Долон Эбуген" ("Seven Elders") or "Долан Бурхн" ("Seven Deities").[15]

The little old woman who attacks the heroes is described as a Schimnu or Schumnu, which the translator considered to be a version of Mara, a demonic being in Buddhism.[16]

See also

References

  1. ^ Busk, Rachel Harriette. Sagas from the Far East or, Kalmouk and Mongolian Traditionary Tales. London: Griffith and Farran. 1873. pp. 36-45.
  2. ^ Coxwell, C. F. Siberian And Other Folk Tales. London: The C. W. Daniel Company, 1925. p. 429.
  3. ^ Coxwell, C. F. Siberian And Other Folk Tales. London: The C. W. Daniel Company, 1925. pp. 188-193.
  4. ^ Tibbitts, Charles John. Folk-Tales and Legends: Oriental. London: W. W. Gibbings. 1889. pp. 68-77.
  5. ^ Калмыцкие Сказки [Kalmyk Tales]. Elista: Kalmytskoe Knizhnoe Izdatelstvopp. 1978. pp. 131-137.
  6. ^ Bakaeva, E. P. "Veneration of Ursa Major among the Oirats and Kalmyks: Ancient Beliefs and Later Buddhist Additions. Part 1". In: Oriental Studies. 2020; 13(2). pp. 374–375 (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.22162/2619-0990-2020-48-2-368-384
  7. ^ Jewett, Eleanore Myers. Wonder Tales from Tibet. Boston: By Little, Brown, and Company. 1922. pp. 50-74.
  8. ^ Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. Russian Folk-Tales. London: Smith, Elder, & co.. 1873. p. 95 (footnote nr. 95).
  9. ^ Coxwell, C. F. Siberian And Other Folk Tales. London: The C. W. Daniel Company, 1925. p. 238.
  10. ^ Coxwell, C. F. Siberian And Other Folk Tales. London: The C. W. Daniel Company, 1925. p. 243.
  11. ^ Coxwell, C. F. Siberian And Other Folk Tales. London: The C. W. Daniel Company, 1925. pp. 428-429.
  12. ^ Ralston, W. R. S. “Notes on Folk-Tales”. In: The Folk-Lore Record 1 (1878): 85-87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1252340.
  13. ^ Горяева Б.Б. "Калмыцкая волшебная сказка: сюжетный состав и поэтикостилевая система". Элиста: ЗАОр «НПП «Джангар», 2011. pp. 32, 47. ISBN 978-5-94587-476-3.
  14. ^ Bakaeva, E. P. "Veneration of Ursa Major among the Oirats and Kalmyks: Ancient Beliefs and Later Buddhist Additions. Part 1". In: Oriental Studies. 2020; 13(2). pp. 373–374 (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.22162/2619-0990-2020-48-2-368-384
  15. ^ Т. Г. БОРДЖАНОВА. "ОБРЯДОВАЯ ПОЭЗИЯ КАЛМЫКОВ (система жанров, поэтика)". Элиста: Калмыцкое книжное издательство, 2007. pp. 86-87. ISBN 978-5-7539-0569-7.
  16. ^ Busk, Rachel Harriette. Sagas from the Far East or, Kalmouk and Mongolian Traditionary Tales. London: Griffith and Farran, 1873. p. 356 (footnote nr. 2).

Category:Asian fairy tales Category:Mythological human hybrids Category:Asian folklore

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