Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/29

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FOLK-LORE IN MONGOLIA.
21

Manguis. — (Tabiun Sakhal, a Mongol Uryankhait, in the Altai mountain, who assumed to belong to the race (bone)[1] of Tsagan tuk.)

The father of the Bersēt race was a wolf, living in a wood by a lake, with whom lived Moralukha (the reindeer). From them was born a son, the progenitor of the Bersēts. — (Aiusha, a Khalka man of the Bersēt tribe, a race of Adjē Bogdo mountains, Eastern Altai.)

The Mongol race descends from the maid Udul (Kukiun Udul). — (A Shama in the Eastern Altai mountains.)

In ancient times there was a great shama (Buddhist priest). He took a handful of earth, spit upon it, and threw it away — out came the Chinese nation. He gathered grass, spit upon it, and threw it away — out came the Russian nation. He took four stones, spit upon them, and threw them away — out came the four Mongol encampments. Others say the Chinese were made of earth, and the Mongols of moat ; because the Chinese bury their dead in the ground, while the Mongols expose them to be devoured by dogs and birds. — (Chērēn Dorckē, a Khalka man of Zain Shabēn, from the Tamēr River.)

In ancient times two khans warred among themselves, and destroyed the whole nation ; only one woman was left alive. She met a bull in a field, and begat of him two daughters, from whom the Mongol nation multiplied. — (The same as above.)

The daughter of the khan of the Kotons, taking with her forty of her maids, went into a field to gather Djemuis (a wild edible vegetable product). Wishing to drink, they went to the water. In the middle of the water there was a drop of blood. The khan's daughter alone saw it and drank it up. From this she became pregnant ; fearing to return home she remained on the steppe. The khan asked the forty maidens — "Where is my daughter ?" They told him they had

  1. Mr. Baber mentions that the Lolos in West Szechuan call themselves white bones and black bones. (C.T.G.)