I.I. Popov's manuscript named “The riddles of the Don Kalmyks”: some preliminary notes

The article deals with I.I. Popov’s manuscript “The Riddles of the Don Kalmyks”, who was a researcher and collector of the Kalmyk folklore at the turn of the 20th century. The manuscript comprises 368 samples of which first 312 riddles can be attributed to the Kalmyk oral tradition, then followed by the Buryat riddles from the M.A. Castren’s “Grammar of the Buryat Language”. The texts of riddles and answers are written by author in Oirat todo biciq and followed by Russian translation. One of the special features of I.I. Popov’s manuscript is the decoration of the text, in particular, the use of birga marking beginning of the text in classical Mongolian and Oirat script in sections with texts in todo biciq, and decorative frames for text decoration. The analysis of the text results in distinguishing the following sections: a title page; preface; texts of riddles and answers in todo biciq, given from No. 1 to 328 in separate sections, from No. 329 to 368 in one section; Buryat riddles, written down by Sh.-Lkh. B. Bazarov and published by A.D. Rudnev in the “Notes of the Oriental Branch of the Russian Emperor’s Archaeological Society”; the Russian translation of riddles and answers also given in separate sections from No. 1 to 326, from No. 327 to 368 in one section; notes. The comparison of I.I. Popov’s manuscript with M.A. Castren’s grammar and A.D. Rudnev’s article shows that the collector did not copy the Buryat text, but translated it in Kalmyk. This, in turn, tells about his good knowledge of not only written and colloquial Kalmyk, but also of the Mongolian script and other Mongolian languages. Moreover, these publications help to identify the dates of I.I. Popov’s manuscript as being composed in the period between 1892 and 1902.