tK - the "size group" of an informant, i.e. the number denoting the amount of riddle types in the material contributed by informant K;
p(tK) - the absolute frequency of the corresponding tK in the empirical set of informants.
We are not going to provide explicitly analogous distributions. (As to the Estonian riddles, their population cannot be analysed like that at present anyway, as the authenticity checking of the archived texts has just only started.) For diagrams corresponding to the above data see Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 1. Contributors by productivity.
Figure 2. Riddle types by productivity.
Both diagrams are complemented by a rough sketch to mark - in a grossly exaggerated way - our idea of how either empirical distribution (steady line) differs from what could be expected (broken line). In words, the picture could be commented upon as follows:
1. The p(kT)-readings corresponding to the small values of kT are lower and, accordingly, the slope is gentler than expected; in other words, the proportion of rare material is smaller than expected, as there is little pressure at the borderline between folklore and non-folklore. In addition, there is some reason to suspect that the reading of p(kT =1) = 146 is largely the result of unduly mild criteria of inclusion in folklore having been applied to types of riddles with only one recorded text: comparing the ST collection with the background archival data, we dare say that only 60-70 types of the 146 are more or less guaranteed to be folklore.
2. The p(tK)-readings corresponding to small tK values are larger than expected, which makes the general shape of the diagram surprisingly like that of p(kT), which means that among the informants the proportion of the "ill-informed" contributors is unexpectedly big.
Both phenomena can be interpreted as indicative of the degeneration of the riddle genre.
The following list presents 25 riddle types the incidence of which was the largest among the authentic texts of the ST fund (the numbers following the texts indicate the amount of contributed texts).
1. Lipp lipi peal, lapp lapi peal ilma nõela pistmata - 98.
`Patch to patch without a stitch' - the answer is usually the traditional `Cabbage', but other, more modern variants are also quite numerous: about 20 correspondents suggested a `shoe made in Kommunaar' (the local footwear plant of the Soviet period, notorious for the poorish quality of its production), while about ten referred to the patched asphalt on the roads (of Russia ~Estonia ~Tallinn ~Haapsalu ~...).
2. Seest siiru-viiruline, pealt kullakarvaline - 69.
`On the inside striped and streaky, on the outside golden-like' - mainly `Onion', but occasionally also `Lemon', `Nut' and `Toady' (the latter may have been learnt in the children's paper "Säde" 1985, No. 8, p. 4).
3. Käib, käib, aga ukseni (~edasi ~...) ei jõua (~ei saa ~liigu ~...) - 35.
`Walks and walks, yet never makes it to the door' - `Clock' (in Estonian, a clock would "walk" rather than "work").
4. Üks hani, neli nina (~nokka) - 29.
`One goose, four noses (~bills)' - `Pillow'.
5. Paned sisse - on kõva, võtad välja - on pehme (ja ots tilgub) - 27.
`You put it in hard, you take it out soft (and dripping at one end)' - `Pickled cucumber'.
6. Mees (~Pea) maa all (~sees), habe maa peal - 25.
`Man (~Head) underground, his beard above ground' - `Carrot', also `Potato', `Vegetable'.
7. Tüdruk (~Neiu ~Mees ~...) toas (~(maa) sees), juuksed väljas (~õues ~maa peal) - 23.
`Girl (~Man) inside (the earth), her hair outside' - prevalently `Carrot', occasionally also `Beetroot', `Suede', `Smoke'.
8. Õues (~Väljas) mäena, toas veena - 21.
`Outdoors a mountain, indoors water' - `Snow'.
9. Neli teevad aset, kaks näitavad tuld (~Kaks...,~neli...), üks heidab magama 18.
`Four make the bed, two show light, one lies down to sleep' - mostly `Dog', accidentally also `Cat', `Horse'.
10. Üks maja, sada elanikku (~meest ~...) (pole ust ega akent ees) (~Tare rahvast täis, pole...) - 17
`One house, a hundred dwellers (~men) (there's neither a door nor a window) (~A house full of people...)' - mostly `Cucumber' but also `Pea' and some other solutions.
11.-12. Pime nägi jänest, jalutu püüdis kinni, paljas (aga) pistis taskusse. Mis see on? - 16.
`A blind man saw a hare, a lame man caught it, a naked man put it in his pocket. What is that?' - `A lie' (this may have been learnt from the calendar for 1990, pp. 235, 239).
Kukub, (kukub,) aga maha (~alla) ei kuku - 16.
`It falls/cuckoos, and falls/cuckoos, yet it doesn't fall down' - `Cuckoo' (in Estonian, kukkuma has two homonymous meanings: `to fall' and `to cuckoo').
13.-14. Hiir läheb auku, saba jääb välja (~Hiir (~Harakas) aidas, saba (~pea) väljas) - 15.
`A mouse slips into a hole, its tail remains outside (~A mouse (~A magpie) in the barn, its tail (~head) outside)' - `Key (in the lock)'.
Pealt must, seest punane, pistad (~paned ~...) sisse - on mõnus (~soe) - 15.
`Black on the outside, red on the inside, if you stick it in, it's pleasant (~warm)' - `Rubber shoe' (a new riddle, first noted down in 1963).
15.-19. Sada venda (~meest ~poissi) ühes voodis, kõik on täpselt ühtemoodi (ükski pole teisest lühem, pruunid silmad igaühel) - 14.
`A hundred brothers in one bed, all are perfectly alike (none is shorter than the other, hazel-eyed is every brother)' - `Matches, matchbox' (the whole information may have been obtained in the ABC-book by L. Eisen (Tallinn 1974, p. 102)).
Pikem puist, pikem maist (~Pikem kui puu), madalam kui maarohi (~Madalam kui rohi, pikem kui kirikutorn) - 14.
`Taller/Longer than trees, longer/taller than distances (~Taller/Longer than a tree), lower than grass on the ground (~Lower than grass, taller/longer than a church spire)' -`Road'.
Tules ei põle, vees ei upu, mullas ei mädane - 14.
`It does not burn in fire, it does not drown in water, it does not rot in the earth' (the number and order of the components may vary) - mostly `(Person's) name'.
Hark all, paun peal, pauna peal rist, risti peal nupp (~pall ~muna), nupu (~...) peal mets (metsas sead ~loomad) - 14.
`Fork at the base, a pouch on the fork, on the pouch a cross, on the cross a knob (~ball ~egg), on the knob a forest (in the forest swine ~beasts)' - `A man (with lice)'.
Kanda jõuad (~jõuab), (aga) lugeda ei jõua - 14.
`Carry you can, count you cannot' - `Hair'.
20. Üks hiir, kaks saba - 13.
`One mouse, two tails' - `An old shoe (with straps)'.
21.-22. Neli hobust tallis, viies jookseb ümber talli - 12.
`Four horses in the stables, the fifth is running round the stables' - `Knitting (a stocking)'.
Eest kui ora, keskelt kui kera, tagant lai kui labidas - 12.
`Front like a spike, middle like a ball, back part broad like a spade' - `Hen' (once also `Turkey').
23.-25. Mis vahid mu otsa, mis tahad mult saada? Kui tahad mult saada, siis roni mu otsa - see rahuldab sind ja kergendab mind - 11.
`Why are you staring up at me? What do you want? If you want something, get up onto me - it makes you so happy and I'll be relieved' (the wording varies) - `Apple-tree'.
Hommikul (käib) nelja jalaga, päeval (~lõunal) kahe jalaga, õhtul kolme jalaga - 11.
`In the morning (walks) on four legs, in the daytime (~at noon) on two, in the evening on three' - `Man'.
Üks vaat (~pütt ~kapp), kahesugust õlut (~märga) sees - 11.
`One barrel (~cask ~piggin) with two kinds of beer (~liquid) in it' - `Egg'.
By way of comparison, we should now like to list those 25 riddles that are represented by the largest number of texts in the riddle file of the Literary Museum. Hopefully, this file is a rather reliable model of the situation in Estonian archived material (and evidently in the live tradition) as well as in the printed matter published over the past 100-120 years. (The number of the authentic folk texts kept in the archives would certainly be a better criterion for determining the popularity of this or that riddle type, but such data are not yet available.)
1. `Fork at the base, a pouch on the fork...' - 1251 registered cases, No. 15-19 on the ST ranking list.
2. `On the inside striped and streaky...' - 1223, ST No. 2.
3. `Patch to patch...' - 1192, ST No. 1.
4. `A magpie in the barn, its tail outside (~A mouse...)' - 1043, ST No. 13-14.
5. `Four horses in the stables...' - 1021, ST No. 21-22.
6. `One mouse, two tails' - 968, ST No. 20.
7. `Front like a spike, middle like a ball...' - 935, ST No. 21-22.
8. Kolmejalgne kurat (~kits ~...), raudhambad suus.
`A three-legged devil (~nanny-goat ~...) with iron teeth in his mouth' - 898, `Spinning wheel', 3 probably authentic texts in ST.
9. Üks saun, sada akent.
`One hut, a hundred windows' - 883, `Pile of wood', 7 authentic ST texts.
10. Must siga läheb lauta, ajab punased põrsad välja.
`A black hog goes to the pigsty to drive red piglets out' - 878, `Stove poker', one authentic ST text.
11. Hobu hirnub Hiiumaal, hääl kuuldub meie maale.
`A horse neighs in Hiiumaa, the voice is heared in our corner' - 842, `Thunder', 7 authentic ST texts.
12. `Four make the bed, two show light...' - 834, ST No. 9.
13. Isa pikk ja peenike, ema lai ja latergune, pojad puperlullikesed.
`Father tall and thin, mother broad and flat, sons are roundish merrymakers' (many variants) - 815, `Hops', `Bread-making imple-ments', a.o.
14. `One barrel with two kinds of beer' - 812, ST No. 23-25.
15. Pere sööb, laud laulab.
`Family is eating, the table is singing' - 797, `Piglets sucking', 6 authentic ST texts.
16. Keeletu, meeletu, ise maailma tark.
`Tongueless, mindless, yet enormously clever' - 796, `Steelyard', 2 authentic ST texts.
17. Mees läheb metsa, naine nabapidi seljas.
`A man is going to the forest carrying his wife on his back by the navel' - 783, `Man with a small keg'.
18. Punane pullike, jõhvist lõake.
`A little red bull on a little horsehair tether' - 775, `Cranberry', 4 authentic ST texts.
19. Keerleb ja veerleb, kui otsa saab, siis muneb.
`Whirling and wheeling, when at the end, it lays eggs' - 764, `Hops', one possibly authentic ST text.
20. Mustem kui süsi, valgem kui lumi, kõrgem kui kirik, madalam kui regi.
`Blacker than coal, whiter than snow, higher than a church, lower than a sledge' - 743, `Magpie', 5 authentic ST texts.
21. Mees läheb metsa, lihavaagen pea peal.
`A man is going to the forest with a meat platter on his head' - 737, `Rooster', 8 authentic ST texts.
22. Neli andjat, neli kandjat, kaks koeratõrjujat, üks parmupiits.
`Four givers, four carriers, two dog-fenders, one whip for gadflies' (many variants) - 729, `Cow', 9 authentic ST texts.
23. Vanamees (~Vana naine) nurgas, rüpp mune (~süli saiu ~...) täis.
`An old man (~old woman) sitting in the corner, lap full of eggs (~rolls)' - 721, `Oven, pile of hot stones in a sauna', one authentic ST text.
24. Lagi all, lagi peal, lae peal lauldakse.
`One ceiling up, another ceiling down, on the ceiling songs are sung' - 719, `Fiddle' or `Zither', 3 authentic ST texts.
25. Hall härg, hangus sarved (~Must härg, mugulad sarved), võtab sauna sarvile, kihelkonna kukile.
`A grey ox with forked horns (~A black ox with tuberous horns) takes a sauna on its horns, takes a parish on its back' - 705, `Windmill'.
We can see that the two ranking lists of 25 riddles have 9 types in common, while 7 of the "biggest" types on the general list occur on the ST list as well. The main reasons why a particular riddle type occurs in, or, to the contrary, is absent from the initial part of the ST list seem to be rather obvious. The favourable factors are (1) a powerful oral tradition and/or
(2a) the availability of printed support, esp. inclusion in modern school textbooks or children's books (such was the case, e.g., with the riddles on carrot (based on the images of beard and hair), snow, lie, and matchbox, cf. also the discussion in part 4 of the present article;
(2b) the periphrastic suggestiveness of the basic image - e.g. the riddles about pickled cucumber, rubber shoe, and apple-tree, cf. also the list of recent riddles, soon to follow, and the discussion thereof.
The unfavourable factor is
(3) the retreat of the object of riddling from everyday life, e.g. the riddles about spinning - wheel (No. 8), poker (No. 10), hops (Nos. 13,19), steelyard (No. 16), keg (No. 17), hot vaporizing-stones (No. 23), and windmill (No. 25).
3. Natural Versus Secondary
The factors just mentioned seem to be active not only along the frequency axis, but also on a more general level of existence/non-existence. While retreating, the older tradition has taken with it to oblivion most of those riddles the summary vitality (popularity, energetic potential) of which was not particularly great. Nowadays one will find live interest in riddles, as well as an active tradition in guessing, but most of the current repertoire seems to represent the so-called secondary tradition, not the primary oral one any more. Schoolchildren learn piles of riddles in school textbooks, children's books, or they may copy and learn them from handwritten collections of their schoolmates or parents. The printed or handwritten material may, in turn, be of various origin: partly natural folkloristic material, partly individual creation in Estoian, partly translations from other people's folklore, etc.
However few, the material sent in from schools also contains some traces of genuine local tradition, mainly in contributions from South Estonia, esp. from Aili Roosik (Form 11, Meremäe Secondary School, Vastseliina parish) who, beside "ordinary" riddles, has also provided some trick questions, and also from Diana Fortuna (Form 4, Nõo Realgymnasium, Nõo parish), a.o. The following maps are meant to elucidate the background, i.e. the areal distribution of some South Estonian riddles and trick questions.
Map 1.
Kes on targem kuningat? - `Päsul'.
`Who is cleverer than a king?' - `Steelyard'.
normal forms
adhesion with the riddle:
`Tongue-less, mindless'
Map 2.
Mida ei jõua tuapeale visata? - `Putsai'.
`What cannot be thrown up to the loft?' - `Downy feather'.
Map 3.
Kes lätt inne pappi kerkohe? - `Võti'.
`Who enters the church before the priest?' - `Key':
inne pappi `before the priest';
kõige enne `first' a.o. forms.
Map 4.
Käsi oso perseh - `Kinnas'.
`Hand in a ram's arse' - `Mitten'.
Map 5.
Üles ketras, üles väntäs, saa otsa, luu muna - `Humal'.
`Up it hurls, up it whirls, once up it makes an egg' - `Hops'.
Map 6.
Maarik maka, aasta asõ tunda - `Linaluu'.
`Reddie rests, the site is felt throughout the year' - `Boon of flax':
Maarik (~Maasik ~Mahe) (a cow's name)
maka - forms;
härg `ox' - forms.
Map 7.
Imä hälluh, a poig sõjah - `Taar'.
`Mother in cradle, son in war' - `Kvass':
redaction Esä (~Imä) hällün, poig
sõan `Father';
other forms.
Map 8.
Valgõ kivi aida all - `Lehma udar'.
`A white stone under the barn' - `Cow's udder'
valgõ (~valge) kivi - forms;
other forms.
Map 9.
Üks pütt, kaks õlut - `Muna'.
`One cask with two kinds of beer' - `Egg':
redaction Üts pütt, kats olt
(~katõsugu-manõ olu) `Two kinds of beer';
üks vaat `one barrel' a.o. forms.
Map 10.
Vanatont nurgas, raudhambad suus - Vokk'.
`Old Nick in the nook, iron teeth in his mouth' - `Spinning-wheel'.
redaction Vanatont nukan raudhambad suun;
other forms: kurat kolme jalaga `a devil on three legs'
( ~kolmejalgne kits) `a three-legged nanny-goat'
~puu-kurat `a wooden devil' ~vanamoor `an old
woman', etc.
Map 11a.
Hark all, paun peal, paunal rist, ristil nupp, nupul mets... - `Inimene'.
`Fork at the base, a pouch on the fork, a cross...' - `Man':
an adhesion with one redaction of the
lice-hunting riddle: kähara peaga poiss ajab
sigu (~loomi ~... ) metsast välja (a `curly-headed
boy is driving pigs (~animals ~) out of the forest';
other forms of the riddle Hark all, paun peal.
Map 11b.
[The lice-hunting riddle occurring separately:]
redaction Kähara peaga poiss ajab sigu
~... metsast välja outside mergers with the riddle
Hark all, paun peal;
other forms of the lice-hunting riddle.
Map. 12.
Karvad pääl, karvad all, jummal hoit mulgu-kõist - `?'.
`Hairs above, hairs below, God protect the little hole' - the original ST contribution contains no answer, but normally it would be `Eye':
jummal (~esänd ~...) hoidku mulgukõist
(God ~Lord ~... protect the little hole);
other forms.
Map 13.
Pikk mets, paks mets, aga kalavar/r/as/t/ ei saa - `Kanep'.
High forest, dense forest, yet no spit for (drying) fish can be obtained - `Hemp':
l kalavarras `spit for fish' - forms;
other forms.
In North Estonia the areal distribution of folklore, riddles included, is usually not so unambiguously illustrative as in South Estonia. Yet material received from northern Estonia also contains some genuine lore. Especially noteworthy in this sense is the contribution of Anneli Tammaru from Torma. As Anneli states in her covering letter, she has, when still quite young, noted down ab. 500 riddles from her grandfather and from other children, and what she is sending in, has once been supplied just by her grandfather. There is quite a rare version of the riddle about a shuttle: Jää all, jää peal, kuldne kala ujub keskel `Ice below, ice above, a golden fish is swimming in the middle', a North-Tartumaa-specific form of the horsetail-riddle with quite an exceptional answer (see Map 13), an interesting hybrid of two riddles about a candle: Alasti poisike, särk kõhus, pea peal paistab päike `A naked boy, a shirt inside, on his head the sun is shining', and also a deviant redaction of the riddle about the vaporizing stones used in sauna: Vanaeit nurgas, kivid kõhus `An old woman in the nook, stones inside her', etc.
The school tradition material makes one wonder whether new riddles still keep emerging today as a purely oral tradition at all. The answer seems to be yes, to some extent, but it is another question whether they are completely normal, "ordinary" riddles as far as their semantics and mentality are concerned, even if they look like "ordinary" riddles syntacti-cally. Next we should like to present some riddles that are probably of recent origin and which occur, either partly or wholly, also in ST material.
1. Kukub, (kukub), aga ...
`It falls/cuckoos and falls/cuckoos, yet...' - see Nos. 11-12 on the ST ranking list; the main bulk of the archived texts date from relatively recent times, published since the 1930s, background unclear.
2. Pealt must, seest punane...
`Black on the outside, red on the inside...' - see Nos. 13-14 on the ST ranking list; most of the archived texts lie in the ST fund, first notification 1963.
3. Auk, ümbert karvane.
`A hole, hairs all around it' (a.o. close variants) - `Eye': 9 authentic ST texts, earlier notifications entirely missing; it is disputable whether the riddle forms an independent type or whether it has just branched off the type Hairs below, hairs above, God protect the little hole.
4. Alt lakutakse, pealt silutakse.
`Licked from underneath, stroked on top' - `Stamp': 7 authentic ST texts; the main bulk of the archived material dates from the 1970s or later, the earliest notification 1934.
5. (Mis on) sinu oma, aga teised kasutavad (?).
`What is yours, but is used by the others?' - `Name': 6 authentic ST texts; most of the archived and published texts are recent, the earliest dates from 1932; background unclear.
6. (Kümme sentimeetrit) nabast allapoole, natuke paremale (pistad käe sisse - on pehme ja soe).
`(Ten centimetres) below the navel, just a little to the right (stick your hand in, it's soft and warm)' - `Pocket': 6 authentic ST texts; no earlier notification available.
7. Päeval ripub (~tolkus ~...), ööseks torgatakse auku.
`Dangling in the daytime, at night it is stuck in a hole' (a.o. variants) - `Door hook': 4 authentic ST texts; the earliest notification 1948.
8. Rätsep kõnnib, nõelad seljas (~kannab nõelu kaasas).
`A tailor is walking with needles on his back (~on him)' - `Hedgehog': 4 authentic ST texts; no earlier notifications; background unclear.
In addition, there are quite a number of units that syntactically look like "ordinary" riddles all right, yet should be classified as recent periphery in every other sense (cf. also part 1 of the present survey), e.g. the well-known Kiliseb-kõliseb, lonkab ja möliseb `Jingles and jangles, limps and bawls' (`Russian veteran of war') and many others.
What can hardly escape the observant eye is the fact that most of the recent riddle lore, the above included, belong to suggestive euphemistic paraphrases.
4. Memorized Versus Copied
Another aspect that cannot be overlooked while studying the material in question is secondary tradition feeding on printed matter - which is, of course, of a much lesser interest for a folklorist than genuine oral lore. We should better avoid going into a detailed discussion of concrete sources and their degree of influence on the modern tradition. As is generally known, schoolchildren's collections, the present ST series included, contain not only riddles and proverbs memorized from various printed sources, but also myriads of texts copied straight from books. Often it is not easy for the researchers to guess which of the two events - memorizing or copying - has happened in every concrete case, yet it seems rather plausible to believe that in either case the printed sources used are more or less the same.Therefore, we will simply list the publications that seem to have worked most productively for the ST fund, assuming at the same time that the same books both were and are used as the main "textbooks" of riddles. But before we proceed with the list, we should also like to present some approximate ST fund statistics before and after the application of an authenticity check (i.e. after the elimination of texts copied from printed matter and texts of the correspondents' own creation).
| Total number before the test application | Remainder after the test application | Rate of the remainder to the original number | |
| Number of informants | 520 | 410 | 79 |
| Number of riddle types | 730 | 310 | 42 |
| Total number of texts | 3170 | 1280 | 40 |
The main bulk of the decrease can be accounted for the copying, while the assumed individual creation is responsible for no more than 200±30 texts (= types).
For the ST fund the most yielding sources turned out to be as shown in Table 4 (the sources are systematized according to the number of texts copied).
| Number | Source | Source | Text number | Applicants |
| 1 | V. Metsak (koost.), Mõista, mõista... Eesti Rahva mõistatusi. Tln., 1979. | Guess What? Estonian Folk Riddles. | ca 370 | 28 |
| 2 | E. Nugis, Ajaviiteraamat. Tln., 1991. | Book of Entairment | 287 | 38 |
| 3 | E. Normann, S. Lätt (koost.), Sada saarelehte, tuhat toomeleht. Valimik eesti rahvajutte, -laule ja vanasõnu. Tln., 1968. | AHundred Ash Leaves, a Thousend Bird-Cherry Leaves. A selection of folk narratives, songs, riddles and proverbs. | 207 | 14 |
| 4 | E. Normann, S. Lätt (koost.), Üle õue õunapuu. Valimik eesti rahvajutte ja -laule, mõistatusi ja vanasõnu | The Prettiest Apple-Tree. A selection of folk narratives, songs, riddles and proverbs | 170 | 11 |
| 5 | L. Eisen, Aabits. Tln., 1974 (või selle kordustrükid). | ABC-Book (or it's reprints). | 102 | 11 |
| 6 | M. Hennoste, Kirjanduse lugemik VI klassile. Tln., 1990. | Reader for From 6. | 75 | 9 |
| 7 | I. Muhel. Väike nuputaja. Tln., 1984 | Little Puzzle-Solver. | 75 | 9 |
| 8 | E. Hiie ja M. Müürsepa õpikud perioodist 1987-1991. | Students Books from the period 1987-1991. | 53 | 9 |
| 9 | L. Nurkse (koost.), Laste sõna I. Materjaalid ettelugemiseks ja juttustamiseks eelkooliealistele lastele. Tln. 1960; 2.tr. 1965 | Children's Word. Part I. Material for reading and retelling to preschool children. | 42 | 4 |
| 10 | L. Kivi ja M. Roosilehe õpikud perioodist 1985-1988. | Student Books (1985-1988) | 35 | 7 |
| 11 | H. Kuut, Kirjanduse lugemik VII klassile. Tln., 1960. | Reader From 7. | 34 | 2 |
| 12 | H. Mänd (koost. ja tlk.), Anna sõsarake. Valimik rahvalaule. Tln., 1975. | Give Me Your Hand, Sister. A selection of folk soongs. | 29 | 4 |
| 13 | Ajaleht "Säde" aastakäigud1946-1989. | The newspaper "Säde" issues 1946-1989. | 21 | 5 |
| 14 | Raamatuvaksik 1989. Tõlkekirjanduse almanahh kõikidele lastekirjanduse sõpradele. Tln., 1989. | Bookworm 1989. An Almanac of translations of children literature for lovers of children literature. | 14 | 9 |
| 15 | Noortekalender 1992. Tln., 1991. | Youth Calendar 1992. | 13 | 5 |
| 16 | E. Vitka, Laulupõimik - värsipõimik. Eestindanud M. Veetamm. Tln., 1980 | An Anthology of Songs and Verses. Translated from Byelorussian. | 10 | 3 |
| 17 | A. Kriisa, L. Villandi, Kirjanduse Lugemik V klassile. Tln., 1970 (või selle kordustrükid). | Reader for From 5. 1970 or it's reprints. | 10 | 2 |
| 18 | 1972. ja 1973. a. kalendrid. | Calendars of 1972 and 1973 | 9 | 2 |
| 19 | Aja kiri "Täheke" (astakäigud 1965 ja 1983). | The magazine "Täheke" (issues 1965 and 1983) | 9 | 2 |
| 20 | Väike jõuluraamat. Tln., 1991. | Little Christmas Book. | 8 | 2 |
| 21 | K. Tshukovski, Imepuu. Tln., 1964. | Magic Tree. | 5 | 3 |
The recognition of most of the copied material as such was no problem since the routine of the years-long preparation of the scientific edition of the Estonian riddles has always included the identifying of printed riddles, the copying of texts, the drawing up of typologies, etc. However, the ST contributors turned out to have also used several sources still unknown to us. (I would rather omit the details of archival techniques permitting one to suspect that something has been used, without yet being sure what it is.) An additional intensified search brought to light some more relevant sources, mostly the latest schoolbooks, but not everything. So, without too much optimism, I wrote to 16 young contributors, explaining the general background of the collection and publication of the Estonian riddle lore, and asking them, in a most straightforward way, to point out the books they had used. To my pleasant surprise, I got as many as ten answers with invaluable information. For this information, me and my colleagues would like to express our special thanks to Elaire Aps (7), Kairi Kirs (9), and Toomas Randoja (21) from Narva, Rainer Rehe (15) from Tallinn, Gerli Närep (16) from Märjamaa, Tuuli Soots (15) from Lehtse, and Triin Vares (16) from Loksa (the numbers in bracktes refer to the source number in the list presented on p. 63).
From the folkloristic aspect, the material copied from printed matter is, of course, totally worthless. Moreover, a wealth of doublet texts in an archive can be a real pest for people engaged in folklore studies or its publication. As we know from our own bitter experience from the times of preparing the scientific edition of the Estonian proverbs, the proverb files of the Literary Museum contain about as many doublet texts as there are genuine folk texts, and the riddle material looks hardly more promising. As side effect, the screening out of inauthentic material also produces an idea of the "morals" of every particular contributor, a piece of knowledge which, however necessary in principle, is not especially gratifying to have.
Presumably, though, this phenomenon might present some general interest to those studying "source perusal" or "selection" psychology.
Leaving aside the question in the light of which theories of general psychology it would be the most expedient to interpret that kind of data, I should refer to some of my own personal impressions of analogous experience (see, e.g., Fraseoloogiline aines eesti vanimais grammatikates ja sõnastikes, Tallinn, 1986, pp. 100 et seq.).
If the deposit whence the material is obtained is big enough (e.g. a book, expectedly thumbed in the "right" direction), then the density of selection seems to pass through three stages, notably:
(1) brisk beginning;
(2) deadlock;
(3) final spurt.
Our ST experience seems to attest to this regularity quite well, at least as far as the three most yielding sources are concerned, even though the location of material of interest in different sources differs quite considerably.
To illustrate the tendency better, we are presenting diagrams to characterize the strategies how riddles are selected for copying on the basis of the most popular printed sources (see Fig. 3-5).
Figure 3. E. Nugis, Ajaviiteraamat: the 255 riddle texts form
a compact row or a large field throughout ten
successive pages (pp. 271280). The interval is 10 texts.
Figure 4. V. Metstak, Mõista,
mõista...: the riddle texts are also located on successive pages, but the volume
and placement of the texts on different pages varies
quite considerably, while the text series are interrupted
by captions and illustrations. The interval is 10 texts.
Figure 5. E. Normann, S. Lätt, Sada
saarelehte...: as a rule, the riddles lie in "deposits" of 7 texts, there are 20
"deposits" and their distances from each other vary from 2 to
30 pages (8.7 on the average). The interval is 1 deposit.
The material found in a source has been divided into intervals in a "normal" direction - from left to right along the x-axis, which corresponds to the reading of a book from beginning to end. The intervals contain texts or riddle "deposits", and the diagrams illustrate the dynamics of the addressings of each interval in total; to describe the general reaction, a smoothed curve (3rd iteration) has been added to the diagram of raw data.
The regularity mentioned above seems to be manifested all the more clearly the more homogeneous the location of the texts in the source.
The concrete thumbing of the books and selecting riddles to copy may, of course, have proceeded in various ways: either consistently from beginning to end or from end to beginning, or first one way, then the other way, or oscillating from beginning to end or vice versa, or leafing the source through irregularly, alternating directions, copying material from just one "deposit" or several, etc. Next let us present, without comments, "itineraries" in which x stands for the actual sequence number of a copied text different in the contribution, while y denotes the sequence number of the same text (or the text and "deposit") in the printed source (see Fig. 6-8).
Figure 6. The leafing of Ajaviiteraamat:
a) Kadri Schmidt (Tallinn Sec. School No. 7, Form 8)
b) Kelli Viru (Tallinn Sec. School No. 7, Form 8)
c) Maigi Kivimäe (Kõrveküla School, Form 6).
Figure 7. The leafing of Mõista, mõista...:
a) Tiina Noor (Virtsu School, Form 6)
b) Olari Suislep (Märjamaa Sec. School, Form 7)
c) Agnes Laan (Tartu Sec. School No. 2, Form 3).
Figure 8. The leafing of Sada saarelehte...:
a) Kaili Kadak (Meremäe Sec. School, Form 7)
b) Veikko Allik (Nõo Realgymnasium, Form 4)
c) Kutt Kannus (Tallinn Sec. School No. 7, Form 7).
Perharps the most charming sincerity is manifested in the method used by Ester Valk (Kõpu School, Form 5) who would take the book by Metstak and, moving in the usual direction, copy the first riddle under every heading, then return to the beginning and copy the riddles in the second position, and finish with a few more taken from here and there. (The same source was, by the way, used by her sisters Ellen (Form 7) and Eha (Form 8), but their approaches appear a lot more complicated.)
The material also enables one to follow the dynamics and stimuli of text selection on the level of an individual (or double) page.
As was mentioned above, the pages of Ajaviiteraamat are mostly homogeneously covered and therefore applicable to studying page-processing psychology. At that, one should not forget the "brisk beginning" effect due to which the actual selection is dominated by material found on initial pages. So, the texts copied from the first page presenting riddles in Ajaviiteraamat (p. 271) makes up about 27% of what has been selected from that source altogether, while pages 271 and 272 viewed together have yielded almost a half of the total selection, and the material copied from pp. 271-273 is responsible for 62% of the same. If we now divide every page of Ajaviiteraamat into 17 two-line positions from top to bottom, then imagine the pages exactly one above another and sum up the selected riddles in every position, we will get distributions like Fig. 9a (if page 1 is included) or 9b (without page 1), in which x is the number of positions from top to bottom, and y is the intensity with which the position is used for copying, i.e. the rate of the copies made of the position to the total number of texts available in that position.
Figure 9a. The intensity of using different parts of the pages of Ajaviiteraamat: all pages.
Figure 9b. The intensity of using different parts of the pages of Ajaviiteraamat: the front page is not included in statistics.
A short comment:
(1) the absolute top segment of the page is used very frequently;
(2) this is followed by the least attractive part of the page;
(3) then follows a wavy ascension that culminates somewhere in the middle of the seconf half of the page;
(4) the absolute bottom of the page is rather unproductive again.
(It would certainly have been more appropriate to analyse the "local dynamics" not of individual pages but double pages opening to view together, but as the sample drawn from Ajaviiteraamat was modest in size and the distribution of the used material between the beginning and the end of a deposit was very unequal, the idea was discarded.)
The book Mõista, mõista in which the texts occur very unevenly both in the sense of quantity and location, could arouse one's interest on a slightly different plane, notably, one might wish to find out the impact that headings and empty space as eye-catchers may have upon the selection. As observation shows, our assumptions proved true. The numerical parametres of the influential eye-catching factors are, e.g. as follows:
(1) the texts located in the absolute beginning of a subdivision, i.e. immediately following a subheading, have been copied 2.77 times more frequently than set by the probability norm;
(2) the second position of the beginning of a subdivision has been addressed 1.37 times more frequently;
(3) the frequency of using the third position material, however, is but 80% of the norm;
(4) the texts that start titled subdivisions, being, at the same time, the initial texts of and/or page, have been chosen 2.17 times more frequenly than the norm;
(5) page-initial texts, no matter whether also starting a subdivision or not, have been chosen 1.47 times more often than the norm;
(6) the texts followed by an empty space, i.e. the final texts of subdivisions and/or pages, have been slightly less (0.92) popular than the norm.
Bearing in mind that the above analysis was done without eliminating the rather influential "Ester Valk factor" (cf p. 66), we can conclude that a decided preference is shown to those texts that are located in the absolute beginning of a visually detached group, whereas texts located in the position immediately preceding an empty field, do not seem be so attractive for copying.
5. Summary
In a nutshell, our review of the riddles received as a result of the school tradition collection, permits the following conclusions:
1. Although the riddle genre has not disappeared from the modern school tradition, it bears marks of mutation, degeneration and regress.
1.1. That part of the genre which has hitherto been called peripheral (trick questions, plays on compound words, puzzles, droodles, etc.) has developed into an independently flourishing centre and ousted the "ordinary" riddles into a poorly vegetating periphery.
1.2. As for "ordinary" riddles, one can state that:
(a) the number of those persons who know riddles poorly has grown, whereas that of real masters of the riddle-lore has decreased;
(b) the proportion of more unique material has decreased;
(c) the emergence of new riddles in purely oral communication is scarce, the riddles so created are mostly euphemistic-suggestive paraphrases;
(d) the total amount of purely oral (esp. local) tradition has dropped radically, while the remaining tradition lives largely on the support of graphic means (books, handwritten collections);
(e) the proportion of riddles copied straight from printed matter is even bigger than usual (ab. 60%), while the main sources used are newer publications, especially children's literature and school textbooks.
2. Although those texts of minor genres that have been copied from printed matter are of no folkloristic interest, they might still serve as material for general psychology, especially as an empirical material for studying "selection strategies".
Department of folkloristics of the Estonian Literature Museum
Tartu, Estonia
Note
* The authorship of the article is conventional. The preparation of the original material required the toil of the whole paremiology research group working at the Institute of Estonian Language. The relevant material documented at the Estonian Folklore Archives' fund of school traditions was searched for riddles by Anne Hussar, Arvo Krikmann, Ingrid Sarv and Rein Saukas. The authenticity of the riddles was checked by A. Hussar, A. Krikmann and R. Saukas. A. Krikmann took care of the follow-up correspondence with schoolchildren, compiled the lists of riddles, carried out statistical analysis and wrote the following survey.