Hõimlane verejõe tagant: Saami muinaslood tootempõhjapõdrast. I

Abstract

In the research there are treated the tales of totem reindeer Meandash with folk belief meaning. The myth of Peura was for the first time written down by Vassili Nemirovitsh-Dantshenko in 1873. If this story is connected to the totempeura Meandash it is not clear. The first certain story of the Meandash-cycle was collected by Arvid Genetz in 1876 and it was published in "Suomen kuvalehti" in 1879.The greatest number stories of Meandesh were collected and published by a Russian geographer Vladimir, who took part of expeditions to Kola in 1927-1932 and in 1936-1938. He published the material in three books (Tsharnoluski 1962, 1965, 1972). Unfortunately V. Tsharnoluski has interpreted the material and perhaps even has mixed several variations. The fact remarkably diminishes the scientific value of his work.The stories collected by V.Tsharnoluski have been the incitement for a Finnish scientist on rock paintings Eero Autio (1993).