Kakskümmend kaks kala eesti rahvausundis. III

Abstract

The Baltic herring Clupea harengus membras, a local subspecies of the North Atlantic herring which had reached the Baltic Sea nearly 5,000 years ago, is probably the most important food fish (for salting) both in the coastal regions as well as everywhere else in Estonia. The need to determine the exact time of fishing has inspired nearly 30% of its popular names, mainly on the basis of orientation to phenological phenomena or popular festivals.Vendace/whitefish? Coregonus albula and rudds Rutilus rutilus and Scardinius erythrophthalmus, as common fresh-water fishes, are mentioned mostly in relation to omens. According to a legend the smelt Osmerus eperlanus smelled of horsemeat, as the fish were believed to have been born of drowned horses. According to ichthyologists, reports stating that the freshwater form of this species usually found in Lake Peipus had also been discovered in Estonia's largest inland-lake (Lake Võrtsjärv) date back to the 19th century. By the mid-20th century the species had disappeared from Lake Võrtsjärv. A popular belief accuses the competing Russian fishers who had used magic to make the fish disappear (Orthodox peoples ate primarily fish during the Lent).The Baltic cod Gadus morhua callarias was traditionally caught with trawl-lines, as suggest the words of the spelling song in the article. The making of cod line was also associated with magic. Similar to the pike, the Baltic cod was considered a mythological being of the underworld (it has been called a one-eyed hog, piglet, etc.). The outward appearance of the fish has become to be thought as resembling the face of the Evil One (cf. Loorits 1926: US 95).Various long-jawed species of fish have been popularly called 'windfish'. In coastal villages people used to hang the windfish outside and use it as a windsock. The coming of garpike Belone belone to the coastal waters before the Midsummer Day indicates the beginning of the Baltic herring's fishing season.Sturgeon Acipenser sturio was once considered an important food fish in Estonia, both for its flesh as well as roe. The collection of folklore at the second half of the 19th century began too late to find reports on this wholly agreeable species. Stylised figures of two sturgeons were depicted on the blazon of Narva town, and the 17th century öre coined in Narva. Remarkably, the popular name of the fish on the northern coast of Estonia was samb. According to the Finnish legends, sampo-fish was a giant mythical fish. And the Finno-Ugric myth about the three primordial bearers of the Earth is associated to the three sturgeons of the rivers. We might assume that the mythological concept which was inspired by the huge dimensions of the fish rather than particular species or family, concerned also other large fish (pike, sheatfish). The Russian word som and the Latvian word sams denoting sheatfish, not sturgeon, suggest the same. A legend from South-East Estonia concerning weatherfish Misgurnus fossilis or Cobitis fossilis, tells a story, where one of the characters, according to the register, was a snake (cf. Aa US 61). The Evil One tempted the rat to chew a hole into [Noah's] Ark, but the weatherfish closed the opening with its tail. There upon God rewarded weatherfish by naming them the best of fishes. A belief report from the northern coast of Lake Peipus contends that weatherfish could turn into snakes. And as weatherfish (much like eel) resemble snakes in many ways, the folkloric transmittance from one species to another is quite logical and expected.