Recordings from the Estonian Folklore Archives 3

Flax for the Sliders!

Liisa Kümmel Tori (1961)

No vastla õhta, siis keedeti seajalad ära. Kes tuli mäe otsa – seajalg pius. Ja ollid vastlakukled, need tehti siis kah, vastlakuklid, vastla saiad. No need kätte ja siis mäe otsa kõik liugu laskma. Kus vidasime vahest ree mäe otsa ja, ja seal siis mäest alla, nii kudas – kudas aga läks. Jaa, aga vanad inimesed siis ikke laultsid:

Well, on Shrovetide eve we would boil pigs' trotters. Whoever climbed up the hill had a pig's trotter in their hand. And we had Shrovetide buns, we would make those too, Shrovetide buns, Shrovetide cakes. Well, with these in hand, we all went up the hill to do some sliding. Sometimes we dragged a sleigh up the hill and then we would slide down helter-skelter. Yes, that's right, and the old folk would sing:

Liugu, laugu!
Linad pikad, luust lahti ja libedad,
liugu, laugu,
linad liulaskijalle,
tutrad tuasistujalle!
Ei sa tohe ümmer minna,
siis jääb linad koerusesse.

Siuke oli see liulaskmise laul. – Ah nii, et vanemad inimesed laulsid? – Vanad inimesed jah. Kui nad tullid vahest noortega sinna siss, sis laulsid, nemad laulsid ikke, noored inimesed oskand laulda kedagi.

Slide and glide!
Long flax, smooth and comes easily apart,
slide and glide,
flax for the sliders,
mud-rushes for those sitting inside!
You mustn't fall over,
then the flax will go to seed.

That was the sliding song. – I see, and the old folks sang it? – That's right, the old folks. Whenever they came up with the young people, then they would sing, they would always sing. The young people didn't know how to sing for anything.

RKM, Mgn. II 522 a < Pärnu raj., Tori kn., Ore k. (Tori khk.) – H. Tampere Kirjandusmuuseumi ekspeditsioonil 1961. a. < Liisa Kümmel, 73-a.
[LP II a 4; CD1-19]. Lippus 1988, 38 (nr. 22).