Votian and ingrian folk songs

Maidens coming to the swing are asking whether the swing has been made by their brother or some malevolent stranger. Own people are served eggs and pancakes, but strangers are given only stewed snakes.

Ingrian swinging traditions are explained in more detail at Votian swinging songs. The melody here, recorded from Ingrians of Soikola (Soikino), is a typical swinging melody which is also used, for example, in Shrovetide songs. Unlike the Votian melodies here, this one has no parallel variant in Estonia. Nevertheless, the songs slightly resemble Estonian swinging songs in their elaborate embellishments in the melody. Based on his fieldwork observation, the Finnish linguist and folklorist Vihtori Alava has divided a song line into four equal parts and has referred to this as “swing-based measure”, which could be interpreted as follows—during the singing of one line, the swing goes back and forth twice, with each quarter of a line marking the swing’s movement in one direction or another.