The article focuses on some problems concerning the typology and taxonomy of animal proverbs. The term 'animal proverbs' denotes proverbs containing names of zoological creatures used in metaphorical or literal meaning.

The article begins with a theoretical approach to the clarity/vagueness (discreteness/continuativity) of proverb typology and the phenomenon of "type thickets" on the basis of W. Anderson's law of folkloric feedback. Then follows a general discussion on animal proverbs: presenting source material, pointing out the main problems that have been caught the interest of paremiologists so far, such as 1) the frequency of animals in proverbs and 2) the repertoire structure of animal proverbs.

Animal proverbs as a research subject has been divided in the following semantical-rhetorical categories: A. Proverbs concerning animal identity. B. Proverbs concerning the relationship between people and animals (usually in metaphorical meaning). C. Proverbs concerning the relationships between (metaphorical, as a rule) animals . D. Proverbs concerning the relation of animals (either metaphorical or non-metaphorical) towards non-zoological nature and dimensions. The article provides a brief characterisation of stereotypes belonging to the latter three categories under discussion.

Follows a more detailed overview of material belonging to category A, i.e. proverbs concerning the problem of specific identity of animals, or to be more exact, two subcategories determined by the topics and statements of the literal level of meaning: 1) The animal retains its specific identity ~ it will not ~ cannot be turned into another animal; 2) Son -- parent relationship, transmitting of special characteristics from parents to their offspring.

A few examples of groups extracted from subcategory 1:

Quasi-autologies:

'Animal X is X ~ remains an X'

In archive records on proverbial expressions, some types of comparisons with human beings make up nearly 8%, of which only 2.5% are known to form comparisons between two individuals.

For the Estonians the word «Christmas carol» denotes an authorial song, primarily a children's song or a hymn. Christmas songs are extremely rare among the old alliterative songs (runosongs). It seems to be typical to the old pre-Christian winter equinoctial customs that they are not very closely associated with calendrical songs. Several Christmas songs might be found among the more recent rhymed folk songs, which describe some local Christmas party or some other events during the Christmas period. Usually, they are long cheerful narratives which mention nothing of the holiday's Christian origin. One of such songs is «Ambroosiuse laul» (The Song of Ambrose) from the vicinity of Torma.

The song was created during the 1860s in Torma, Tartumaa region, and has gone through several stages: first a village song, then a popular song, and for the longest period a student song. The author of the song ingeniously hit the nail on the head using a family name that coincides with a name of the Italian bishop and saint, so, the song is about a generous and altruistic innkeeper called Ambrose. The song was inspired by an event that took place imminently before the Christmas. A tired soldier in rugs, who had just been released from a 25-year military service in the Tsarist Russia, had arrived at the stage of Torma. The innkeeper had given him shelter, food and clothes until the soldier went to search for his sister. The old soldier expressed his gratitude by washing all the inn floors on the morning of Christmas eve, and even brought a fine Christmas tree from the forest. In the evening, a party was held at the inn, where a local singer, violin player and comic Kristjan Kivi sang a song about it. The song describes the Christmas party as seen by the poor old soldier, who could take part of the party among the local crème thanks to the kindness of innkeeper.

The song began to circulate in Estonia from the Christmas of the 1860s on. Soon the song was spread through oral renditions and songbooks all over Estonia (see map 1).The song retained its original melody only in its place of «birth» (note samples 1 and 2, audio sample 1), in further distribution it has been sung to various tunes and with different refrains from its original area (samples 4 and 5) and from other regions of Estonia (sample 7, audio sample 3), but is best known with the tune of a well-known German student song Krambambuli (Krambambuli, das ist der Titel...) (note samples 3 and 6. audio sample 2). Refrains were added to the song mostly in oral performing, while the printed versions, like the first text of the song published in 1878, were mostly without refrains (Table 1).

The folklorisation process of «The Song of Ambrose», its adaptation with the village songs of the northern Tartumaa region, is clearly expressed in the song's association with so many different melodies. E.g. around Laiuse parish people used to sing local village songs to the tune of a certain hymn, adding the bundling songs a touch of parody. Sample 4 has also been sung to a choral tune. Another indication of the folklorisation of the song is its shifting towards the category of game songs. At the end of last century and the beginning of this century game songs were extremely popular among the Estonians and were a tacit part of every dance party, where they were played when the musician took his rest. Commonly played song games with interludes of shifting partners brought the players closer together and helped the young people make acquaintance. With the growth of popularity, several songs which were originally known as ordinary songs were turned round dances simply by adding refrains. Sample 5 represents the most popular melody of song games in northern Tartumaa region after a song game called «Mõisnik ja lambur» [Landlord and the Shepherdess], borrowed from the Germans not only by the Estonians, but also by the Finnish, Latvians and Lithuanians (Rüütel 1980: 430 - 441).

On the one hand we might consider «The Song of Ambrose» a village song, on the other it is a parody. Although it does not contain the vulgarity or direct ridicule so typical to village songs, the association humour in the Lutheran surroundings is inevitable. Thus we might regard «The Song of Ambrose» as a sort of an intellectual joke, understood only by those who shared the background knowledge. The comic effect makes reference also to the history of music, where the Hymn of Ambrose denotes a choir song with a flowing melody of early Christian music and verse lyrics.

The Estonian folk song The Making of a Woman is an extremely grotesque synthesis of the subject of humanity and elements of flora/fauna and lifeless nature. With its sarcastic message it sets out for taunting women with whatever it takes. In the song, the woman is made of rotten tree stump, her head of cabbage head, belly of cow's stomach, eyes of sheep eyes, teeth of old pieces of sawed wood, etc.

The chapter entitled «What's there to eat» describes the eating habits of the Chukchi herders and the peculiarities of their dishes. The main food was underdone or raw meat with no salt, and strong tea without sugar. At times we also ate mutton and bear meat and different fish. Fish was either raw, half-cooked or half-roasted. Underdone meat was eaten to prevent scurvy, while raw eyes and brain were considered a delicacy offered first to the guests and children. Parallels are drawn also between the will-will of the Chukchi and the Swedish sour herring surströmming.

Like other genres the folk tales of any society reflect emotions, needs, conflicts and other aspects of human psyche, that people acquire as a result of growing up in a specific culture. Folk tales is probably the most crystallised and apt expression of human thoughts. Study of folk tales prevalent in a society helps to understand the common universal elements on the one hand and certain characteristic traits specific to that society on the other.

Translated into Estonian by Margit Veromann. Illustration by P. Mikushev