Carthage, Tibet and Kolyma - what do they have in common? Who used to be?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In the stories of N. M. Przhevalsky there is a legend that he heard from the Tibetans. She somehow explained to the travelers the palpable distrust of the locals.

I quote:

Many of the local legends are original. There is a legend very reminiscent of the legend of the construction of Carthage by Dido.

In very old times, it was as if some yang-guiza came to the border of Tibet in order to get into the country, but he was not allowed there. Then he asked to be sold a piece of land equal to a bull's hide. The Tibetans agreed to this, entered into a formal condition and took the money. Yan-guiza cut the skin into thin straps and circled with them a large area of the earth, which no one could dispute with him. From then on, the Tibetans began to fear the cunning Europeans.

The following is usually said about Dido (in Roman mythology, the queen, the founder of Carthage) … After fleeing after the death of her husband with many companions and treasures to AFRICA, Dido bought land from the Berber king Yarba. By condition, she could take as much land as a bull's hide would cover; cutting the skin into thin belts, Dido surrounded a large area with them and founded the citadel of Carthage Birso on this land."

Is this plot repeated elsewhere? - Yes, and, as it turns out, a lot.

A similar plot was recorded by L. S. Tolstova in Khiva, among the Turkmen in the twentieth century. This legend tells how Hazirat Polvan-ata managed by deceit to demand from the king of India as many people as fit on the skin of a cow: having cut the skin of a cow into thin straps, he surrounded a large territory, where he placed many people; he took these people to Khorezm.

G. P. Snesarev among the Turkic-speaking population of the Khorezm oasis. For example, this author also has a motive of cheating, deceit in the development of new lands, when the new settlers ask the owners for "a little land - only the size of a bull's skin."

This plot was also found among the small northern people of the Yukaghirs, whose language researchers still find it difficult to attribute to a specific language family. The Yukaghir legend “Peter Berbekin” tells how old people send Peter Berbekin to the ruler of the Upper World. Pyotr Berbekin takes a bovine hide, cuts it in a circle with a narrow ribbon, and he has a long ribbon. Arriving in the Upper World, Peter surrounded a huge square with a ribbon, made a border and inside it he scattered the earth he had taken with him and put crosses in the four corners. Thus, he made himself the middle ground and began to live here. The Lord of the Upper World sent his subordinates to punish Peter Berbekin, but they could not do this, since they could not penetrate inside the fenced-in area. Peter answered them that he was standing on his own land. Indeed, the land is fenced on all sides, crosses are placed on all four sides, and there is nowhere to get there. So Peter Berbekin escaped punishment.

This plot about cheating with the land with the help of a ribbon cut from a bull's hide is also adjoined by the motives of settling new lands with the help of a bull or resettlement to new lands on the back of a bull. The motive of settling new lands with the help of a bull is also found in the Zoroastrian text Bundahishn, which speaks of the heads of six clans, who crossed Lake Vurukasha on the back of a mythical bull and settled new lands. Taken here

The conclusion is obvious. The legend has a prototype event - here not as with a flood that touched many inhabitants of the Earth - this prototype is not rooted in historical myths, but is located deeper in the true annals of terrestrial events.