Aetiological legends about the origin of flies and gnats among the peoples of Siberia
67th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Gotemba 2025
In the tradition of the Altaic peoples, and possibly also in their perception, gnats and flies once seem to have been given special attention. While it appears that the Altaians were not aware of or did not differentiate insects too widely within entomological concepts, the lower dipterans are apparently not only distinguished quite clearly between different orders, but the members of these orders are also ‘classified’ ‒ or at least named ‒ according to their characteristics and appearance. Now this may reflect less the linguistic-historical realities than the fact that gnats and flies were (and of course still are) not only regarded as a particular plague by the Siberians. The European travellers, some of whom were educated naturalists and travelled through the ‘Sleeping Land’ in the 18th and 19th centuries, also included the names for the various lower dipterans given by local populations in their vocabularies ‒ which is why these are comparatively better documented than the names for other insects.
However, this is by no means just a lexicographically interesting Altaic entomology. Due to the disadvantageous properties of these insects for the Siberians themselves, as already indicated, the perception linked to them has found expression in the folklore of various Altaic peoples ‒ in the form of aetiological legends in which the origin of gnats (sometimes also of flies) is discussed, whereby their origin is usually explained in terms of ‘evil spirits’ or (possibly already under Christian influence?) the ‘devil’ himself. Although one might initially think here of the Christian ‘Lord of the Flies’ or the demoness Nasu from Zoroastrian ‘dæmonology’, in fact, in the tales of the Altaians, in which a corresponding origin is treated, we have before us topoi that are also known among other peoples of the circumpolar region ‒ due to the same perception of the lower dipterans as plagues. In the lecture, the speaker will discuss these similarities using examples from Tungusic folklore.