leqsebi

VIOLET ON THE MOUNTAIN
28. Tsangala da gogona (“The mandolin and the girl”). Sources: Ko 85; Go 159. The poem was recited
by M. Biminashvili in the Kartlian village K’arbi. Musical setting: GFS (Kakhetian; three-voice
chorus, in 2/4 meter). The tsangala is a plucked stringed instrument, similar to the Georgian
chonguri, a type of four-stringed lute. In the song, the tsangala itself is represented as speaking,
complaining about ill treatment and being blamed when a dancer makes a mistake .
29. Vazhis nat’vra (“A young man’s wish”). Sources: Ko 136; Go 157. Recorded by T. Razik’ashvili in
the province of Kartli. Variants: LP 70-1, 216-17.
30. Me var Qhel-Samdzimari (“I am Qhel-Samdzimari”). Source: MP 105, 107. The first section was
recited by Jukha Gogoch’uri in the Khevsur village Buchuk’urta in 1964; the second part was
recorded by T. Ochiauri in the Khevsur village Shat’ili. Qhel-Samdzimari (or simply Samdzimari,
Samdzivari) was one of three women said to have been brought back by the deity St. George after
his military expedition in Kajeti, a land inhabited by metal-working demons with wondrous powers.
Her name derives from the beads and bangles (mdzivi) with which she adorns herself. Among her
magical powers is the capability of changing her shape, so that she appears to mortals in the guise of
a human female. While sojourning upon the earth, she becomes the object of desire of various
semilegendary priests and oracles. Their cohabitation with the deity Samdzimari symbolizes their
powers of communication with the gods [SR 570]. The Khevsur Kholiga Abuletauri, according to
one account, was not given permission to marry by the powerful deity Qhaqhmat’i. He was to live as
a monk (beri) in the service of Qhaqhmat’i’s shrine. One day, Samdzimari came to Kholiga at the
shrine in human form, and consented to live with him as his wife [MP 246-7]. Her divine nature was
not discovered until one day her mother-in-law saw her magically fashioning a golden ring in a pot
of molten butter. Samdzimari then resumed her true form and flew off [SR 569, 577]. Khevsur
hunters have been known to invoke Samdzimari’s name in praying for luck in hunting, and, if
successful, to offer the horns of a deer or ibex at her shrine in gratitude. This fact, combined with the
legends concerning Samdzimari’s amorous affairs with mortals, has led the folklorist M. Chikovani
to consider her, and not Ochopintra (poem #26), the original northeast Georgian counterpart to the
Svanetian goddess Dali [MP pp 243-8]. According to the poem she gathers ch’ima, the name of a
local variety of chervil [Chaerophyllum caucasicum] and lakht’ara, an herb similar to wood sorrel
(GMD 349). Charachidzé notes that the Khevsurs prepare an “extremely nourishing” dish from the
leaves of the ch’ima, which only women are allowed to eat [SR 579-80, 613-14] .
31. Adgilis-dedao (“Place-mother”). Source: MP #103, p 140. Recorded by A. Ch’inch’arauli in
Khevsureti in 1939. In traditional times the Georgians believed, in the words of the poet and
ethnographer Vazha-Pshavela, “that each place — mountain, hill, ravine — has a mother, which they
call the ‘place-mother.’ A hunter camping in the mountains or in a ravine will commend himself to
the local place-mother: ‘Mother of this place, I entrust myself to you; grant me your favor and
bounty.’” (Collected works vol V, p. 11). The cult of the place-mother has been closely associated
with that of the Virgin Mary (note that the place-mother is addressed as “mother of God” in our
poem). One common feature of rituals in honor of either the place-mother or Mary is the offering,
typically in springtime, of small cakes, and the smearing of butter on the shrine, a small tower of
stones. The participants in the ritual are women and children. The place-mother is asked to provide
bounty to the household, especially in dairy products and grains (MP 352-3; DGF I, 23; Natia
Jalabadze “Adgilis dedastan dak’avshirebuli zogierti rit’ualis shesakheb” [Concerning some rituals
associated with the Place-mother] Ist’oriul-Etnograpiuli Sht’udiebi II, 1985). The place-mother may
also function as a portent of doom, as in the following quatrain [cited in ShKh 569] entitled Adgilisdeda
chioda (“The place-mother moaned”):
The place-mother moaned,
The village elder’s dying,
Do not kill him, Lord Creator,
We too will be ruined.
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