"Fox had a icy icehouse, and Hare has a bast ..." Lubyanaya izba: what was Zaykin's house made of?

Everyone remembers from childhood a fairy tale "Zaykina izbushka". We were once read by mothers and grandmothers, and now we tell our children and grandchildren. And that it is a sin to conceal, often we are confounded by the child's question: "The bastard's hut ... What is it made of?"

Mysteries of Russian fairy tales

Folk Russian fairy tales, which were heard by many generations of children, came to us from ancient times. The famous Russian philologist V. Propp believed that the roots of the tale go to primitive mythology, and their meaning is much deeper than the plain plot.

These works of oral folk art are emotionally saturated, instructive, they compel empathy for heroes, awaken fantasy. Their educational function is enormous. But sometimes tales contain words, concepts and expressions that are not understood not only by young children, but also by modern adults. This makes it difficult to perceive the text, but the child seeks to satisfy his curiosity, understand, understand.

For example, what kind of "suseki", according to which the old woman scraped flour for Kolobok? Why did the hut of Baba Yaga have chicken legs and what kind of stupa did the owner herself fly by? Or why did the harmful old woman Ivan-Tsarevich put in a stove on a shovel? She digs the ground ...

To such not completely understandable old bikes is the children's fairy tale about Zaykin's hut. "There lived in the forest Fox and Hare. And Lisa had an icy cabin, and Zaika had a bast ... "What's made of a bastard's lodge?

What is a bast

To answer this question, we must first understand what kind of material is a bast.

On a piece of wood or on a fresh stump, three differently colored layers are clearly visible: the dark outer is the bark, the lightest and dense interior is wood, and between them a layer of fairly soft, light brown or yellowish color. This is the forehead - the inner part of the cortex, or, as V. Dahl wrote - "the subcore", the "undercourt".

Removed from the tree trunk, peeled from the bark and dried bast is a fairly rough and at the same time flexible cloth. At some trees, for example, at a linden, the bast is easily separated into separate fibers which are called as a bast.

So that's what a bast-house! Made from a bast - soft "podkorja".

In the past, the word "bast" was often also referred to as coarse nettles and cannabis fibers, which are used to make mats. But this has nothing to do with Zaikin's hut.

What was done from the bast

The material that Bunny chose for his house, only to a modern ignorant person may seem unusual. In the past, the bast made many necessary things in the household, and now it is widely used in arts and crafts.

Most often, the linden's lapping was used. It bends well and divides into fibers, has a pleasant golden color and smells aromatic with honey.

From the lime bast boxes were made of all sizes - in them in the old days were stored a variety of things and food; Baskets, tuesa, small bowls, breadcrumbs and even cradles-cradles. Of the finer fibers of the bast-lapa, the most common shoes were used-bast shoes, bast shoes, ropes, woolen mats for special needs on special machines.

Sometimes the roof covered with a bow, instead of shingles. But what does the bast house mean?

Why bast?

An inquisitive and inquisitive kid, listening to a fairy tale and explanations of an adult, will necessarily ask why the Bunny did not build a house for himself, for example, from logs, boards or clay. By the way, in one of the modern versions of the fairy tale, the hut has a hare of sand. Probably that parents do not puzzle over the explanation.

Having figured out where the bunny's hut got from, where it's made, it remains to find out why it is from the bast, not from another, more suitable material for the construction of the dwelling.

The fairy tale, as you know, is a lie, but it contains a hint. Despite all the fantastic situations, fairy tales are logical in their own way. Children are realists in general, their thinking is concrete, and the peasant children clearly would have doubted if Bunny had an ax and saw. The hare simply could not build a hut of logs and boards, and there are no clays in the forest, and this animal does not dig holes.

And he bites the bark from the trees, especially in the winter. The soft bark and the bough of young trees are the main winter food of these animals in the forest. Even there is an ancient children's village, in which the hare "lapped ... under the deck".

So it turns out that Bunny could only have a bast house. What is made of and why it is from this material, is explained from the point of view of logic and everyday experience. But there is one more important point.

Poetics of a fairy tale

Folk tales have a special poetic language. The narrator's speech flows unhurriedly, like a forest stream, every word in it in its place, is filled with not only sense, but also sound. After all, it's not for nothing that the fox has a snowy izba, but an ice house. "Lazy Cottage, Ice Cottage" - these definitions are simultaneously opposite in meaning and very close in sound. Soft gentle phrases perfectly intertwine in the lace of the fairy tale, make it almost a poetic work. And children are so soft lullaby words are better perceived and remembered.