One of the most famous Russian nursery rhymes that adults have used to amuse children since time immemorial is about the magpie. The text of this nursery rhyme is undoubtedly old and long-established. "Soroka-beloboka" or "soroka-raven" - she "cooked porridge", then "jumped on the threshold, waited for guests","called". The chirping of a magpie, indeed, according to popular belief, is for the appearance of guests. However, the guests in the nursery rhyme are children, it is the magpie who treats the children, giving them, one by one, his porridge. Everyone got it, except for the youngest, who was lazy and careless. And then-either: "Shoo-oo, flew, sat on the head!". Either the ending is different:
Go, boy, on the water On the cold krinitsa. Here's a tree stump, here's a deck, Here is moss, here is a swamp, It's cold water here.
Or else:
Here the keys are boiling-boiling!
With this ending, the adult's fingers make their way up the child's arm from the palm of the hand and up to tickle the armpit with the final words.
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So, the magpie is related to children. Just because a nursery rhyme song about her is fun for the little ones. But also because in the text of the nursery rhyme we are also talking about guests-children. Interestingly, the chirping of a magpie could portend not only the arrival of guests, but also the imminent birth of a child - a "newborn guest" (Nikiforovsky N. Ya. Common signs and beliefs, superstitious rites and customs, legendary tales about faces and places. Vitebsk, 1897. P. 192). The newborn was often called a "guest". In general, a guest was considered to come from afar, from a strange and alien, "other" world. The guest is potentially dangerous, and he needs to be treated to appease and win over himself. Then he can give gifts-signs of his benevolence. So called and the bride, and the merchant, and the stranger, the enemy and the deceased. So euphemistically called illness and death.
The newborn is also a guest, because he comes to our ...
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