Mythological aspects of names of the ladybird in Udmurt
The names of the ladybird in the Udmurt language are studied well enough. The linguistic map «ladybug» and its commentary, which is mainly a linguistic analysis of ways of expressing the names of the insect, are reflected in the first edition of the Dialectological Atlas of the Udmurt language. The purpose of this work is the reconstruction of mythological stories associated with the names of ladybugs. A study of the mythological aspects of the names of the ladybugs gave the opportunity to clarify the origin and evolution of the nominations of the insect, of which there are more than 70. It turns out that the reason for the huge variety of names for ladybug was the belief according to which this bug could bring rain or predict the weather. The nursery rhymes, either published or written down by the author during expeditions served as a source for the study. The analysis of nursery rhymes about ladybug has led us to the conclusion that they imitate pagan prayers to the gods in which they are asked to send rain. The ladybug itself symbolizes the red animal sacrificed to the God of weather Kuaz. Mythological ideas and nursery rhymes have accumulated different names of the insect, which appeared in connection with changes of trends in the development of society and language. In this respect nursery rhymes to a certain extent converge with spells, and a great number of names of ladybugs emerged and preserved in the Udmurt dialects because of them. But the bug «brings the rain» not in every dialect. Under the influence of a different (Chuvash) culture the ancient myth about the ladybird belonging to the Besermyan, Yukamensk and Glazov Udmurts (Northern Udmurts) was destroyed, their nursery rhymes have disappeared, the names of the insect became unified.