MWW 48: Хөөрөг

Cyrillic	хөөрөг
Transcription	höörög
IPA	[ˈxө:rək]
Layman’s Pronunciation	HOH-ruck
Meaning	snuff bottle
In Genghis Khan’s time it was kögürge.

An essential accessory at any Tsagaan Sar dinner, the хөөрөг is a small stone bottle filled with тамхи (tamhi - smoke, tobacco). It’s usually carried in a colorfully embroidered pouch (даалин, daalin). In bygone days this pouch would have been like a wallet. When you open the bottle, the cap (толгой / tolgoi, “head”) has a long, thin халбага (halbaga, spoon) attached, which fits inside the bottle and is used for scooping out the snuff. The tobacco is finely powdered and must have been mixed with something else, because it has a very pungent, spicy smell like incense that makes your nostrils flare up. Хөөргүүд (höörgüüd) are often intricately carved and made of colorful stone. A really nice one may be carved out of translucent stone. They are considered works of art and people are very proud to have a nice one. A drunk man once boasted to me that he spent 4,000,000 төгргөг (= $3,076.92?) on a snuff bottle once owned by the Dalai Lama.

A хөөрөг on its даалин.

Тамхилах

Тамхилах (tamhilah, verb from the noun тамхи) is a custom of exchanging snuff which remains important at Tsagaan Sar. When people meet for the first time during or after Tsagaan Sar, they offer each other their snuffbottles, preferably while they ask each other “Сайхан шинэлж байна уу?” The хөөрөг (and most other important objects) should be passed with the right hand, while the left hand is held under the right arm. Men who both have хөөрөг have perfected a kind of handshake where they both put their хөөрөг into each others’ hands at the same time. Then they scoop out a pinch of snuff from their friend’s stash and rub it under their noses. If, like me, you don’t to inhale the tobacco it, it’s acceptable to simply stick your nose on the bottle in a gesture of smelling, and hand it back.

Just as I mentioned before that айраг is not treated the same as other kinds of alcohol and is given to children, a хөөрөг is not treated the same as янжуур (yanjuur, cigarettes) or other kinds of tobacco. Smoking is extremely common among men in the countryside (I don’t know to what degree, but I estimate 2/3) but almost unheard of among women (but some of them smoke secretly, as female volunteers have told me). The хөөрөг, however, is universal and women aren’t embarrassed to own or use them. Хөөрөг tobacco is also used as a cold remedy, and possibly as a remedy for some other ailments. This doesn’t mean it can’t be addictive, as one volunteer discovered who spent his living allowance on snuff and used it in place of breakfast. But it might be less so, comparing its pattern of use with cigarette smoking in my community.

Би	дээл	-ээ	бүс	-лэ	-ж	хөөрөг	зөр	-үүл	-эх
I	deel	(reflexive suffix)	belt	(verbalizer)	(and simultaneously)	snuff bottle	exchange	(transitive)	(infinitive)

дээшээ	хий	морь	-той	Монгол	эр	хүн	дээ
upward	wind	horse	with	Mongolia(n)	male	person	(emphatic particle)

“I’m a deel-wearing, snuff-swapping, high-spirited Mongolian man!” (lyric from the song БиМонгол Эр Хүн Дээ, “I am a Mongolian Man,” my translation)

“A snuff bottle is passed with the right hand, while the left hand is held under the right arm.”

Хөөргө нь Монголчуудын баяр болох Цагаан Сар Наадамаар өргөн хэрэглэгддэг.