That's what the title of the popular children's (and everybody's) song "
Sauna taga tiigi ääres" means. So what did the characters Miku and Manni look like? Has anybody illustrated this tale?... They were catching
konna/poegi (tadpoles, pollywogs, literally "frog young")
lõhki/löödud panniga – with a old, beaten up, cracked pan. (In the original rhyme, written in 1901 by Hermann Julius Schmalz, they were catching "
ühe poti tükiga".)
Instead of Miku and Manni, here we have 3 girls from Tallinn on their season opener weekend in the country: Suvi Mari, Helena and Tuule, in grades 2, 3 and 4 respectively. No
pann, no
saun in sight and the
vee/kogu (body of water) is not natural, but was also not intended to be a
tiik (pond). What locals call
Tika auk, the hole at the crossroads on Saaremaa island known as Tika, used to be a
kruusa/karjäär (gravel pit) during the period of Soviet occupation. Since then,
allikad (springs) have filled it with water and currently its warm pools are full of hundreds of tiny, black
konna/kullesed – the official name for tadpoles. But of which
konna/liik (species), I unfortunately cannot say, even with the help of
http://konnad.elfond.ee/maaram....
The Estonian etymological dictionary says
kulles comes from the lower German "
kule" for tadpole. A
kulles is the tailed aquatic
vastne (larva, larval stage) of a
kahe/paikne (amphibian); frog, toad, newt or salamander –
konn, kärn/konn, vesilik või salamander. They breathe through
lõpused (gills) and as they grow, develop
kopsud (lungs) and
jäsemed (limbs) and reabsorb their
sabad (tails). Miku and Manni ended up fighting about what these
muundused (metamorphoses) signified, but these young ladies enjoyed a
konnakulles foot massage, not much unlike the trendy live fish procedures
kala/pediküür or
kala/teraapia.
Mai on Eestis kesk/konna/kuu. Not middle frog month, but environment month, since the nominative is
kesk/kond – the place you are in the middle of (
keskel). But who could be a better poster boy for
kesk/konna/kuu than the
konn?!
Aprill is actually the month when
konnad are in the spotlight in Eesti, since that is the month of their
ränne (migration) to breeding grounds, when thousands of volunteers come out to help them cross roads and highways safely. Visit the Facebook page "
Konnad teel" (Frogs on the Road) and
www.konnad.elfond.ee.
Estonia has been experiencing an unseasonable heat wave for almost 2 weeks and Tika auk has also welcomed this year's first
inim (human) swimmers.
Photo and text: Riina Kindlam, Tallinn
