The informant's own song, She composed it around the age of 11. At this time, she already went hunting on her own, because her mother was facing great difficulties in raising her child. Contributing the income from squirrel hunting to the family budget, the author felt that she was already a full, valuable member of society. In traditional Ob-Ugric upbringing, 12–13-year-old children were actually pursuing serious production activities, which was more spectacular in the case of hunting-fishing boys than in the case of girls doing the processing. Due to their poverty and the family structure, the author conducted a boy's lifestyle. The song, though not consciously, was created on the occasion of "coming of age". According to the author's account, the above case is typical. Following the improvisations expressing momentary feelings in a few repeating lines created by young children, composing the first "self-identification" personal songs would be attempted when, in pre-adolescence, children were already involved in more serious work supervised by their parents. According to traditional norms, the decision – by the parents – about the most important event of their lives, marriage, also happened at this age. There was no songworthy past behind the children at this age yet (in folklore, apart from the formulas "cradled" and "romping" child, there is not a single motive that would reflect life at ages before marriage). In the meantime, they are also not so actively familiar with song culture as to be able to express individual events in an adequate poetic form. Thus, the first personal song attempts are rather thematic and short: the most secure composing method for children is to adopt lines that can reference their own lives (e.g. formulas for housework in the case of girls, ones for hunting in the case of boys, the description of the native village, etc.) from the songs of older relatives almost word for word. The present song is the only known Ostjak example for the poetry of the age at which the themes of choosing a mate and proposing are not yet included. As the songs of young people on the threshold between childhood and adulthood actually reflect the adequate aspects of the songs of older relatives, the songs of 10–15-year-old girls can be inferred to contain the following motives: – birth (especially among the eastern and western Voguls) – rocking in the cradle – infancy – growing of the hand/foot – becoming capable of work – identifying the mother (and other relatives) (this is absolutely necessary as early as in the first motive) – identifying the place of birth – a motive that is present from village praising songs to the shortest improvisation – formulas referring to daily activities – from any personal song. The girls do not preserve their childhood songs, nor do mothers the lullabies composed for their children. These songs did not count as important from the point of view of the community's and the author's identity, their significance was obscured by personal songs with more character that came after them or simultaneously with them. However, the songs were not lost without trace. The songs of choosing a mate and the ones describing the proposal usually begin with the motives listed above, some elements, like the identification of the mother and the native village are common in songs of women with families as well. So the phenomenon that 15–17-year-old brides immortalize the most important events of their lives in long songs does not happen without any precedent: at least half of the work might be at their disposal elaborated to every minute detail in their girlhood song, which they incorporate in their first personal song that is worth preserving. Later they may use the motives of the song of getting married in their song of womanhood, but they are already expected to preserve the original song in full. Adolescent girls will go on to compose the song of choosing a mate and the proposal on the model of this later. Small children improvise without much inhibition on the model of adults' songs, while those on the threshold of adulthood already observe the form of their first songs that can be performed in the community. The first thing to clarify when composing a song is the tune: this determines the meter. In Smolina's experience, children living in small villages almost automatically adopted the tune of their mother's or father's personal song for their own pieces, as this was what they heard the most, and could remember well how the text's formulas were matched to the tune. The tune of women's and men's songs, and especially their style of performance was different (kăt sĭra mănǝs ʽit went in two ways'), and the essence of creating a song was that the young author sang new "words" (that is, formulas) to the tune. Smolina created the present song based on her mother's song, adopting from her the old Sos'va women's tune to which her ancestors must have composed their personal songs for several generations. Her mother sang her song with Vogul lyrics, Smolina, being bilingual, could have performed her creation in Vogul as a child (it was easier to transform it "directly"), however, as she got older she only manages to do it in Ostjak. Studying the song, one thing is clear: the educational impact of formulas composed straight to meter and passed on in sung form is perfect. The 11-year-old child navigated with full confidence among the main rules of metrics, matched the linguistic stresses to the musical stresses, placed the most varied filler syllables and used the archaic poetic word forms in an exemplary manner. If there is one weakness of the song, it is that its meter is too regular compared to its content: it is the creation of an author who is not yet in command of third degree rules and the possibilities of variation. In the author's childhood, composing a personal song was still a basic norm. This is implied by the closing formula adopted from older people "let them keep singing my song after my death"), and her remark relating to this: śăχa juχt uttǝ aj ewǝ, aj pŏχleŋkeť jetpetǝ at arijta. wɔt ĭ jetpeť ĭj mănt. štɔpǝ jŏχ χĭśta aj ewǝ, aj pŏχnǝ, tĭw lŏptǝt, ĭ jetpetǝ at arijta. lŏpt: ma χăttem kĭ, uštem kĭ jŭpǝn at pŏminajtta. uštem kĭ jŭpǝn at pŏminajtta. ʽThen let the little girls, little boys who will live later on keep singing it. And this is how (the song) keeps going on and on. That the little girl, little boy remaining, so they (the older people) say, should keep singing it. She says: let them remember it after my death, after my demise.'