Zinaida says that before the deportation of the Kalmyks in 1943, Kalmyk children used to utter the following saying during games - ‘tomorrow, tomorrow we will travel through the forest with other people and the cows’. Indeed, later all the Kalmyks were exiled to Siberia. According to Zinaida, by uttering inauspicious words the people brought this upon themselves. Since words have power, one has always to think and talk positively, even if this contradicts the reality. For example, in the past during tax inspections the Kalmyks were asked whether they had livestock to which they usually replied in the positive, although some did not have livestock. There is a belief in Kalmykia that sewing after sunset shortens one’s life. Zinaida, who loves sewing, says that she did not follow this traditional wisdom and as a result became a widow when she was only 45.