a Pite Sámi legend from Arjeplog, from Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V (1893)

The kitniha are the underground people of Sámi belief, who live and keep house beneath the earth much as people do above it. This legend was told in Pite Sámi by Sámi of Arjeplog parish and taken down by Ignácz Halász at Saltdalen in Norway in 1891. A kitniha man, unseen by everyone but the girl betrothed to him, sits every evening in the doorway of a farm's byre; when she bears his child he asks her father for her and shows him the kitniha's own house close by, and the priest is fetched to drive house and kitniha away.

Translation

Once the old folk used to tell this too: that a kitniha man was to be betrothed to a human girl, and the daughter of the house was there still. Then every evening, when that girl went to her work in the byre, that kitniha man would be sitting there in the byre doorway; but the other girls saw nothing. But she who was betrothed to that kitniha, she saw him there every evening, sitting. Then they had been betrothed that long while, and then the girl got a child. And when the girl had got the child, the kitniha man drew up before the girl's father and asked whether he might now have that girl of his.

But the girl's father says: "I don't know you." Then the stranger says: "We are now the nearest neighbours." Then the old man grew more amazed still, and said: "How then can we be the nearest neighbours?" Then the stranger says: "Come, I shall show you where our house is." At once the girl's father went out, and the kitniha showed him where their house was.

Their house was there, close by, just below the byre: a big house painted red. And the old man was very greatly astonished when he saw that the neighbour was so near him. But he did not want in any way to give his girl to the kitniha.

Then the old man had to go to the priest, and when the priest came, he too saw that red house, which had now become plain to see; everyone who so much as came there saw it. And then the priest drove the house away together with the kitniha, so that they never saw or heard them again.

— That kitniha lad had a very ugly and koʼbᵉdo face; he had not been as fair to look on as a kitniha woman. And then that daughter of the house had to tend alone the child that she had got from the kitniha; and the kitniha let his dear bride go, and had then to give in, and had also to forget the human girl and seek another bride from among his own kitniha kin.

Colophon

Translated from the Pite Sámi of Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 25, p. 34, in the section of kinē (kitniha) legends. Halász took these texts down in 1891 at Saltdalen from Sámi of Arjeplog parish, and printed a Hungarian translation after each, which was not consulted: it was masked out of the page images before translation.

The words that decide the reading were checked in K. B. Wiklund's Lule-lappisches Wörterbuch (1890), in Lindahl and Öhrling's Lexicon Lapponicum (1780), in Halász's South Sámi dictionary (Svéd-lapp nyelv IV, 1891) and in Joshua Wilbur's A Grammar of Pite Saami (2014). Kinē is the singular of kitniha, the underground people (Wiklund p. 35 s.v. katnɪhe-, nom. kanej, "unterirdischer Mensch"), and the name is kept in Sámi in the English; khārān, khārānen is "man, fellow" (Wiklund p. 32 s.v. karane-, "Mann", from Swedish karlen); kilhlātuwwum is "betrothed" (Lindahl–Öhrling p. 144 s.v. KIHLE, the pledge given to a bride, "arrhabo matrimonii"); alᵃbma and albmūlačai are "human"; ēmēt-näʼiṭa, ēmēt näʼiṭa is "the daughter of the house", ēmēt being the mistress of the household (Wiklund p. 9 s.v. emete-, "Hausmutter"; Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index p. 608 s.v. Fru: emet). Fērhtan ēhkēṭen, färhtan ēhkēṭen is "every evening" (Halász IV p. 205 s.v. fiärhta, "jeder, all"; fiärhtn aikien, "immer"). Uksa-kaskan is "in the doorway" (Wiklund p. 34 s.v. kaska-, "Mitte; Zwischenraum"); kēssāt … ouṭoi is "drew up before" (Wiklund p. 38 s.v. ḳese-, "ziehen"); ǟtnu is "asks" (Wiklund p. 7 s.v. atnu-, "bitten, begehren"); amās is "the stranger" (Lindahl–Öhrling p. 18 s.v. Amas, "peregrinus, ignotus, främmande, okänd"); krannā are "neighbours" (Lindahl–Öhrling p. 58 s.v. GRANNA, "vicinus, granne"); ōwṭuhepmai šadda is "grew more amazed" (Wiklund p. 84 s.v. outu-, "Wunder", and outuhe-, "sich über etwas wundern"); vûsēhtėt, vûsēht is "show" (Wiklund p. 175 s.v. vuəseɔte-, "zeigen"); talānak is "at once" (Wiklund p. 141 s.v. talą(ka), S.J. taląk, "sogleich"); stōhpū is "house" (Lindahl–Öhrling p. 513 s.v. TÅPPE, "domus, aedicula, stuga, vid. ståpo"); rupsis is "red" (Wiklund p. 110 s.v. ruəpse-, attributive ruəpsis, "rot"); sagga is "very" (Wiklund p. 113, "sehr"). Herrā, härrā is "the priest" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index p. 662 s.v. Präst: herra), and herrā kuku "to the priest"; pārūs is "plain to see" (Lindahl–Öhrling p. 315 s.v. PAROS, "manifestus, uppenbar"); pära is "only, just" (Wiklund p. 88 s.v. para, "nur, bloss", from Swedish bara), and kuhte pära pọ̄htin "who so much as came"; vōďďūtī is "drove away" (Wiklund p. 172 s.v. vuəđele-, "treiben, antreiben"); jalā is "or" (the word Halász uses to introduce variants). Suʼihtėt is "tend" (Halász IV p. 145 s.v. süihtet, "weiden lassen, hüten"); oččui is "had to, got to" (Halász IV p. 19 s.v. oaccet, "get"); pēstī is "let go" (Wiklund p. 92 s.v. peste-, "loslassen, verlieren"); vajāltuhtit is "forget" (Wiklund p. 164 s.v. vajaluɔte-, "vergessen"); slēktast is "from the kin" (Lindahl–Öhrling p. 420 s.v. SLÄKT, "genus, slägt").

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: tahta in ēmēt-näʼiṭa lī ville tahta is read as "there", as in the other legends of this section where it recurs; "willing" is the other possibility. Ċēntai in aktan ċēntai vaʒʒā fiksan is read as "to her work"; it is in none of the dictionaries, and may be a Scandinavian loan. Fiksa (fiksan, fiksast) is read as "the byre", the building in which the girl does her evening work and beside which the red house stands; it is not in the dictionaries in this sense. Aktan in aktan ċēntai vaʒʒā fiksan is left unrendered: Wiklund has aktan only in phrases meaning "suddenly" (p. 2 s.v. ąttan; p. 81 s.v. oi've-), and with the unknown ċēntai its sense here is not decided. Kalhkai … kilhlātuwwum is rendered "was to be betrothed": kalhkai is the past of the verb "shall", which the grammar describes only with the infinitive (Wilbur Table 8.1, p. 154); its use with a perfect participle is not described. Vœllēlačan in kûran vœllēlačan fiksast is read as "just below (the byre)"; mällihtum as "painted" (compare Swedish måla); alᵃvahtuvāi as "was astonished"; incik in ī incik sitā as "in any way", and pēďďat there, elsewhere in this section "lay, put", as "give (in marriage)"; aktan … kum as "together with". Koʼbᵉdo, said of the kitniha lad's face, is not decided and is kept in Sámi; krûpēs is read as "ugly" and kōvvū as "fair to look on", both from the sentence, which sets the lad against "a kitniha woman". In the last paragraph tāhtne is rendered "that" (the kitniha lad), and tahtā in ohcot ēčā morsēp̣ tahtā ēċas kinē-slēktast is not rendered. Vûjuhtuwwut is read as "give in", a passive of a verb "to win" (compare Wiklund p. 170 s.v. vɪdnɪje-, "gewinnen; überwinden"), not proved. Topto is "know" and lakāmus "nearest", by the Lule cognates. Halász's bracketed (n) in mijā(n) is kept in the Source Text. Pite Sámi is close to Lule and South Sámi; where no dictionary of those languages decides a word, the reading is named here.

No English translation of this text is known to us.

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Source Text: Supcas kinē-khārānen pirra, ku’te alᵃbma nēiṭaina lī kilhlātuwwum

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 25, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined; Halász's two paragraphs are divided here at the same places as the English.

sōmēs āiḳēn āi supcastillin tā vûrrasa, āhte kinē-khārān kalhkai alᵃbma nēiṭäina kilhlātuwwum ja ēmēt-näʼiṭa lī ville tahta. tē fērhtan ēhkēṭen, ko tā’t näʼiṭa aktan ċēntai vaʒʒā fiksan, tē ċohkoha tat kinē-khārān uksa-kaskan tatne fiksan, vala ē tū ēčā nēiṭa aktauk vuinē. vala tut, kuhte lī kilhlātuwwum täina kitnihin, son vɵidnā sū färhtan ēhkēṭen tasne čohkohēmēn. tē läpā talle tān kuhkēw urrum kilhlātuwwum ja tē näʼiṭa uǯǯu mānāp̣. ja ku tut näʼiṭa lī mānāp̣ uǯǯum, tē kēssāt talle tat kinē-khārān tūn nēiṭa āhčē ouṭoi ja ǟtnu, jus talle lī oǯǯut tau sū nēiṭau.

vala tē nēiṭan ahhčē jahhtā: «ip̣ monno tū topto.» tē jahhtā tut amās: «mija lihpē talle lakāmus krannā.» te ōwṭuhepmai talle tut vûras šadda ja jahhta: «koktes läpe ańe mija tā lakāmus krannā?» tē jahhtā tūt amās: «pōtē, tē kalhkap̣ monno vûsēhtėt tuńi, konne lē mijā(n) stōhpū.» tē talānak vœʼlĕḳā nēiṭan ahhčē ulhkus ja tē vûsēht tut kinē, kosne lē sija stōhpū.

tē lī sijān stōhpū tasne kûran vœllēlačan fiksast, stûrra rupsis mällihtum stōhpū. ja tē alᵃvahtuvāi tut vûras alvūs sagga, ku’ vuinī, āhte krannā lī sūnä nau lahka. vala ī incik sitā kitnihī nēiṭaus pēďďat.

tē virhtī talle vûras mannat herrā kuku ja ku’ härrā pōtī, vuinī son āi tāp̣ rupsis stōpūp̣, jute tat stōhpū talle šattai pārūs; vuidnėn kāihka, kuhte pära pọ̄htin tohko. ja tē härrā vōďďūtī stōpūp̣ aktan kitnihī kum, iččin tiste ville vuinē jalā kulā.

— tē lī tāhtne kinē-pārhtnēn alvūs krûpēs ja koʼbᵉdo mūhtū, ī lam son kōvvū nau ku’ kinē-khuina’. ja tē oččui talle tāht ēmēt näʼiṭa suʼihtėt uktu tāp̣ mānāp̣, mau lī uǯǯum kitnihist ja kinē pēstī tāp̣ kērēs morsēps ja virhtī talle vûjuhtuwwut ja virhtit āi vajāltuhtit albmūlačai nēiṭap̣ ja ohcot ēčā morsēp̣ tahtā ēċas kinē-slēktast.

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 25, p. 34. Public domain. Transcribed from the page images of the scan of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (REAL-EOD 4154). Halász's spelling is kept letter for letter, with his length marks, dots above and below, breves, raised vowels, ǟ, ɵ, œ, ʒ and ǯ, č and ċ as printed, the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ), and his bracketed (n). His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

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