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

The kitniha are the underground people of Sámi belief, unseen neighbours who keep their own herds and dislike noise and bad manners. 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 man building a hut alone hears two of the kitniha talking beside him as he falls asleep, and the place is never the same for him or his family again.

Translation

It happened once, too, in a certain place, that a man meant to put up a hut on a certain spot, but he was working there alone. It was summer then, and that man was mowing hay for fodder, without his kinsfolk. And when he had worked the whole day and was tired, he made a fire on that spot and fed himself. When he had eaten, he lay down to sleep.

But when he had just closed his eyes, he heard a rustling sound close beside him, and heard two people talking and piʼrīḳė; and he saw, too, that one of those people was one-eyed. Then those people talked among themselves and said: "Now a new neighbour has come to us, but that man is a terrible swearer." Then one of those people said: "I am going away from here; I do not want to stay here, since that new neighbour of ours is such a swearer." The other answered: "I am not going away, all the same; I am staying here, all the same." And then the two of them vanished.

Then that man, the human one, got up and set to work, and in truth he was indeed a swearer. He never again slept in that same place, and no grass at all grew on that spot. Nor did he see anything more; but he heard several times how there was a din over there, just as if they were driving a big herd.

And once, too, the man's children saw a big herd being tended; but when they came there, they saw nothing at all, nor found anything. The children believed that those were their kinsfolk. Then they ran from there, home, and told what they had seen. Then their father said to them: "It was the kitniha's herd that you saw." After that the children never saw anything more, and their father warned them not to play and shout, because a hidden neighbour is near.

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. 29, p. 39, in the section of kine 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). Kitnihī are the underground people (Wiklund s.v. katnihe-, nominative kanej, "unterirdischer Mensch, Wicht"), kept as kitniha. Kirrulės is "a swearer" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KARROTEJE, "execrans, qui agit diras, svärjare", and in the Swedish index s.v. Svärjare, "karroles"; compare Wiklund s.v. karute-, "fluchen"), with Halász's i for a. Ọšọṭī is "meant to" (Halász IV s.v. uššetīit, ọššeṭīit, "denken, meinen, beabsichtigen"). Kōtēw ciggėt is "to put up a hut" (Wiklund s.v. cęgıje-, "errichten, aufstellen, bauen; koteu c. das Zelt aufschlagen"); ukto is "alone" (Wiklund s.v. aktu, "allein"); ville is "still, also, again" (Halász IV s.v. vielie, "mehr; noch; wieder"); slihtorīṭa is "without kinsfolk" and slihtora "kinsfolk", a loan from Scandinavian släkt (Halász IV s.v. šliäkta, "Anverwandte"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SLÄKT), the first with the abessive ending (Wilbur §5.2.8); vaʼip̣am is "tired" (Wiklund s.v. vaipaće, "ermüdet"); suinit is hay (Wiklund s.v. suiʻne-, "Heu"); päbmun and päbmuhtallā ēčaps, "for fodder", "fed himself", are from "food" and "to feed" (Wiklund s.v. piebmu-, "Speise, Nahrung", and piebma-, "füttern, ernähren"); villėt son oððāt is "he lay down to sleep" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WELLETET, "recubare, lägga sig ner"; Wiklund s.v. ote-, "schlafen"); skätńi is "sounded" (Wiklund s.v. skaʈɲa-, "klingen"); kûran is "close beside" (Wiklund s.v. kuəra-, inessive kuəran, "bei, neben"); rutnė, rutni are "talking", "talked" (Wiklund s.v. rutna-, "sprechen, schwatzen"); čalᵉbmē-pēlak is "one-eyed" (Wiklund s.v. pælake-: čalmę-p. "einäugig"); kaskapskan is "among themselves" (Wiklund s.v. kaska-, "Mitte; Zwischenraum"); krannā is a neighbour (Wiklund s.v. krana-, "Nachbar", from Swedish granne; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. GRANNA); alvūs is "terribly" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. ALWOS); svärruj is "answered" (Wiklund s.v. svaru-, "antworten", from Swedish svara); kātuikan is "the two of them vanished" (Wiklund s.v. kaɔtu-, "verschwinden"); čɵǯǯēl is "got up" (Wiklund s.v. čuəǯele-, "aufstehen, sich erheben"); sadnan is "in truth" (Wiklund s.v. satnes, genitive sadna, "wahr; Wahrheit"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SADNA, "veritas"), and uihtos beside it "indeed" (Halász IV s.v. oihte, uihte, "in der Tat, wirklich, fürwahr"); kokte is "how" (Halász IV s.v. kuktie, "wie"); krāsē is grass (Wiklund s.v. rase-, "Gras", from Norse gras; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. GRASE); tutnüi is "there was a din" (Wiklund s.v. tutna-, "Getöse; laut schwatzen"); ēlūp̣ is a herd (Wiklund s.v. ælu-, "Herde"), the ending -p̣ the accusative singular, Pite -v (Wilbur Table 5.1), as in sijāp̣, "them" (Wilbur Table 6.1 sijáv); kōhcamen is "being tended" (Wiklund s.v. koɔce-, "wachen"); jähhkin is "believed" (Wiklund s.v. jaɔke-, "glauben"); vākūt is "warned" (Wiklund s.v. vakuəte-, "ermahnen"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WAKOTET, "monere"); stōhkut is "to play" (Wiklund s.v. stoɔka-, "spielen"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. STÁKET, "Mana ståkeh, liberi ludunt"); kiʼlĭjūt is "to shout" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Hyta, "kiljot"); apmā elā is "not to" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. ABMA, "ne, att icke", with elā the negative imperative, Wilbur Table 8.26 ele); jute is "because" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. JUTTE, "quod, quia, emedan"); čēkūs is "hidden" (Wiklund s.v. čęɔkuse-, "verborgen, geheim, heimlich"); monno is "I" (Wilbur Table 6.1, first person singular månnå), and its verbs johtāu, orūw and the negative ip̣ carry the first-person singular ending, Pite -v (Wilbur Table 8.4: 1sg -v, 1du -n, 1pl -p; the negative verb iv, Table 8.26), so each of the two speaks in the singular; iččī, iččin are the past of the negative verb (Wilbur Table 8.26).

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: Kēsēn lē ville tahta, "it was summer then", is read word by word (kēsēn "in summer", ville "still, also"). Alᵃbma in tut alᵃbma almač, "that man, the human one", is taken as the cognate of North Sámi albma, "real", which Friis 1887 (s.v. albma) gives in albma-olmuš, "verus homo (opp. inferis)", an earthly human being as against the underground people; the Lule and South Sámi dictionaries do not decide it (Wiklund has only an adverb alma, "gewiss"), so the English rests on that cognate. Čalᵉmīt lī ėktī pēďďam, "had closed his eyes", is literally "had put the eyes together" (Wiklund s.v. čalᵉme-, "Auge"). Liššā in liššā skätńi, "a rustling sound", is read from context. Piʼrīḳė, the second thing the two people were doing, is in none of the dictionaries consulted and is kept in Sámi (it may belong with a root "around", compare Wiklund s.v. pirgste-, "um etwas herumgehen", but nothing decides it). Kᵘœkte is "two" (with kûktēs, "the two of them"). In the first speaker's words elā and vań are not decided by any dictionary or the grammar, so "since that new neighbour of ours is such a swearer" is a reading: "since" and "such a" are guesses from context. Kuiht, kuit ("all the same") are read from context. Kenak ("at all"), māi ("anything"), mottē pālēn ("several times"), jäʼbᵉṭa ku’ ("just as if") and aktauk ("anything") are read from context. Viʼńĭkė is "ran" (compare Wiklund s.v. vieɔka-, "laufen"). The father's quoted words have an opening mark and no closing one in the print; the English closes them after his first sentence. 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 kirrules olᵒbman ja kitnihī pirra

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 29, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined; Halász's two paragraphs are each divided here once, at the same places as the English.

tē lī āi akta pālēn sōmēs sajēn, āhte akta olmaj ọšọṭī kōtēw ciggėt sōmēs saďďai, vala ukto lī son talle parhkaṭēmēn. kēsēn lē ville tahta ja tāht olmaj lī släďďēmen suinit slihtorīṭa päbmun. ja kō son lī kaʼihka pēivēp paʼrăḳam ja vaʼip̣am lēi, tē son tolōu tahkā tanhkā saďďai ja päbmuhtallā ēčaps. kō son talle lēi porrom, tē villėt son oððāt.

vala ku čalᵉmīt lī ėktī pēďďam, tē kullā son, āhte liššā skätńi sū kûran ja kullā, kᵘœkte olᵒbma rutnė ja piʼrīḳė ja ville vɵidnā son, āhte akta taiste olᵒbmaist lēi čalᵉbmē-pēlak. tē tā olᵒbmā rutni kaskapskan ja họ̄lli: «tē lē miďďī pōhtam oððo krannā, valā tat olmaj lē alvūs kirrulės.» tē ville akta taiste olᵒbmaist jahhtā: «johtāu monno taste, ip̣ mon sitā, tanne orrūt, elā kirrulės lē vań tāt mijā oððo krannā.» mubbē svärruj: «ip̣ kuiht monno johtā, orūw kuit monno tasne.» ja tē kātuikan tā kûktēs.

tē tut alᵃbma almač čɵǯǯēl ja paʼrăḳaḳōti, ja sadnan uihtos kirrulės lī son. iččī ville son kossek tān sammā saďďai oððā ja iččin kenak krāsē tatne sajēn šattā. iččī māi son ville vuinē, valā kulāi mottē pālēn, kokte tutnüi toppēn, jäʼbᵉṭa ku’ stûrra ēlūp̣ lījėn vûjēhtēmēn.

ja vuinēstin āi sōmēs pālen tān olᵒbman mānā stûrra ēlūp̣ kōhcamen; vala ku’ sija tohku pọ̄htin, iččin sịja aktauk vuinē, jala kāuna. jähhkin mānā, āhte sijā slihtora lījėn tā. tē sija viʼńĭkė toppēlt ja häʼibmai ja supcasti, maiṭe sija vuidnin. tē jahhtā ahhčē siďďī: «kitnihī ēlūp̣ tijā tau vuinite. iččin tiste ville mānā maiṭek vuinē ja sijān ahhčē vākūt sijāp̣, apmā elā stōhkut ja kiʼlĭjūt, jute čēkūs krannā lē lahka.

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 29, p. 39. 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, circumflexes, raised vowels, ð, ǯ, œ, ɵ, ü, the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ), and his punctuation, which opens the father's last words with « and does not close them. His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

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