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 unseen beside human households. This legend was told in Pite Sámi by Sámi of Arjeplog parish and taken down by Ignácz Halász at Saltdalen in Norway in 1891; the tellers say it happened eight years before. A kitniha woman that no one else can see appears again and again to a married man and asks him to leave his wife for her, until he moves away.

Translation

The Sámi who came from Laihtar told, too, that over there a man was also to be visited by a kitniha woman. The first time that man saw that woman, he saw her like this: a woman was standing on a stone right in the middle of the road. Then that man walked there, but he never reached the place where that woman stood, though he walked toward it. That was the first time he saw that strange woman; but after that he saw her more times.

Then again, one day when the man was walking outside and making muhkiṭes, he saw again that the woman came toward him, so terribly beautiful that the man had never seen such a beautiful woman. When she came, while the man was outside, that woman held out her hand to the man, and he heard her offer herself to him as a wife. She also said that he should leave his own wife and take up with her.

Then that man was badly frightened: he could not walk away from there, nor get that woman away from him, nor could he answer her anything at all. If his own wife had not come and taken her husband by the hand and led him inside, the man would have been utterly frightened, and perhaps would have gone mad. Then, when the wife came, that strange woman vanished from talking with him. But whenever the wife happened to be elsewhere, that strange woman came to him, and again came terribly close.

Then again one evening, when that man was resting and had lain down in bed, he saw again that the strange woman came in from outside and went toward the bed, and again held out her hand to the man. Then the wife saw that her husband was utterly frightened but could not say anything at all. Then the wife went toward the bed and sprinkled water at the man's feet. Then the wife took twigs and went with them round about the floor, and then this time too that woman vanished from before his eyes. Other people see nothing at all. For even if they talk and chatter, the man still sees that woman standing beside him.

Then they had to fetch the priest; they believed that the priest would be able to drive her away, but it did not turn out so. They fetched the priest for this very purpose, that he should somehow drive away that spook, and so they would have been spared moving away from there. Then the man saw that strange woman naked, and alᵃbma too, although he was not mad. After that he did not want to eat, nor drink, nor work.

Then the priest had said, however, when another time he came to their house, he had said then to that man who saw that spook, that he should move away from there quickly, at once. Then the man had to move away from there, though otherwise he did not want to. And then he moved from there to a lower spot, and pulled down the cottage and took it along with him. And when he had put it up again, that cottage burned, all of it. After that the man never again saw that strange woman. — This tale happened eight years ago.

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. 30, pp. 40–41, 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). Kinē-khuidna, "kitniha woman", is from Wiklund s.v. katnihe- ("unterirdischer Mensch") and kuiʻna- ("Weib, Frau"). Kēinū kœuṭēla is "in the middle of the road" (Halász IV s.v. käinä, "Weg"; Wiklund s.v. kuəutele-, prolative -la "längs der Mitte"); ċûċčui, čọǯǯu, čuǯǯu are "stood", "stands" (Wiklund s.v. čuəǯu-, "stehen"); vǟcci is "walked" and ńäʼiḳa "toward" (Wiklund s.v. næiᵃka, "gegen"); amas, amās is "strange" (Wiklund s.v. apmase-, nominative amas, "fremd, unbekannt"); ulŭḳūn, ulŭḳōt are "outside", "from outside" (Wiklund s.v. olᵒku-); alvūs fawrū, fawrūs is "terribly beautiful" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. ALWOS; Wiklund s.v. fauru-, attributive faurus, "schön (von Menschen)"); kētap̣, kētau, kētast is the hand (Wiklund s.v. ḱieɔta-, "Hand"); fallā ēčaps suńī ahhkan is "offers herself to him as a wife" (Wiklund s.v. fala-, "anbieten"); ača, twice, is the auxiliary "so that, in order to" with the infinitive (Halász IV s.v. ača-); häʼihtēt is "to leave" (Wiklund s.v. hæiʼɔte-, "aufhören", text layer); vastēṭet is "to answer" (Wiklund s.v. vastete-, "antworten"); sagga sɵʼrgan, sɵʼrganet, aʼive sɵʼrᵉgana are "frightened" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SUORGANET, "expavescere, timore perculsus, blifva rådd", and SUORGANEM, "förskräckelse"), and aʼive is "utterly" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Ganska, "aiwe"); läʼiṭėt is "led" (Wiklund s.v. laiʻtije-, "leiten, führen"); kǟhtu, kātui are "vanished" (Wiklund s.v. kaɔtu-, "verschwinden"); kosok is "at some time" (Wiklund s.v. kose(s): kosek "irgend wann", i kosek "nie", which also gives kossek "never"); šaddā is "happened, came to be" (Wiklund s.v. šada-, "werden; geschehen"); ville pōhta is "again came" (Halász IV s.v. vielie, "mehr; noch; wieder"); vᵘoiñatallamen is "resting" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WUOIGNASTET, "quiescere … hvila sig"); siññkui, siñkū, sinkū are "into bed", "toward the bed" (Wiklund s.v. sæŋka-, "Bett", from Norse säng); čāhčā is water; rissīt are twigs (Wiklund s.v. rise-, "Rute, Reis"); kûlhpē is the floor (Wiklund s.v. kuəlʻpe-, "Fussboden"); čilmī ḁwṭost is "from before his eyes" (Wiklund s.v. čalᵉme-, "Auge"); ihke is "for, because" (Halász IV s.v. ihke, "weil, denn"), as in "for even if they talk", but ihke with māi in the same clause is "although" (Halász IV s.v. mai: ihkie mai, "obzwar", Lule ihka mai), so ihke iččī māi jäʼrĕdna sitā is "though otherwise he did not want to"; ihkāp̣ is "perhaps" (Wiklund s.v. ıɔkape, "vielleicht"); holᵉbmēṭē is "chatter" (Wiklund s.v. holʼme-, "lärmen, schreien, plaudern"); hērrau, härrā, herrāp̣ is the priest (Wiklund s.v. hara-, "Herr; Priester"); vüǯǯat, viǯǯin are "to fetch", "fetched" (Wiklund s.v. vieǯa-, "holen"); spiuhča is a spook, from Swedish spöke; kokte is "somehow", literally "how" (Halász IV s.v. kuktie, "wie"); pûlī is "burned" (Wiklund s.v. puəle-, "brennen, intr."); stōpu, stōhpū is the cottage (compare Wiklund s.v. toɔpe-, "Stube"), and kaihkui "pulled down" (Halász IV s.v. kaihkut, "abreissen ... niederreissen", said of a building); pajās ciggėm is "put up" (Wiklund s.v. cęgıje-, "errichten, aufstellen"); kakcē is "eight" (Wiklund s.v. kaɔkce-, "acht"), and jāpē (Halász's variant jakē) "years"; ē is the negative verb of the third person plural (Wilbur Table 8.26, eh); hollā, hōllot are "said", "to say" (Wilbur's hållåt, §8.5.2).

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: ihtutallat, ihtutalāi in the first sentence and the title are in no dictionary consulted. The man is the subject (olmaj; in the title the relative kute, "who"), and the kitniha woman stands in the elative, kinē-khuinast, the case that in Pite also marks the agent of a passive (Wilbur §5.2.6, §10.2.5); the English follows that frame, "was to be visited by a kitniha woman", "Who Was Visited by a Kitniha Woman", and takes the sense from North Sámi ihtit, "to appear": both the sense of the verb and the passive reading are readings. Laihtar is a place name, kept. Kēttē naltne, "on a stone", reads kēttē as the word Lindahl–Öhrling print as kedge, "lapis" (in an example s.v. ÁUTJOK). Vaša and kaʼrĕvēt in "he never reached the place" are read from context. Muhkiṭes in "walking outside and making muhkiṭes" is in none of the dictionaries consulted and is kept in Sámi. Kalhkūt (Halász's variant kalhkōt), "held out", is read from context. Vällṭut suina, "take up with her", reads "take" (North Sámi váldit) with suina, "with her" (Wilbur Table 6.1, sujna). Nassalet tāp̣ khuinau ēċas luhte, "get that woman away from him", is read from context (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. TASSELET, "abigere, bortdrifva", is close in sense but not the same word). Ullu in ullu sɵʼrganet, "utterly frightened", and tārralėt, "would have gone mad" (with tārrale, "mad", later), are readings; tārral- may be a Scandinavian loan like Swedish dåre, "madman". Olmaj čūwtin čāhčā jūlhkī kēhčai, "sprinkled water at the man's feet", takes čūwtin from context. Lihkan, "still", marja, "that", mai tān tihta, "for this very purpose", pēssam, "spared", ruwwa, "quickly", talānak, "at once", and vulhkahtī tāp̣ mañēn, "took it along with him", are read from context; so is jäʼrĕdna, "otherwise" (compare Wiklund s.v. ęrıts, attributive, "andere", which does not decide it). In "whenever the wife happened to be elsewhere" the Sámi does not say where she was: "to be elsewhere" is supplied by the sense. Nēkūn, "naked", is taken as a Scandinavian loan (Swedish naken). Alᵃbma in "naked, and alᵃbma too" is not decided and is kept in Sámi: Wiklund has an adverb alma, "gewiss", and Friis 1887 s.v. albma gives the North Sámi word both as "verus" (real, of a human being as against the underground people) and as an adverb "in lucem", into plain sight; none of these decides it here. Ėlā in "did not want to eat, nor drink, nor work" is not rendered separately. Tụ̄dna in pûlī tat stōhpū kaʼihka tụ̄dna, "that cottage burned, all of it", is not decided and is not rendered separately. Juhhtam is printed with u beside jahhtam, "said", on the line before, and is read as the same word. Halász's bracketed variants (kalhkōt) and (jakē) are kept in the Source Text; the English gives each word once. 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 olᵒbman pirra, kute kinē-khuinast ihtutalāi

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 30, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined; Halász's first paragraph is divided here twice and his third once, at the same places as the English.

sāmē, mah pọ̄htin Laihtarist, supcastillin āi, āhte akta olmaj kalhkai āi toppēn ihtutallat kinē-khuinast. vûstas pālēn ku’ vuinī tat olmaj tāp̣ khuinap̣, tē vɵidnā son nauhte, āhte čọǯǯu akta khuidna kēttē naltne jurā kēinū kœuṭēla. tē tat olmaj vaʒʒa tohkō, vala iččī vaša kaʼrĕvēt tau sajēu, kosne tat khuidna ċûċčui, vala vǟcci son ńäʼiḳa. tē lī tat tān vûstas pālēn, ku’ vuinī tāp̣ amas khuinap̣. vala tē mañēp pālī vɵidna son sū.

tē vite sōmēs pēivēn, ku’ olmaj lī vaʒʒēmen ulŭḳūn ja muhkiṭes tahkamen, tē vite vɵidnā son, āhte tat khuidna pōhta sū kukū alvūs fawrū, āhte olmaj ī lam vɵidnam takkar fawrūs khuinap̣. ku talle pōhta, ku lī olmaj ulŭḳun, tē kalhkūt (kalhkōt) tut khuidna kētap̣ tun olᵒbmai ja kullā, āhte fallā ēčaps suńī ahhkan. hollā āi, ača häʼihtēt tū ēċas āhkau ja vällṭut suina.

tē tat olmaj sagga sɵʼrgan, ī son nakā vaʒʒēt toppēlt, jala nassalet tāp̣ khuinau ēċas luhte jala nakā suńī aktauk vastēṭet. jus tē ī lam ēċas ahhkā pōhtam ja vallṭam olᵒbmaps kētast ja läʼiṭėt sū sisa, tē lī olmaj ullu sɵʼrganet ja ihkāp̣ lī tārralėt. tē kossə ahhka pōhta, tē kǟhtu tut amās khuidna sū hōlaitahtēmest. vala ku kosok ahhka šaddā, tē pōhta tut amās khuidna sū kukū ja ville pōhta alvūs lāhkai.

tē vit sōmēs ēhkēṭen, kosse tāht olmaj lī vᵘoiñatallamen ja villeṭam lī siññkui, tē vite vɵidnā, āhte tut amās khuidna pōhta ulŭḳōt ja vaʒʒa siñkū kukū ja kalhkūt vite kētau tun olᵒbmai. tē vɵidnā talle ahhkā, āhte tat sū olmaj aʼive sɵʼrᵉgana, vala ī aktaḳīt nakā hōllot. tē vaʒʒa ahhka sinkū kukū ja olmaj čūwtin čāhčā jūlhkī kēhčai. tē āhkāč vallṭā rissīt ja tāi vaʒʒa pirra kûlhpē ja tē vite tān pālēn kātui tat khuidna čilmī ḁwṭost. ē ēčā almača aktauk vuinē. ihke jus tā rutnė ja holᵉbmēṭē, tē lihkan vɵidnā tut olmaj, āhte tat khuidna čuǯǯu sū lutne.

tē virhtijėn talle hērrau vüǯǯat, jähhkin sija, marja härrā kalhkai nahhkat vûďďūṭėt, vala iččī tat nau šatta. tē mai tān tihta viǯǯin herrāp̣, marja lī kokte vûďďūṭėt tāp̣ spiuhčap̣ ja sija lījėn pēssam johtāmest taste. tē vɵidnā tat olmaj tāp̣ amās khuinap̣ nēkūn ja āi alᵃbma, vallak son ī tārrale. ī tist ėlā porō jala jukā jalā paʼrăḳat sitā.

tē lī valā härrā jahhtam, ku muppēn āikēn vǟccī sijān lutne, juhhtam lī talle tān olᵒbmai, ku’te vuinī tau spiuhčau, ača johtāt toppēlt ruwwa, talānak. tē virhtī olmaj johtāt toppēlt, ihke iččī māi jäʼrĕdna sitā. ja tē johtaj son toppēlt vûlēb saďďai ja kaihkui stōpub ja vulhkahtī tāp̣ mañēn. ja ku lī talle tāp̣ pajās ciggėm, tē pûlī tat stōhpū kaʼihka tụ̄dna. ī tist olmaj kossek ville tāp̣ amās khuinap̣ vuinē. — Taht supcas lē šaddam kakcē jāpē (jakē) tāhte owṭolist.

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 30, pp. 40–41. 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, ə, ǯ, ʒ, œ, ɵ, ü, the a with a ring below, the two forms of c with a mark above (č, ċ), the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ), and his two bracketed variants. His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

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