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

The rauka is the ghost of one who has drowned, in the Sámi belief of Arjeplog. This short account was told in Pite Sámi by Sámi of Arjeplog parish and taken down by Ignácz Halász at Saltdalen in Norway in 1891. It tells of a time when the rauka set people's ships loose and let them into a hole in the sea: it does not let go, but shouts to the people to set off, and it lets the ship go free only if they look up.

Translation

There was a time when the rauka again set people's ships loose and let them into a hole in the sea. But it does not, after all, let go of the head, but shouts to the people: "Now set off! Now set off!" If the people then draw themselves up to look, then the rauka indeed lets the ship go free, and then the ship sets off on its way. But if they do not look up, then it shouts (or: calls): "Now set off! Now set off!" — but it does not let go, after all.

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. 37, p. 50, in the section of rauka 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). The rauka (raʼuḳa, raʼuka) is kept in Sámi, as in no. 35 (Wiklund s.v. raukastet, "spuken (von einem ertrunkenen)"). Skihpit, skihpip̣, skihpi are "ships", "the ship" (Halász IV s.v. skihpa, "Schiff", Lule skihppi). Lī, in the opening tē lī sōmēs pālēn, is the past, "there was" (the present is lē); the rest of the account is told in the present, and the English keeps it so. Sōmēs pālēn is "at a certain time" (Wiklund p. 87, kolᵒmo pale, "dreimal"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SÅMES, "aliquis, quidam, någon"). Vit is "again" (Halász IV s.v. viht, vitt, "wieder"; Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Igen, "ruoptot, witt"), as vite in no. 38. Lɵihtal, lɵʼihtā, luihtē are "lets go" (Wiklund s.v. luiʽɔte-, "lassen, loslassen, frei lassen"), and lûvvasen is "free" (Wiklund s.v. luɔvase-, nom. luɔvas, "los, frei"). Raikē is "hole" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. RAIKE, "foramen, apertura, hål"), with sēvva-, "sea" (Wiklund s.v. sæ̨va-, "Meer", as in no. 35). Lik is "after all" (Halász IV s.v. liek, lik, "doch; ij … doch nicht"); uihtus is "indeed" (Halász IV s.v. oihte, uihte, "in der Tat, wirklich"). Oivē is "head" (Wiklund s.v. oiʽve-, "Kopf"). Čoʼrᵒvu is "shouts" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. TJUORWOTET, "anropa"; Swedish index s.v. Ropa, "tjuorwot"), and Halász's own bracketed variant ċûrvōht gives the same verb for titnaht; the English gives "shouts (or: calls)". Almačiṭa is "to the people" (Wiklund s.v. almače-, "Mensch"). Vœʼlᵉḳa, vœʼlᵉḳā is "set off!", the imperative of the verb "go, set out", as in no. 36. Kähhċat, "to look", and kēhča, "look" after the negative verb ē (Wilbur Table 8.26, third person plural eh), are the verb "look" (Wilbur p. 172, gähtjat, "look"). Johtēt is "to travel on" (Wiklund s.v. joote-, "weiter ziehen, wandern").

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: lūwwihtalla, lūwwihtallā, "sets loose", is not in the dictionaries; it is read as a derivative of the word luɔvas, "loose, free" (Wiklund s.v. luɔvase-, with luɔvane-, "los werden"), which stands in this text as lûvvasen, "free", with the causative -ht- and the frequentative -all-; "sets adrift" would also fit. Sēvva-raikē, "a hole in the sea", is literal, and its case after lɵihtal is not decided. Āipan, in ī lik āipan oivē luihtē, is not decided and is left unexpressed (the nearest entry is Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. AIPANET, "evanescere, försvinna", "to vanish"); whose head is meant is not said. In jus talle almača kēssa[?]ė pajās kähhċat, one letter of the verb did not print; the verb is read as kēssaṭė, a derivative of kēssat, "drag, draw" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KESET, "trahere, draga"), and "draw themselves up to look" is a context reading. Titnaht is read through Halász's variant ċûrvōht. 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: Rauka pirra, kuhte almaċī skihpit lūwwihtallā

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 37, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. One letter broken in the print is marked [?].

tē lī sōmēs pālēn, āhte vit raʼuḳa almaċī skihpit lūwwihtalla ja lɵihtal sēvva-raikē. vala ī lik āipan oivē luihtē, vala čoʼrᵒvu almačiṭa: «tē vœʼlᵉḳa! tē vœʼlᵉḳa!» — jus talle almača kēssa[?]ė pajās kähhċat, tē uihtus lɵʼihtā raʼuka skihpip̣ lûvvasen ja tē vœʼlᵉḳā skihpi johtēt. vala jus ē kēhča pajās, tē talle titnaht (ċûrvōht), āhte: «tē vœʼlᵉḳā! tē vœʼlᵉḳā!» vala ī lik luihtē.

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 37, p. 50. 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, the circumflex of û, raised vowels, œ, ɵ, the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ), and his bracketed variant (ċûrvōht). One letter broken in the print is marked [?]. His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

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