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 legend was told in Pite Sámi by Sámi of Arjeplog parish and taken down by Ignácz Halász at Saltdalen in Norway in 1891. Some iron things are heard clanging in the evening and crying out that "a man" bade them on; someone who is angered by the noise smears them with human dung, and when the rauka comes again it smells the dung and goes back into the sea for good. Three of its words are not known to the dictionaries and are kept in Sámi.

Translation

Another time, when evening came, one heard how the iron lēččus clanged and shouted: "A man bade me saďďēt, saďďēt! A man bade me saďďēt, saďďēt!" Then someone grew angry at that shouting, and put human dung on those iron lēččus. Then one heard again in the evening that the rauka was coming again and was going to begin to saďďēt. Then the rauka speaks: "Human dung stinks here, stinks!" And then it snuffles, and spat back into the hole in the sea, and never came from there again to saďďēt those ships.

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. 38, pp. 50–51, 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 (raʼuka) is kept in Sámi, as in no. 35 (Wiklund s.v. raukastet, "spuken (von einem ertrunkenen)"). Rœwṭē is "iron" (Wiklund s.v. ruɔute-, "Eisen; plur. Schlageisen"). Ēča pālēn is "another time" (Wiklund s.v. ęɔčąte-, nom. ęča, "ander"; Wiklund p. 87, pale, "Mal"); ēhkēṭen is "in the evening" (Halász IV s.v. iehkete, "Abend"); kullė is "heard", the active past of "hear" (Wilbur p. 172, gullat, "hear"); no subject is printed, and the English says "one heard". Kōhčui is "bade", the past in -ui (as kātui, "vanished", in no. 36) of the verb "bid, call" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Bjuda, "kottjot"; its passive kohčūtuwwā, "is called", stands in no. 36). Suhhta is "grew angry" (Wiklund s.v. suota-, "überdrüssig, zornig werden"); olᵒbma-paihkap̣, almača paʼihka are "human dung" (Halász IV s.v. paihka, "Dreck (merda)"), and pīejai is "put" (Halász IV s.v. piejet, "legen, stellen, setzen"); taita rœwṭē-lēčċuita is read as the illative plural, "on those iron lēččus", as almačiṭa, "to the people", in no. 37. Vite is "again" (Halász IV s.v. viht, vitt, "wieder"; Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Igen, "witt"); kalhka aʼlᵉḳēt is "was going to begin" (Halász IV s.v. ḳaḷăḳa-, "werden, sollen"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. ALGET, "incipere, begynna"). Hollā is "speaks" (Wiklund s.v. hola-, "reden, sprechen"); hipsīt is "stinks" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. HAPSITET, "olere … hvad luktar?", with HAPSOT, "saepius de male olentibus"; Wiklund s.v. hapsa-, "riechen"), with the vowel i for a before i. Snusuhtallā is "snuffles", a frequentative of the verb "blow the nose" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SNUSOTET, "nares emungere, snyta sig"); čulhkīt is "spat" (Wiklund s.v. čolᵒkote-, "speien"); viste is "back" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Igengifva, "wist waddet"); sēvva-raikē is "the hole in the sea", as in no. 37 (Wiklund s.v. sæ̨va-, "Meer"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. RAIKE, "foramen, hål"); skihpīt are "ships" (Halász IV s.v. skihpa, "Schiff").

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: lēčču (lēččuit, lēččui, lēčċuita), the iron things that clang and speak, is in none of the dictionaries and is kept in Sámi. Saďďēt, what the iron things are bidden to do and what the rauka comes to do to the ships, is in none of the dictionaries in this form and is kept in Sámi; the verbs of the nearest shape, Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SAIJET, "cote acuere, hvässa", "to whet", and Halász IV s.v. säjji', "biegen, beugen", "to bend", fit neither place. One lead is named here and not adopted: Halász's ďď answers to the jj of saďďe, "place" (saďďai in nos. 34, 36 and 39; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SAIJE, "locus, rum"), so saďďēt might be a verb made on "place", "to put or hold in place" (compare Wiklund s.v. sajetuwa-, "Platz nehmen", "to take a place"); no dictionary confirms it. Whether olmaj kōhčui mū saďďēt is "a man bade me saďďēt" or "a man called me saďďēt", as a name, is not decided. Ēhkēṭī, in tē ēča pālēn ēhkēṭī kullė, is read as the past of a verb "become evening", "when evening came" (compare Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Qvåll, "Blifva qvåll, ekkeduet"), not as "in the evening", which is ēhkēṭen. Sijī, the verb of the title, is not decided and is kept in Sámi. Smāllā, "clanged", is read as the Swedish smälla, "to bang, crack"; titnaht, "shouted", is read through Halász's own variant ċûrvōht in no. 37. Čulhkīt viste sēvva-raikē, "spat back into the hole in the sea", is literal; whether the rauka spat and then went back, or "dropped back" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. TJALGET, "decidere, delabi, falla ner"), is not decided. 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 almačī rœwṭē lēččuit sijī

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 38, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined.

tē ēča pālēn ēhkēṭī kullė kō rœwṭē-lēččui (rœʼuṭē-l.) smāllā ja titnaht: «olmaj kōhčui mū saďďēt, saďďēt! olmaj kōhčui mū saďďēt, saďďēt!» tē akta suhhta tate titnahtēmēst ja olᵒbma-paihkap̣ pīejai taita rœwṭē-lēčċuita. tē kullė vite ēhkēṭen, āhte raʼuka vite pōhta ja kalhka aʼlᵉḳēt saďďēt. tē hollā raʼuka: «almača paʼihka tanne hipsīt, hipsīt!» ja tē snusuhtallā ja čulhkīt viste sēvva-raikē ja ī tist ville pōtē taite skihpīt saďďēt.

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 38, pp. 50–51. 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, raised vowels, ď, œ, the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ), and his bracketed variant (rœʼuṭē-l.). His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

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