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 legend was told in Pite Sámi by Sámi of Arjeplog parish and taken down by Ignácz Halász at Saltdalen in Norway in 1891. A rauka gives the people no peace at their boats; one man hides in a boat with an oar and beats it when it comes, and it goes back into the sea swearing to take him. He stays at home for two winters, but when he goes fishing again, the rauka takes him.

Translation

Once, when the rauka made mischief in some people's boats, no one at all could be in peace from it. It carries off the oars, and the nets, and knocks about all the other fishing gear. It stamps and carries things to and fro; no one stays in that place where people lay up in the evening.

Then a man certainly grew angry at that racket of the rauka's, and then he went into the boat and crept in at the stern, so that he would be hidden when the rauka came. He had then got himself an oar at his side, so that he could hold it steady, ready to hand, when the rauka came.

When he had been there a little while, then the rauka indeed comes, and begins to carry from the bow end, and the rauka carries to the stern, and shouts: "It does not fit now! It does not fit now!" Then it carries to and fro, and comes again to the stern, and then says: "Here, now, it fits!" Then the man sprang up, took the oar in his hand and struck the rauka with it, and also said: "If it fits you now, then it fits me too!" And he also beat it then with that same oar.

Then the rauka went into the hole in the sea and said: "For however many years, I shall take you!" And then the man truly stayed those two winters at home, and then went to the fishing place. And when he was fishing, then one evening he walked to the shore to do his business. Then the rauka came, and carried the man away with it into the sea.

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. 39, pp. 51–52, 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)"). Vatnasin, vatnasī are "in the boats", "into the boat" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WADNAS, "cymba, båt"). Rāfēn is "in peace" (Wiklund s.v. rąfe-, "Friede, Ruhe"). Āiruit, airū (Halász's variant airuw), airūp̣, äiruina are "oars", "an oar", "the oar" (Wiklund s.v. aiʽru-, "Ruder"), tāinak äiruina "with that same oar" in the comitative singular (Wilbur Table 5.1, -jn(a)); vūlhkahtallā, vūlhkahtī are "carries off", "carried away" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WUOLGATET, "auferre, abducere, bortföra"); vērhmī are "nets" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Garn, "werbme"); piuṭēm-rēitui is "fishing gear", with rēitu "gear, tackle" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Redskap and Medel, "reido"). Stāmpait is "stamps" (Halász IV s.v. stämpet, "stampfen", from Swedish stampa); kûttat, kûttaṭėt, kᵘœddā are "carries", "carry" (Wiklund s.v. kuɔde-, "tragen"); tuhkū-tēhkē is "to and fro" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Dit, "tokko … Hit och dit, teke ja tokko"). Kuiht is "certainly" (Wilbur p. 26, gujt); suhhta is "grew angry" (Wiklund s.v. suota-, "zornig werden"). Lûñai (Halász's variant lūoñai) is "crept in" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. LUOGNET, "intrare, gå in", said of fish going into the net); maññē-kēhčai is "to the stern" and åwṭo-kēčēst "from the bow": "stern" and "bow" are read from maññē-, "behind, after" (Wilbur p. 18, maŋŋel, "after"), and åwṭo-, "front", the root of owṭēp, "former" (no. 34), and of ouṭon, "before", here, with kēhče, "end", read from context; ċēkān is "hidden" (Wiklund s.v. čeɔkate-, čeɔka-, "sich verbergen"). Hāssam is "had got himself" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. HASET, "comparare sibi, acquirere, förskaffa sig"); stēdēs is "steady" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. STADES, "in neutram partem inclinatus"). Pottočep̣ is "a little while" (Wiklund s.v. podo-, "Weile, Zeit", with a diminutive). Hēva, hēvva, hēvvā are "fit" (Wiklund s.v. hæɔpa-, heɔpa-, "passen intr."; Friis 1856, p. 133, Hejvit, "høve, passe"). Vǟltī, vallṭēt are "took", "take" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WALDET, "capere, sumere, taga"); hoitēst is "struck" (Wiklund s.v. hoɪteste-, "schlagen"); capmēst is "beat" (Wiklund s.v. larɔoka-, with cap'mestɪt, "tot schlagen"). Jāpē is "years" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. JAPE, "annus, år"); kalᵃhkap̣ mon is "I shall" (Halász IV s.v. ḳaḷăḳa-); sadnan is "truly" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Sannerligen, "sadnan"); tǟlvit is "winters" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. TALWE, "hiems, vinter"); hēiman is "at home" (Halász IV s.v. heima, "Haus, Heim"); muhkīṭes tahkat is "to do his business" (Wiklund s.v. moɔḳe-, "Angelegenheit, Geschäft"), after ačai, "in order to" (Halász IV p. 4); fäʼrăvai is "to the shore" (Wiklund s.v. fɪerᵃva-, "Ufer"); sēva sisā is "into the sea" (Wiklund s.v. sæ̨va-; Wilbur p. 224, sisa).

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: riċērum, ričēruja (the title's verb and the first sentence's) are in none of the dictionaries; "made mischief" is read from what the story tells the rauka doing. The nearest form, Halász IV s.v. rieret, "reiten", "to ride", is not shown to be the same word. Pälle, in ī aktak pälle rāfēn sūste orrūt, "no one at all could be in peace from it", is read from context; Halász IV s.v. pellet, "sich fürchten" (third person pällä), is the nearest form and does not fit. Smallā is read as the Swedish smälla, "to bang, knock". Stōkost, "racket", is read as the Swedish stök. Koso almača ēhkēṭ pēďďė, "where people lay up in the evening", has no object; boats are understood. Kûrrai, "at his side", and ouṭon, "before, ready to", in kēta ouṭon, "ready to hand", are read as North Sámi gurrii and ovddas. What the rauka carries from bow to stern is not said, and the English leaves it unsaid. Pe in tä pe tē talle hēvva is left unexpressed. Piwṭim-saďďai, piwṭēmen are read as "fishing place", "fishing" (North Sámi bivdit, "hunt, fish"), as is piuṭēm- in piuṭēm-rēitui. Mañēn, "with it", is read as in no. 34. 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 rauka pirra, juhho lī almačī vatnasin riċērum

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 39, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined; each of Halász's two paragraphs is divided here at one place, as the English.

tē lī akta pālēn, kosse raʼuka ričēruja sōmēs almaċī vatnasin. ī aktak pälle rāfēn sūste orrūt. āiruit son vūlhkahtallā ja vērhmī ja kaʼihka ēča piuṭēm-rēitui smallā. stāmpait son kûttat tuhkū-tēhkē, ī aktak orū tatne sajēn, koso almača ēhkēṭ pēďďė.

te kuiht talle suhhta akta olmaj tahte raʼuka-stōkost ja tē vœʼlᵉḳā son vatnasī ja maññē-kēhčai lûñai (lūoñai), vāi kalhkai ċēkān orrūt, ku raʼuka pōhta. airū (airuw) lī son talle hāssam ēčas kûrrai, vai kalhkai stēdēs atnēt kēta ouṭon, ku’ raʼuka pōhta.

kosse son talle lē urrum aktau unna pottočep̣, tē pōhtā uihtus raʼuka ja aʼlᵃḳā kûttaṭėt åwṭo-kēčēst ja maññē-kēhčai kᵘœddā raʼuka ja titnaht: «ī talle hēva! ī talle hēva!» tē kûttat tuhku-tēhkē ja pōhta vite maññē-kēhčai ja tē jahhtā: «tä pe tē talle hēvva!» tē sprainai olmaj pajās, vǟltī airūp̣ kēhtai ja hoitēst raukau tāina ja āi jahhtā: «jus hēvvā talle tuńī, tē āi hēvvā muńī!» ja āi tē capmēst tāinak äiruina.

tē raʼuka vūlhki sēvva-raikē ja jahhtā: «kuta jāpē pirra kalᵃhkap̣ mon tū vallṭēt!» — ja tē sadnan orui olmaj taite kuhta tǟlvit ēċas hēiman ja vūlhkī talle piwṭim-saďďai. ja kosse son talle lī piwṭēmen, tē sōmēs ēhkēṭen vaʒʒa fäʼrăvai, ačai muhkīṭes tahkat. tē pōhta raʼuka ja tē vūlhkahtī olᵒbmab mañēn sēva sisā.

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 39, pp. 51–52. 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, the ring of å, raised vowels, ď, ǟ, œ, ñ, ń, ʒ, 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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