Sacred. Deceive

[R. Rankin]

> I also found wawe'kkittatta 'a deceiver', which may
shed light on
> Quapaw homittatta 'trickster'.

Just FYI, I think it's also Quapaw 'monkey' in modern
times.

> I can't find xube (accented maybe xu'be) '(a) drunk'
anywhere, but I'm
> pretty sure I remember it in use.

Yeah, I think that's the modern, colloquial usage.

> There is dhaxu' maybe dhaghu' (can't tell in the
source S/S) 'to suck',
> which is part of this last set.  (I can't find *ghube
either in the texts,
> by the way.)  The root *xep ~ *xop ~ *ghop ~ *gho 'to
suck' is widely
> attested in Mississippi Valley,

That's the Dakotan 'snore' root too.

> This is presumably the connection in 'drunk', though
it's possible that 'wizard' is >involved.  Intoxication
is widely regarded elsewhere in the world as a sacred
or at least
> mystery-involving state.

I wonder if it has anything to do with taking wine in
comunion?

> The 'suck' sense may also be connected to 'to lie',
though it's also
> possible that there's a connection to the 'sacred'
set.  Since 'to lie'
> involves the i-locative, that the sense of the root
xobe ~ xope isn't
> precisely clear.  I wouldn't consider it impossible
that 'deceit' might
> have a 'sacred' or 'divine' association.  Essentially
that's what
> Trickster embodies.  The sacred is not always a
positive thing; sometimes
> it's strange and terrible and destructive.  I suppose
'sacred' might also
> occur in 'lie' by way of a euphemism.  However, on
the whole, it seems
> safer to think of three or four similar roots here
until we've done a lot
> more spade work.

And it's a stative verb too.

Bob