[Algonquiana] "payiinsak" mentioned in WIkwemikong onManitoulin Is.

Sat Jun 4 00:10:21 UTC 2016

The Mi'gmaq people also have their little man, namely the pugladmùj.
See among other links : http://www.firstnationhelp.com/ali/wiklatmuj/
Metallic, Cyr and Sévigny's Dictionary gives :

bugladmùj: the little people in Mìgmaq legend,  perhaps humanoïds
created in earlier times.  Syn. amadalùj.
and : jigêjàwey, disgusting, used chewing tobacco. Orig. from the Mìgmaq
folk song about the Bugladmùjk or little people which goes «jàwàli je
dlià jigêjàwey» which translates 'give me some chewing tobacco even if
it has already been chewed. Aahk!
Warmest regards from the Gaspe Peninsula,
Danielle

___________________________________________Dr. Danielle E. Cyr, Senior
Scholar at York University339, boul. Perron ouestNew Richmond, QC,  G0C
2BOdcyr at yorku.ca - 418.392.7271
---- Original Message ----
From: Kevin Brousseau 
To: 
Cc: "Algonquian Conference List" 
Sent: Fri, Jun 3, 2016, 1:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Algonquiana] "payiinsak" mentioned in WIkwemikong
onManitoulin Is.

I think the discussion may have gone astray somewhat, but is fascinating
nonetheless. Growing up in the Abitibi region I’ve also heard stories of
kids being taken by little people. In two stories of people I actually know
who were allegedly taken as children, they were said to have returned home
with aphasia, which eventually subsided. The little people (and I'm not
talking about memekweshiw here) who took children were also said to throw
stones at tents and cabins in the morning and to braid people’s hair when
they slept at night. I always thought of them as little tricksters.
As a side note, I’ve never heard anyone in northern Quebec refer to
memekweshiw as "little people.” It was only since I moved to Ontario that
I noticed people call them little people as well. I find this puzzling
since I was always told they were more simian than human. In fact, many
Cree people in northern Quebec will colloquially translate memekweshiw as
“monkey,” knowing very well that they are not actually monkeys.
Kevin Brousseau
On Jun 3, 2016, at 1:27 PM, Richard RHODES  wrote:
When I was going to Walpole regularly in the 1970's, they would tell
stories about payiinsag. They'd say things like Mary Ann said. One of the
big points they'd make is that the "little people" would take people away,
especially children, sometimes for an afternoon, sometimes for longer, up
to a few days, but whoever was taken always came back clean and fed and
with no memory of where they had been.

Rich Rhodes

On Fri, Jun 3, 2016 at 7:13 PM, Mary Ann Corbiere  wrote:
Just a tidbit in response to Michael's comment. (Pronunciation of term
varies somewhat among speakers with some saying pa more like paa.) I've
heard the term only in passing in a sense, not elicited through formal
research questions. 
As a member of Wikwemikong, I've often been in informal social gatherings
of family or friends. These at times lead to people recounting stories
they've heard. For example, my late mother told of a neighbour recounting
to her how when her kids were small, they went off for an entire afternoon.
When they got back and she asked them where they'd been, they told her of
having met a family of "Nishnaabensak" (another term used pretty well
synonymously with payiinsak by that time -- the mid 1900s) and having
played with their kids that day. The neighbour would have been speaking of
a time in the early 1950s as her kids are now in their late 60s. 
(Wiky membership consists of Ottawa, Ojibwes, and Potawatomis. My mother
was presumably part Potawatomi as she remarked now and then about
"Potawatomi money" that was to have come to them. My father was presumably
Ottawa -- he died when I was six -- and presumably my mother was also
mostly Ottawa too, as Rand tells me -- from the vocabulary I use -- that I
speak Ottawa. I've never heard anyone in my community make a point of
identifying how a member speaks as being of a particular dialect/language.
We generally just say of someone, "Nishnaabema" ( or gaawii
Nishnaabem-sii).
That was a bit more than a tidbit, wasn't it :)
MAC 

>>> "McCafferty, Michael Lee"  06/03/16 11:27 AM >>>
David saved me a lot of typing. I was about to tell a similar story,yet not
as detailed, about páyiihsaki. One thing. I think there's an Ottawa
cognate as well if I'm not mistaken. 

Best,

Michael
________________________________________
De : Algonquiana [algonquiana-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org
(mailto:algonquiana-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org)] de la part de David
Costa [pankihtamwa at earthlink.net (mailto:pankihtamwa at earthlink.net)]
Envoyé : 3 juin 2016 11:15
À : Bousquet Marie-Pierre
Cc : ALGONQUIANA at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
(mailto:ALGONQUIANA at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG)
Objet : Re: [Algonquiana] Legend

Probably every Algonquian group had its little people legends — in
Miami-Illinois, their word for little people is which has cognates in
Meskwaki and Potawatomi. They’re a kind of malevolent dwarf who live by
rivers and terrorize travelers. They definipáyiihsa, tely have mouths,
tho, since they speak normally. Jacob Dunn described them as a “small
supernatural who is supposed to guide departed spirits to the ‘happy
hunting ground’”. Albert Gatschet went into more detail and said of
them, “walk on top of water. could be tracked on a rock. Live on the
ground, in the air; there are only two of them and they are twins
(tchikamwáki). They are ½ men, ½ bears, being the product mother human
[sic], father a bear.” Gatschet also said “there are only two dwarfs,
and they have many stories about them. Swim around in water, rivers, timber
– are naked, and of the male sex only. They always stay together. Story
how they came into existence. There was a woman whose husband was away for
a whole day whenever he was hunting. She then went to a cave or hollow tree
slanting up where a bear lived. From this union originated two babies, and
these were the pá-issa or dwarfs.”

If you’re interested, the main Peoria story that was recorded about
páyiihsaki is included in the “New Voices for Old Words” volume I
edited for the University of Nebraska Press and which came out last year.

best,

Dave Costa
On Jun 3, 2016, at 6:36 AM, Bousquet Marie-Pierre  wrote:

Kwe kakina, hi everyone,

I am looking for documentation about specific little people. There are
different kind of little people among the Algonquins: memegweshik,
Anishinabeshishak, Nadoweshishak. I am looking for stories about little
people who smell the food to get fed. They come during the night and you
know they came because the food has no flavour. One of my informants told
me they have no bums and apparently no mouth. I would like to know if
someone has heard of that legend.

Kitci mikwetc, many thanks,
———————————
Marie-Pierre Bousquet PhD
Directrice du Programme en études autochtones
Professeure titulaire/Full professor
Département d'anthropologie
Université de Montréal
C.P. 6128, succ. Centre-ville
Montréal (Qc) H3C 3J7
CANADA
Tel: 514-343-2152 (tel:514-343-2152)
marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca
(mailto:marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca)
www.graaq.ca (http://www.graaq.ca/)

_______________________________________________
Algonquiana mailing list
Algonquiana at listserv.linguistlist.org
(mailto:Algonquiana at listserv.linguistlist.org)
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/algonquiana
(http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/algonquiana)

_______________________________________________
Algonquiana mailing list
Algonquiana at listserv.linguistlist.org
(mailto:Algonquiana at listserv.linguistlist.org)
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/algonquiana
(http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/algonquiana)
_______________________________________________
 Algonquiana mailing list
 Algonquiana at listserv.linguistlist.org
(mailto:Algonquiana at listserv.linguistlist.org)
 http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/algonquiana
(http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/algonquiana)
-- 
	Richard A. Rhodes Associate Dean, Undergraduate Division College of
Letters and Science 206 Evans #2924 University of California Berkeley, CA
94720  _______________________________________________
Algonquiana mailing list
Algonquiana at listserv.linguistlist.org
(mailto:Algonquiana at listserv.linguistlist.org)
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/algonquiana

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/algonquiana/attachments/20160604/2bb55902/attachment.htm>