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

Wed Jun 8 13:51:12 UTC 2016

Thank you very much everyone for all your informations. It was the first time in twenty years I had these descriptions of that kind of little people where I work (Abitibi, Quebec). Always a pleasure to learn new things!
Kitci mikwetc. Mino kicikanikenek kakina, have a nice day,
———————————
Marie-Pierre Bousquet PhD
Directrice du Programme en études autochtones<https://www.facebook.com/pea.udem>
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://Tel:%20514-343-2152>
marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca<mailto:marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca>
www.graaq.ca<http://www.graaq.ca/>

Le 3 juin 2016 à 20:10, Danielle E. Cyr <dcyr at yorku.ca<mailto:dcyr at yorku.ca>> a écrit :

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
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339, boul. Perron ouest
New Richmond, QC,  G0C 2BO
dcyr at yorku.ca<mailto:dcyr at yorku.ca> - 418.392.7271

---- Original Message ----
From: Kevin Brousseau <brousseau_kevin at yahoo.ca<mailto:brousseau_kevin at yahoo.ca>>
To:
Cc: "Algonquian Conference List" <ALGONQUIANA at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:ALGONQUIANA at listserv.linguistlist.org>>
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 <rrhodes at berkeley.edu<mailto:rrhodes at berkeley.edu>> 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 <mcorbiere at usudbury.ca<mailto:mcorbiere at usudbury.ca>> 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" <mmccaffe at indiana.edu<mailto:mmccaffe at indiana.edu>> 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 <marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca<mailto:marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca><mailto:marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca<mailto:marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca>>> 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<https://www.facebook.com/pea.udem>
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><tel://Tel:%20514-343-2152>
marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca<mailto:marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca><mailto:marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca<mailto:marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca>><mailto:marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca<mailto:marie-pierre.bousquet at umontreal.ca>>
www.graaq.ca<http://www.graaq.ca/><http://www.graaq.ca<http://www.graaq.ca/>><http://www.graaq.ca/>

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