Little People

[Michael Mccafferty]

On Tue, 16 Jul 2002, Koontz John E wrote:

> Assuming that the coyotes are now quiet - which they are not; I hear them
> nightly from my living room yipping up a storm in the open space - is
> anyone interested in discussing terms for 'the little people'?  I was just
> looking some up, and found them about as opaque a lot of terms as any I've
> seen.
>
>
> Peter LeClaire, one of Howard's sources on Ponca culture, mentions
> mong-thu-jah-the-gah 'In the mountain {the Big Horns?} the dwarves [are]
> found and dreaded as it [they?] leads them away at nights and last [they
> are ensorceled] until morning."  The best I could make of that was
> maN=dhaN uj^aN=dhe egaN meaning, perhaps, 'like beautifully made
> arrowheads'.


I don't know if this is a thread, John, but the Christianized Chiracahua
Apache children I used to teach in New Mexico referred to arrowheads
as coming from the devil's workshop, as evil things. I was amazed.


Michael McCafferty