wild cats etc

[David Costa]

Actually, the spider/trickster/white man terms in the Plains Algonquian
languages can all be shown to have meant 'trickster' originally in
Proto-Algonquian, not 'spider'. This is evident from comparing the cognates
of the 'trickster' word in the Great Lakes languages, where that
'spider/trickster/white man' thing doesn't happen. In those languages the
'trickster' word just means 'trickster' (the word has not discernible
etymology), and the 'spider' words all look rather similar to each other byt
very different from 'trickster'.

So Plains Algonquian 'spider' comes from 'trickster', not vice versa.

Dave Costa


>> Maybe this is why terms for 'whiteman' and 'trickster' (and both of these
>> from 'spider') are the same in some Northern Plains languages.