This tale is one of the first that I wrote in Saghalien.
The teller was a young man, with a good memory and great ambition to be
known as a good speaker. He dictated many traditions to me. which
he had heard from his uncle, a very wise and much esteemed Ainu from
Taraika, who had died one year before my visit to the Ainu country.
However, this narrator's diction is not so pure as that of the
first tale. It is more broken, less periodical than the
others, and shows an intention to make things easy for a foreign
hearer little acquainted with the Ainu language (as I myself then was),
by avoiding idiomatic phrases and difficult words. Hence there arises
at times a considerable degree of want of connectednesg in the tale
itself and its meaning; at others it is only the style that is at
fault. He told me this tale when asked whether the Ainus lived formerly
in the northern part of Saghalien. The occurence related took
place about 150 years ago.
1. Paratunnaj,
the name of an ancient
village on the shore of the Bay of Patience.
The word is comp of para, 'broad' + tu, 'two' + naj, 'a river'.
2. etokota, comp. of etoko, see 1. 102 + ta, contr. from oxta, see 1. 2.
ajnu, 'man, men, people'; also the name of the race.
7. Inanupirika, comp.of Inanu or nanu, 'a face' + pirika, see 1. 355.
8. śirankuri is a word altered from the original form śiramkore, which is still used in Yeso: comp, of śi,
'oneself + ram, 'the soul' + kore, 'to give'. It means 'a relative and also a good friend'.
14. Тarajkaun, comp. of Таrajkа, the name of a village still existing near the great lake of Таrajkа, near the Bay of Patience, + un, see 1. 177.
17. rusuiḱe, comp.of rusui, 'to wish' + iḱe, see 1. 170.
21. hеmakа, 'to finish'; is used sometimes after othi verbs in order to indicate more clearly that the act in question is ended.
23. utarhi, see 1. 357.
26. ani,
a particle placed after nouns, used to denote the instrument with which
the action is done; placed after the verbs, it gives a
causal meaning to the proposition, anma}' be translated by
'because'; it thus changes the verb inl a participle, or rather a
causal gerund.
27. tata, comp. of ta, 'this'+ ta, cf. 1. 2.
30. renkajne, a causative postposition, derived from renka 'the favour, kindness, decision' + ine or hinе, see 1. 34; has a meaning akin to ḱeraj kusu, see 1. 392.
31. hejao, comp. of he, see 1. 82 + jа, 'the land' + о, 'to sail'.
33. japaxći, see 1. 208.
34. Moriruesan, the name of a place on the Bay of Patience to the north of Taraika; comp. of
mо, 'little' + ri, 'high' + ru, 'a way' + esan or san, 'to go down the sea shore'. o:down a riverbank.
38. oxkajo, a sing. used instead of the pl. form oxkajo utara. From the next phrases it is clear that several males are spoken of.
40. an kusu, see 1. 60.
41. onne, see 1. 343.
42. kusu nejḱe, see 1. 400.
44. tumuḱeta, see 1. 5.
45. okajanaxći, see 1. 3 and 39.
46. pirika. This word has usually the tonic accent on the first syllable:pírika;
but forming by itself a whole member of the proposition meaning,
'it would be well', this word has two tonic accents: on the first and
on the last syllables.
48. sanḱeta or samaḱeta, 'beside'.
okajanua, see 1. 47.
49. annukara, cf. 1. 15.
51. jajkiśoro, 'descendants', comp. of jaj, 'oneself + kiś instead of ḱeś, 'end' + oro, 'from'.
53. see 1.
428.
54. see 1.
25.
58. aśirika, comp. of aśiri, 'new' + ka, contr. from kara, 'to do'.
67. tamb́e, comp. of tam or tan or ta, 'this' + b́e or pe, 'a thing'; for ani see 28.
68. uniḱe, or uni, 'home, the place where people live.
71. hоkannaśika, comp. of ho, see 1. 82. hаnnа, 'upper' + śi, 'oneself + ka, see 58. meaning 'to surpass by the mouth, i. e. to get the better in talking'.
72. ne or neа, 'that'; renkajne, see 30.
74. Karere, the name of a part of the sea of Okhotsk, to the North of the cape of Patience.
75. Vennaj, the name of a river that runs into the sea of Karere, and of a village built there by the family mentioned. The word is comp. of. ven, 'bad' + naj, 'a river'.
79. inuniṕexći, comp. of inun, 'to smoke-dry' + iṕe or ib́e, 'to eat'+ xći; the whole means, 'to prepare smoke-dried fish'.
80. śiśkanne, 'full', cf. below , 81; kanne, see 1. 14.
saxpe comp. of sax, 'the summer' + pe
83. ē, or ib́e, 'to eat', cf. 96.
84. Ukanru, a proper name.
Ćamokiun; for un see 1. I77; Ćamoki,
the name of a village on the same coast, but more to the north. Now the
Grhilyaks live in that village, they are the offspring of mixed
marriages between the two races. The Ghilyaks call the place Tśamg-vo (vo means 'village').
89. eoćiś or oćiś, 'to be angry'; the root is ćiś, 'to weep'.
99. tuntuhu, 'a pillar'; the store-houses of the Ainus are built on pillars.
99. mukar ani, instead of mukara, 'an axe' + ani, see 26.
113. toj ćiśe, contr. from toj ćiśe oxta,
The Ainus of Saghalien, mostly those living on the colder Eastern
shore, used to make earthen and partly underground houses for winter in
the forest at a little distance from their summer dwellings, and from
the store-houses. When in Saghalien, I found these winter earthen
dwellings only in the four northern villages. In many others they spend
the winter in huts built on the Russian pattern.
116. tuа, a special word, used only in connection with pu; it means 'to go for food to the store-house'.
131–132. nejaxka… nа…, 'also (both)... also (and)...
134. pono-pono, is the repetition of pono, comp. of pon, 'little' + nо, an adverbial particle. The duplication of such words gives an intensified meaning.
137. ē instead of eći; sing. instead of pl.
143. maxnek utara, instead of maxneku utara.
144. tama, 'beads', a Japanese word.
mukaxći or muftexći, 'they hung', suspended from the neck or schoulder.
145. Kosondo,
the name of Japanese or Manchurian brocade, which the Ainus liked to
purchase and prized very highly. The word was afterwards extended to
any silk dress, or silk material. It is a Japanese word kosode.
'a cloak without sleeves, made of brocade'. Such precious dresses are
often put on the dead, as a funeral garment. Here the women put
on beads and silk dresses, and prepared themselves for death,
which was inevitable.
145. mići, pl. of mi, 'to put on a dress'.
146. ajn, with elided u.
147. uhoxḱekaći, is a form of the 3rd person pi. of hохḱе; cf. 1. 316.
150. śin-an kusu, for śino, 'truly' + an kusu, 'being'.
151. ćepoma, comp. of ćep, 'a fish' + oma, 'to lay'; it has two synonyms: ćex noje (a fish, to twist), and ćex rajki (a fish, to kill). See similar descriptive expressions 1. 24.
152. eukahoxḱe, cf. above. 147.
154. raj, sing. instead of the pl. form rajaxći.
156. hośki ramhu, literally, 'the previous soul', is a descriptive expression for the 'elder brother', a younger brother is called nokan ramhu, 'a small soul'. see
163.
157. maxnu, 'to take a wife'; comp. of max or maći, + nu. Also: hоkonu, 'to take a husband'; ponu, 'to bring into the world a child'; nu
generally signifies, 'to hear', but whether this is its meaning
in these three compounds, I am unable to say.
159. ki, 'did'. This word is sometimes used as an augmentative affix to a verb.
161. auvonnekare, comp. of au (instead of an, cf. 1. 5, n before v = u) + vonneka. 'to visit' + re, see 1. 258.
162. naxa for nax, 'so'.
163. see
156.
165. ivonneka, comp. of i, acc. of pers. pronoun, first and third persons, sing, and pl., here it means 'them' + vonneka, see 161.
168. ćepomate, a participle of ćepoma, see 151.
207. iśo, 'a bear'; iśon, 'one lucky in hunting'.
177. kimojki, comp.of kim, which is a root used in compounds, and means 'a mountain-forest'.
181. unźi or unći,
'a fire, a hearth'. The large houses of the Ainus have two hearths,
placed in the middle of the house. The smoke goes out by the aperture
in the roof. The fire-place is a sort of large wooden box or framework,
about six feet square and one high, almost filled with beaten earth:
the logs are piled up in the centre upon the earth.
186. amani, comp. of ama, 'to put on' + ni, 'a tree'.
187. ukośiturupa, comp.of uko + śi + turupa, plur. form of turu, or turi, 'to stretch out'.
188. suhećin, comp. of su, 'a pot of iron', which the Ainus received from Japan or Manchuria, + he, + ćin, one of the plural signs for nouns, see 1. 99.
189. huxkara, 'a grove, a little forest of any trees with needle-shaped leaves; derived from hux or huf; huftе – 'the leaves or branches of coniferous trees'.
tuj śata, comp. of tuj, 'the inside of anything';+ śata or sata or samata, see 48.
190.
The Ainus make their burial grounds close to the grove that is next
their houses. There also, after the burial, they lay certain
objects which are supposed to be used by the dead in the other world.
In this case the inhabitants ol Vennaj also placed pots for themselves, making preparations for their own impending death.
196. itakihi, for itak; the addition of hi (see 1. 25) produces a verbal substantive.
197–198. eramu śikiru instead of ramu eśikiru; ē expressing the character of an object.
198. kuni, 'that' (conjunction) is placed at the end of the proposition.
199. kohekiru, comp. of ko + hе + kiru, 'to turn over'.
202. ejajtuparepe, comp. of е + jaj + tupa, 'to change places' + re + pе.
It may be that, as the Ainu canoes are very long and narrow, and
it is dangerous to change places in them, this is the
origin of the word.
203. tane, comp.of tа, 'this' + nе, 'to be, is'.
204. ćaća, comp. of ći aća, 'my (or his, her) uncle'; ćaća is used to designate any old man.
207. ećakaśno, comp.of е + ća, 'the mouth'+ kaś or kaśi, 'upper, upon' + nо.