He who is called Giant
(1.5)[5]
Ghéé'ye hooghéń `iłdóͅ gólíͅná'a.
nDéí
doobáńgólaadaná'a.
Isdzánádleeshéń bizhaa goyaleełná'a.
Isdzánádleeshéń bizhaań `it'a bizáͅáͅyégo, Ghéé'ye
hooghéń kaayinłndéná'a.
He who is called Giant[4] also existed.
He did not permit people to live.
White Painted Woman's children were being born.
While White Painted Woman's children were still small,he who is called Giant
ate them.
[_]
(1.5) Linguistic Notes
1. Ghéé'ye 'giant'. An unanalyzable noun. The
first syllable [i. e., ghéé'-] may be cognate
with the -ghéé'- of Naaghéé'neesghánéń 'Killer of Enemies' [see note 1.2 §5]. The
element -ye cannot be explained.
2. hooghéń 'he who is called. hooghé 'he is called, named', third person of
ho-ni-...-ghé 'to be called,
named' [imp. neut. intr.]. ho- cannot be
defined but ni- is probably the adjectival
prefix. The conjugation is somewhat irregular, however, since ni- drops out in the third person and causes the
vowel of ho- to lengthen compensatively.
-ń is the relative enclitic.
3.
ndéí 'people'.
ndé 'person,
people' plus the relative enclitic -í. Note
that -í functions here as a definite article
[see note 1.2, §3] and is used instead of -ń
because the reference is to a collectivity.
4. doobáńgólaadaná'a 'he did not permit them to
live, it is said'. doo-...-da negative. báńgolaa, third
person optative of Oáń-go-...[si-perf.]-laa 'to permit to live' [act. intr.]. The prefixes
are indefinable but cf. notes 1.1, §3 and 1.2, §4.
5. goyaleełná'a 'they were being born'. Third
person progressive mode of go-yi-...[si- perf.]-laa
'to be born, to come into existence' [act. intr.]. Cf. note 1.2, §4.
6. 'it'a [also heard 'it'ah] 'still, before' [part.].
7. bizáͅáͅyégo 'they, being small'. bizáͅáͅyé may be classed as a noun with constant
possessor and it may occasionally be used as such and translated 'his little
one'. More often, however, it is used as in this context, defining an
attribute of the preceding noun. Cf. note 1.4, §1.
8. kaayinłndéná'a
'he ate them from her, it is said'. Third person imperfective mode of
Oaa-ni-...[si- perf.]-ł-
ndé 'to eat something
of someone's' [act. tr.]. aa- 'from' [pp.];
ni- terminative [?].
[_]
Ethnological Note 4
A monster of huge size, usually described as having the
appearance of a man. He is pictured as carrying a knife and a large
burden-basket in which to put his victims. He is cumbersome and slow of foot and
burdened with enormous testicles which he swings over a bush under which he
lies, thus providing shade for himself. There is an independent body of stories
about the monster, who is probably to be identified with the "big owl" of other
Southern Athabascan myths.
