"I [am one of] those who are called Rump people
(5.23)[23]
"Shí Tł'aayáńne hóngéí.'Áshíͅ Shash
daashigół'íͅ.'Áíshíͅ 'ásht'íͅ.Négonsiͅ,
Shóͅóͅdé."
"I [am one of] those who are called Rump people
[1]. And they [also] call me Bear. That's who I am.
I know you, Coyote."
[_]
(5.23) Linguistic Notes
The first line of this passage is literally as follows: "I / Rump people /
those of us who are called."
tł'aayáńne 'Rump people'. tł'aa- 'buttocks, rump'; -yá postposition
[?]; -ń relative; -ne 'people of such and such a
group'.
[_]
Ethnological Note 1
There are a number of circumlocutory phrases to indicate
that one is speaking of a bear, for bear is an animal from which the Apache
believes a painful disease may be contracted. To utter the regular word for bear
is to run the risk of seeing the bear shortly afterwards and of catching the
sickness. The informant from whom these texts were taken is generally reputed to
have some supernatural power from bear. At least he is one of the few Apache on
the reservation who will hunt or touch bear. It is for this reason, perhaps,
that he actually used the word for bear in the next line.
