Hotc‰k Text -- Potato Magic

narrated by George Ricehill

The MS is written in ink in a highly legible cursive hand. Numbers for footnotes have been placed in the text but no notes were written in. It has no title on its first page, and the upper left and upper right corners have page numbers each belonging to a different number system. Almost every word has an interlinear translation.

English Translation

p. 81 --
Coha”«j‰
r‡jera
Howacœtcga*
higa’ren‰.
HagarŽj‰
Sioux Indian
name
Red Elk
they called him.
Sometimes
*this should be Hžwžcœtcka.

dokŽwehije'œna
ma–k‡x
wagi'ž«,
M‰h’xede
ma–k‡nij‰.
wild ground-potatoes
dirt
he made them
one white man
a doctor.

Kibag’gi.
"Dokéwehìra**
hij‰«
c'u–g’j‰,
jur‡ra
[He doubted it.]*
"Wild potatoes
one
make one,
dollars
*the translation has, "don't blame them".
**there is a line running through the syllable /kŽ/ in this word, but this appears to be a slip of the pen.

kerep—nesˆtc‰
hon’k'u–kdjn‰,"
Ceh—nuka
higa’ren‰.
"Hodj‡."
fifty
I will give you,"
Sioux
he says.
"Yes."

Egi
ma–k‡nidjega
m‡na
giswag‡xkana–k.
"RokdŽgi
And
the doctor
the earth
he makes a circle around.
"Inside the circle

hij‰«
c'u–g’ji,
kerep—nesˆtc‰
honik'œ–kdjen‰."
ƒgi
one
[if] you make,
fifty
I will give you."
And

p. 82 --
Coh‰«djega
Ždja
dokeweh’j‰
edja
'œn‰.
the Sioux
right there
a wild potato
right there
he made.

JŽnu–ga,
ma–k‡nidjga
hohirŽn‰.
JŽnu–ga.
That's all,
the doctor
he got beaten.
That's all.

Source:

George Ricehill, "A Tale of a Sioux," in Paul Radin, Notebooks, Freeman #3892 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, n.d.) Winnebago III, #11a, Story 5: 81-82.