Hotcâk Text -- Tobacco Origin Myth, Version 4

narrated by Jasper Blowsnake

English Translation

Winnebago II, #1.171 = Winnebago II, #5: 187 = Winnebago III, #1: 150 --

Wâkcík'
nânók'a
hiníwi.
Wajâgû´zera
[People]
naked
we were.
[The Maker of Things]

djagúra
hanâtcîxdjî
'ûtcébigiji,*
hagédja
[whatever]
everything
when he finished making,
[last]
*the original handwritten text (Winnebago III, #1: 150) has 'ûtcébigi.

wâgagû´se.*
Waxop'íni
warádjirera
djanâgágere
hanâtcî´xdjî,
[we were made.]
[Spirits]
[the various ones]
[as many as there are]
[all of them],
*the original text (Winnebago III, #1: 150) has wañgágûse.

Winnebago III, #1: 151 --
égi
hâbamanína
yâgéxdjînîgera
nâjî´nâgere,
wakíri
[and]
[walkers on light]
[the poles (trees)]
that stand,
insects
*this is the form of the original text, and the form prevailing in most other sources. The corrected texts have wak'iri.

xonóxdjî
mânégi
tcowéxdjî
tcât'î´t'î´
nînk'
small
on earth
just a little
that are visible
[little]

nâgererécge,
hâk'é
hiwikísganije.*
Hanâ´tcîxdjî
Hâb
that are,
[not]
we are not equal to.
[All those]
[Light-and-Life]
*the corrected version read hiwihísganije, miscopying the original's /k/ (which looks like an /h/).

hirukánâ*
Mâ'úna
wagigínâ.
Deéji
hâk'é
[in charge of]
[Earthmaker]
[he made them.]
But us
[not]
*the original MS text (Winnebago III, #1: 151) has hâ´birukono in place of hâp hirkána.

Hâpkísak*
tcowedjácge
wajâ´nijâ
hip'éres**
half a life
even in the future ahead
[not a thing]
to know
*the corrected texts have hâp k'ísak (Winnebago II, #1.171) or hâp' k'isak' (Winnebago II, #5: 187). In translating Hâp, literally "light", I have followed Radin's "Light-and-Life" used in most other cases.
**the original MS text has hiperés.

hinuxúrugenínâ.
Égi
hanâ´tcîxdjî
hiworudjisdínâ.
Waxop'ini
we cannot.
[And]
[all of them]
we are far inferior.
[Spirits]

Wajâgû´zera
wa'únâ.
Hâbidaí'una
haní
wâgagíginâ.**
[the Maker of Things]
[he made them.]
[The life-asking one]*
to have
he let us.
*more literally "the light (life) asking one". In The Road of Life and Death, Radin renders it as, "the prayer-compelling means of life", which is not quite the same.
**the original MS text has wâgágiginâ.

Winnebago II, #1.171 --
Hâbikaradá*
hi'ûk'djegi.
Howaréra
deécge
c'agiahíwira
Light ask for
we'll use.
Sure enough
[this also]
[our ancestors]
*this is the version of the original handwritten text (Winnebago III, #1: 151). The other texts have hâp´hik'aradá.

hâbidaí'una
Hâp'
hidániagere.*
Wajâgû´zera
[the life-asking one]
[Light-and-Life]
that they asked for it with.
[The Maker of Things]
*the original MS text has hâbidánâñgre, translated as, "that they ask life with".

Winnebago II, #5: 188 --
é
jésge
egé
jésge
hihiadjegadjâ.*
[he himself]
[that]
he said,
[that]
we do it.
*the original MS text has jesgihiadjégadjâ.

Source:

Jasper Blowsnake's Account of the Medicine Rite, in Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, n.d.) Winnebago II, #1.171-172, Winnebago II, #5: 187-188, Winnebago III, #1: 150-151. A loose English translation is published in Paul Radin, The Road of Life and Death: A Ritual Drama of the American Indians. Bollingen Series V (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973 [1945]) 163.