Tsimshian mythology

Front matter

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Preface

The following collection of Tsimshian myths was recorded durmg the last twelve years by Mr. Henry W. Tate, of Port Simpson, British Cohmibia, hi Tshnshian, his native language. Mr. Tate died in April, 1914. The translation of the tales as here presented was made by me, based on a free interlinear rendermg by Mr. Tate.

A comparison of the form of the tales with those recorded by me on Nass River and on a number of points on the lower Skeena River shows very clearly that Mr. Tate felt it incumbent upon hunself to omit some of those traits of the myths of his people that seem inappropriate to us, and there is no doubt that m this respect the tales do not quite express the old type of Tsimshian traditions. A few of the tales also bear evidence of the fact that Mr. Tate had read part of the collection of tales from the Kwakiutl pubhshed by myself in conjunction with Mr. George Hunt.' A few others indicate his familiarity with my collection of tales from Nass River. At the time when I received these tales I called his attention at once to the necessity of keepmg strictly to the form hi which the traditions are told by the Tsimshian ; and by far the greater part of the tales bear mternal evidence of being a faithful record of the form m which the traditions are transmitted among the people.

Christian mfluences are evidently very strong among all tribes of northern British Columbia, and a study of the collection of talcs recorded by Doctor Swanton among the Haida and Tlingit ^ shows also very clearly that the coarseness of their tales has been very much toned down. It is necessary to bear these facts in mind in comparative studies based on the material presented here and on that recorded by Doctor Swanton. I have also had the personal experience that uiformants were reluctant to express themselves freely in the traditional form, being impressed by the restrictions of what we call proper and improper.

The collection here jiresented evidently contams the bulk of the important traditions of the Tsimshian. A small number of these were recorded by me in 18S8, and published in my collections of myths from the North Pacific coast.^ We have from the same linguistic group a collection of Nass River tales. ^ One of the tales of Mr. Tate's series was published by me with text in the ZeitscJirift fur Ethnoloyie .- Another group of these tales was published with text in the Publications of the American Ethnological Society.

1 Publicatiom of the Jcsup North Pacific Expedition, .'ol. ra (1902 and 1905).

2 See Bibliography on pp. 39 et seq.

• 31

32 PREFACE

The series contained in the present vohime is given without text, partty for the reason that it has been impossible to revise phonetics and grammar of the texts, partly because there is no immediate prospect of carrying through such a revision.

In the second part of the present paper a description of the life, social organization, and religious ideas and practices, of the people, is given as it appears from their mythology.

In the third part I have discussed certain aspects of the social life of the Tsimshian.

In the fourth part a discussion is presented of the mythology of the Tsimsluan in its bearing upon their general mythical concepts and in relation to the phenomena of dissemination of myths ua northwestern America.

Tlie music contained in the present volume was reproduced as written by Mr. Tate. I presume no claim for accuracy can be made for it.

I am indebted to Mr. C. M. Barbeau for the phonetic equivalents of some Tsimshian names used by Mr. Tate; to Dr. E. Sapir for those of some Nootka names. In an appendix I have given a number of hitherto unpublished BeUabella talcs collected by Professor Livingston Farrand and of Nootka tales collected by Mr. George Hunt.

I wish to express my thanks to Miss Harriet A. Andrews for her efhcient help in the preparation of the volume, and to Dr. H. K. Haeberlin for assistance in the preparation of the index of quotations.

Franz Boas.

Columbia University, New York, Summer of 1916.

CONTEXTS

Bibliography

Alphabet

Brief description of the Tsimshiaii

I . Tsimshian myths

1. Txii'msEm. The Raven legend (notes, p. (1 (2 (3 (4 (5 (6 (7:

(12 (13 (14 (15 (16 (17

Origin of Txa'msEm

Origin of daylight (notes, p. 641)

Stone and Elderberry Bush (notes, p. 663)

Origin of fire (notes, p- 663)

Txii'msEm uses the sinews of the tomtit (notes, p.

Origin of tides (notes, p. 656) '.

Giant gambles with Gull (notes, p. 653)

Giant obtains the olachen (notes, p. 653)

Giant learns how to cook olachen (notes, p. 653)

Giant and the gulls

Txa'msEm and the steelhead-salmon (notes, p. 674)

Txa'rasEra and I.agobola' (notes, pp. 666, 721)

Txii'msEm and the crab (notes, p. 721) .•

Origin of the bullhead (notes, p. 685)

Txii'msEm frightens away the owners of a whale (notes, p. 687).

Txii'msEm finds a lieautiful blanket (notes, p. 722)

Txii'msEm and his slave (notes, p. 689)

Txii'msEm kills his slave (notes, p. 691)

Fishermen break off Txa'msEm's jaw (notes, p. 684)

Txii'msEm and the himter (notes, p. 692)

Txii'msEm and the children (notes, p. 686)

Txii'msEm and the salmon woman (notes, p. 668)

Txii'msEm makes war on the south wind (notes, p. 658)

Txii'msEm makes a girl sick and then cures her (notes, p. 722). .

Txii'msEm pretends to build a canoe (notes, p. 720)

Txii'msEm \'i8its Chief Echo (notes, p. 702)

Txii'msEm kills Little Pitch (notes, p. 683)

Txii'msEm kills Grizzdy Bear (notes, p. 680)

Txii'msEm kills Deer (notes, p. 703)

Txii'msEm imitates Chief Seal (notes, pp. 694, 696)

Txii'msEm imitates Chief Kingfisher (notes, pp. 694, G96)

Txa'msEm imitates the thrush (notes, pp. 694, 690)

Txii'msEm and Cormorant (notes, p. 678)

Txii'msEm and the Wolves (notes, p. 720)

Txii'msEm and Chief Grouse (notes, p. 716)

Txii'msEm returns to the Wolves (notes, p. 720)

Txii'msEm invites the monsters (notes, p. 718)

The further history of Txii'msEm (notes, p. 723")

2. The meeting of the vrild animals (notes, pp. 723, 728)

3. The story of the porcupine-hunter (notes, p. 723)

4. The story of Grizzly Bear and Beaver (notes, p. 723)

5. Story of the porcupine (notes, p. 724)

6. Beaver and Porcupine (notes, p. 724)

7. Story of the deluge (notes, p. 727)

34 CONTENTS

I. Tsimshian mj'tlis — Continued. rage

8. Sun and Moon (notes, p. 727) 113

9. Am'ala' (Very Dirty) (notes, p. 723) 116

10. The four great chiefs of the winds (notes, p. 732) 121

11. The story of Naiq (notes, p. 734) 125

12. The feast of the mountain goats (notes, p. 738) 131

13. The giant devilfish (notes, p. 739) 135

14. The hunter's -vrife who became a beaver (notes, p. 739) nS

15. The winter hunters and the mosquito (notes, p. 740) 141

IG. The hunters (notes, pp. 741, 759) 145

17. The hunter and his wooden wife (notes, p. 744) 152

18. Plucldng Out Eyes (notes, pp. 746, 759) 154

19. The spider and the widow's daughter (notes, pp. 747, 750) 158

20. Prince Snail (notes, pp. 747, 749) ICl

21. The Otter who married the princess (notes, pp. 747, 751) 1G6

22. The widow and her daughter (notes, pp. 747, 750) 172

23. The mink who married a princess (notes, pp. 747, 762) 177

24. The chief who married the Robin and the Sawbill Duck (notes, p. 759) 179

25. The princess who rejected her courin (notes, p. 767) 185

26. The bear who married a woman (notes, p. 747) 102

27. The prince who was taken away by the spring salmon (notes, p. 770). . 192 2S. The town of Chief Peace (notes, p. 779) 297

29. Sucking Intestines (notes, pp. 634, 781) 214

30. Burning Leggings and Burning Snowshoes (notes, p. 781) 216

32. The prince who was deserted (notes, p. 783) 225

33. The princess and the mouse (notes, pp. 747. 791) - - . . 2 ;2

34. The young chief who married his cousin (notes, p. 792) 238

.35. The storj' of Asdi-wa'l (notes, p. 792) 243

36. Waux, the son of Asdi-wa'l (notes, p. 792) 243

37. The blind G-it-q!a'°da (notes, p. 825) 246

38. Local winter in G-it-q!a'°da (notes, p. 829) 230

39. The drifting log (story of the Eagle Clan) (notes, p. 831) 253

40. The story of Asdilda and Omen (story of the Eagle Clan) (notes, p. 832). 260

41. Explanation of the beaver hat (story of the Eagle Clan) (notes, p. 834). 270

42. The AVater Being who married the princess (story of the Ganha'da)

43. The Story of Part Summer (story of the GanhaV.a) (notes, p. 834) 278

44. Explanation of the abalone bow (story of the Ganha'da) (notes, p. 835). 234

45. Story of GunaxnesEmg-a'd (story of the Ganha'da) (notes, pp. 747, 835). 235

46. Story of the Ganha'da (notes, p. 846) 2S5

47. G'it-na-gun-a'ks (story of the G'ispawadwE'da) (notes, p. 846) 285

48. The four chiefs and Chief Grizzly Bear (story of the G'ispawadwE'da)

49. Gau'6 (story of the G'ispawndwE'da) (notes, p. 847) 217

50. Story of the G'ispawadwE'da (notes, p. 855) 2)7

51. Tsauda and Halus (story of the Wolf Clan) (notes, p. 855) 297

52. Story of the Wolf Clan (notes, p. 857).' 306

53. The Prince and Prince Wolf (story of the Wolf Clan) (notes, pp. 759,

858) 317

54. The ghost who fought with the great shaman (notes, p. 859) 322

55. Great Shaman (notes, p. 859) 331

5fi. Storj' of the ghost (notes, p. 860) 336

57. The man who bound up his ^vrinkles (notes, p. 860) 339

CONTENTS 35

I. Tsimshian mji:hs — Concluded. Page

58. The brothers who %'isited the sky (notes, p. 861) 344

59. Six hunters (notes, p. 861) 345

60. The Land Otter (notes, p. 862) 345

61. The deluge (notes, p. 862^ 346

62. The cannibal (notes, p. 863) 350

63. Origin of the cannibals (notes, p. 863) 353

64. Story of the Wolf Clan (notes, p. 863) 354

Supplement: Three war tales 355

(1) Fights between the G'i-spa-x-la'°ts and the G'it-dzi'° 355

(2) War between the Tsimshian and the Tlingit 370

(3) War between the Haida and the Gi-spa-x-la'°ts 380

I I . Description of the Tsimshian, based on their my thologj' 393

Introductorj- 393

Towns, houses, household goods, and manufactures 394

Dress and ornament -398

Fishing, hunting, and food-gathering 398

Food 404

Travel 407

Playing and gambling 409

Quarrels and war 410

Social organization 411

Family life 419

Chiefs, attendants, slaves, council 429

Visitors and festivals 437

Marriage and death 4 10

Ethical concepts and emotional life 443

Religious and magical practices 448

Current beliefs 452

Mythical concepts 453

Shamanism 473

III. Tsimshian society 478

Social organization 478

Comparative notes on the social organization of the Tsimshian 515

Birth, marriage, and death 530

Burial 534

War 536

The potlatch 537

Religion 543

Secret societies 546

Shamanism 558

IV. Comparative study of Tsimshian mythology 565

Introductory 565

1. The Raven and Transformer myths of the Northwest coast 567

The Raven m\-th 507

Transformer myths 586

Introductions of Ti'ansformer tales .586

Transformer myth of northern Vancouver Island 589

Transformer myths of the west coast of Washington 597

Transformer myths of the Gulf of Georgia and FraSer River 601

Transformer mj-ths of the Shuswap and Chilcotin 610

The myths of Hog Fennel and Old One 615

Comparison of ('ulture-Hero tales of the Northwest coast 618

36 ' COXTENTS.

n'. Comparative study of Tsimsliiau mythology — (Concluded.

1. The Raven and Transformer myths of the Northwest coast — Concluded. Page

The Raven myth of the Tsimahiau 620