Little Eagle : p. 169 LITTLE-EAGLE A LEGEND OF THE EAGLE CLAN [Told by Moses] There was a large town. A chief was its master. He was the commander of all the men. His child was a noble prince. The child did not eat, but made bows and arrows all the time. Now the salmon arrived. Then the chief said to his people...
Next. Txa'msem : TX'MSEM Tx'msEm visits a chief who owns fresh water. He pretends that the chief soiled his bed, and by threatening to tell on him he gets permission to take a drink of water. He takes all the water and flies away. The water runs out of his blanket and forms rivers. He meets the ghosts and turns...
Abstracts. The Grouses : THE GROUSES A chief's daughter elopes with the chief of the Grouses, who appears as a man in fox skins. Their four children cross the river on the ice, intending to visit their grandfather. The children chase them away, but finally they enter the house of the chief, who suspects that they are his...
Abstracts. Txa'msem : TX'MSEM Tx'msEm is born, but can not be induced to eat. Two old men chew salmon for him, and put a scab into it. Then he becomes voracious and is deserted. He tries to catch a bullhead but can not, so he curses it and makes its tail thin. Believing that he sees a beautiful dancing-blanket...
Supplementary Stories. The Grouses : THE GROUSES A LEGEND OF THE G*ISPAWADUWE'DA [Told by Chief Mountain] A chief had a beautiful daughter. Many young men came to marry her, but he refused her to all of them. Then the chief of the Grouses flew down and alighted on the roof of the old chief's house. He assumed the shape of a man who...
Txa'msem And Logobola : p. 7 TX'MSEM AND LGBOL' [1-5 told by Moses; 6-8, 2a, and 5a told by Philip] 1. There was a town in which a chief and chieftainess were living. The chieftainess had done something bad. She had a lover, but the chief did not know it. The young man loved the chieftainess very much. He often went...
Tsak : p. 117 TS?AK* [Told by Moses] There was a boy named Ts?ak* and his old grandmother. They had a small house, and a small brook was running near by. There were salmon in the brook. Ts?ak* went down carrying a stick with a bone point, and speared the salmon. He got a great many. Then he made a rope...
The Stone And The Elderberry Bush : p. 72 THE STONE AND THE ELDERBERRY BUSH [Told by Moses] A little before the Stone gave birth to her child, the Elderberry Bush gave birth to her children. For that reason the Indians do not live many years. Because the Elderberry Bush gave birth to her children first, man dies quickly. If...
Abstracts. Growing Up Like One Who H : p. 241 GROWING-UP-LIKE-ONE-WHO-HAS-A-GRANDMOTHER A chief's nephew is a poor orphan. A light comes down from heaven and hangs at the end of a branch. It proves to be copper. The chief promises his daughter to the one who will knock it down. The orphan boy receives from a supernatural being stones...
Abstracts. The Wolves And The Deer : THE WOLVES AND THE DEER The Wolves and the Deer have a feast. They play laughing at each other. The Wolves laugh first. The Deer fear the large teeth of the Wolves. The Deer are told to laugh aloud. When the Wolves see that the Deer have no teeth, they devour them.
Supplementary Stories. The Orig : p. 221 SUPPLEMENTARY STORIES THE ORIGIN OF THE G*ISPAWADUWE'DA [Told by Chief Mountain] There were two towns in the canyon of Nass river. The one was inhabited by the G*ispawaduwE'da, the other by the G*itg*ini'x. In the first of these towns there were four brothers who were beaver hunters. They...
Abstracts. The Squirrel : THE SQUIRREL A young man has killed many squirrels. One day he sees a white squirrel climbing a spruce tree. He goes around the tree to get a shot and finds that the squirrel is the daughter of the chief of the squirrels. He is called into the house. The chief asks him to burn the meat and bones...
Txa'msem : p. 36 TX'MSEM [1-17, told by Philip; 18 to 20 and 3a told by Moses] 1. There was a chief who had a daughter who swallowed a leaf of a cedar when drinking water. Then she had a pretty child, a boy. The child was able to walk, but he did not eat. Then his grandfather worried. He called two old men...
Growing Up Like One Who Has A Grandmother : p. 137 GROWING-UP-LIKE-ONE-WHO-HAS-A-GRANDMOTHER [Told by Moses] There was a boy who had lost his father and his mother; only his mother's brother, the chief of the village, remained. One day this chief was purifying himself by drinking a decoction of devil's-clubs. He did so repeatedly because he...
Abstracts. The Porcupine And The Beaver : THE PORCUPINE AND THE BEAVER The Beaver invites the Porcupine to his house, carries him over the water, and gives him sticks to eat. They agree to play together. The Beaver carries the Porcupine through the water and almost drowns him. The Porcupine then invites the Beaver to visit him and takes...
Abstracts. Txa'msem And Logobola : p. 236 ABSTRACTS TX'MSEM AND LGBOL' A chief's wife pretends to be dead and is buried on a tree. Her lover goes to see her in the grave box. They are discovered and killed by the chief. The dead woman gives birth to a boy who lives by sucking his mother's intestines. He takes away the arrows...
Witchcraft : p. 217 WITCHCRAFT [Told by Moody] When a sorcerer wants to kill a fellow-man, he takes some of the man's perspiration, or an old shirt, and takes it to the place where he keeps his witch-box. Then he opens his box, takes a string, and fastens a piece of the old shirt to it. He ties it across...
5. Story Of The Porcupine : p. 237 5. STORY OF THE PORCUPINE. It was when it was fall, and all the animals were in their towns. Then Great-Grizzly-Bear was also in his town because it was mid-winter. Then rain came down and dropped into the den [town] of Great-Grizzly-Bear, whose fur was wet; and he was much annoyed...
Abstracts. Little Eagle : LITTLE-EAGLE A chief's son, instead of catching salmon, feeds eagles and pulls out their feathers for his arrows. In winter, when provisions run short, the boy, his grandmother, and a slave are deserted. The boy's mother hides some fish in a clam shell. Every morning the eagles bring them food;...
She Who Has A Labret On One Side : p. 188 SHE-WHO-HAS-A-LABRET-ON-ONE-SIDE [Told by Moses] There was a town. There was a chief and a chieftainess. They had a son. He was almost grown up. He had four friends, who were always near him. They were playing all the time. Once upon a time one of them went out of the house. He saw a little...
Supplementary Stories. Tsegu'ksku : TSEGU'KSKU In the town Lax-anLE, below G*iLwunks'Lk, was a shaman who owned a rattle and a carved squirrel, which became alive as soon as it was dark. There was a village on the opposite side of the river, whose inhabitants were enemies of the shaman. One night he sent his squirrel across the river...
Title Page. Part 02 : TSIMSHIAN TEXTS NASS RIVER DIALECT BY FRANZ BOAS SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY: J. W. POWELL, DIRECTOR BULLETIN 27 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE [1902] Scanned , August 2003. J.B. Hare, Redactor. This Text Is In The Public Domain. These Files May Be Used For Any...
The Grizzly Bear : p. 200 THE GRIZZLY BEAR [Told by Moses] There were four brothers, the sons of a great chief. Their mother was a great chieftainess. They lived in a large town. In midwinter the people had eaten all the winter provisions, and were starving. The brothers were great hunters. Now, the two eldest ones...
The Stars : p. 86 THE STARS [Told by Moses] There was a town. One evening a man went out of the house, and his son accompanied him. They sat down on the beach. After they had been sitting there for some time, the boy looked up to the sky and said to a star, "Poor fellow! You little twinkler, indeed, you must...
Abstracts. The Sealion Hunters : THE SEALION HUNTERS One of four sealion hunters finds no sealions on his rock and steals those of his companion. The latter makes an artificial sealion, which, when harpooned by the thief, pulls him with his crew across the ocean. p. 240 [paragraph continues] He is unable to let go the harpoon line...
6. Story Of The Deluge : p. 243 6. STORY OF THE DELUGE. There was a town, I might say, on the upper course of Skeena River. This was Prairie Town, and there were very many people,--many chiefs, old women, young men, young women, and really many children. They were very foolish, because there were a great many, and the old...
The Wolves And The Deer : p. 83 THE WOLVES AND THE DEER [Told by Moody] The Wolves had a feast on a prairie at the mouth of Skeena river. They invited the chiefs of the Deer to the feast. The Deer who had been called came. Then they sat down on the prairie face to face with the Wolves. The Wolves said to the Deer, "You...
Abstracts. Tsak : TS?AK* A boy named Ts?ak* catches fish, which are stolen by the Grizzly Bear. He scolds the Grizzly Bear, who snuffs him in. Ts?ak* kills the bear by starting a fire in his stomach, and then comes out and asks his grandmother to cut open the bear. At first she refuses to believe him, but finally...
2. Story Of Gunaxnesemga'd : p. 147 2. STORY OF GUNAXNSEMG*A'D. There was a certain river named KsE-da'ul. There lived the G*idzExl'0l. Every summer they dried salmon and all kinds of berries, and really all kinds of food, getting ready to finish them for winter food. And one day ten young women arose to pick salmonberries...
Abstracts. Rotten Feathers : p. 239 ROTTEN-FEATHERS Children play ball and make much noise, which annoys Heaven, who sends feathers down. One boy puts them on his head and they lift him up. Others try to hold him and all are taken up. One menstruating girl and her grandmother, who were in a small hut, are the only ones left...
Supplementary Stories. Asi Hwi'l : ASI-HW'L [Told by Chief Mountain] A long time ago the people of Lax-q?al-tsa'p and those of G*itwunksi'Lk were starving. There were two sisters living in these towns. When the provisions were almost exhausted, the sister living in Lax-q?al-tsa'p thought that she would try to reach her sister who...
Title Page : TSIMSHIAN TEXTS (New Series) BY FRANZ BOAS Publications Of The American Ethnological Society Volume III, Part 2 Late E. J. Brill Publishers And Printers Leyden [1912] Scanned , July 2003. J. B. Hare, Redactor. This Text Is In The Public Domain. These Files May Be Used For Any Non-commercial Purpose...
Abstracts. Kelku : K*?LKU Children are playing in a hollow log of driftwood on the beach. They are carried out to sea by the tide. They strike their noses until they bleed and smear the outside of the log with the blood. Gulls that alight on the log are glued to it by the blood. The boys kill them and subsist on them...
Abstracts. The Stone And The Elderberry Bush : THE STONE AND THE ELDERBERRY BUSH The Stone and the Elderberry Bush gave birth nearly at the same time, but the children of Elderberry Bush were born first. Therefore man is mortal.
3. Gauo : p. 193 3. GAU'. A very long time ago there were two villages (one) on each side of the great Nass River. One village was on the east side, and one village was on the west side. Both were very wealthy, and in both were many people; and (in) both were very brave warriors, and they fought much...
Squirrel : p. 211 SQUIRREL [Told by Moses] There were four children who were always shooting squirrels. They killed them all the time. Then they dried their skins and put away their meat. They did so at the foot of a large spruce tree--they did so for a long time all the year round. Then they had killed all...
1. The Story Of Asdi Wa'l. Or, The Meeting : p. 71 1. THE STORY OF ASDI-W'L; 1 OR, THE MEETING ON THE ICE. Well, when a great famine reached [touched] the people of the Skeena, then a chieftainess was also among the starving people, and a young woman who had married a man of a town way up the river. Her mother, however, was in her own...
Introduction : p. 67 INTRODUCTION. THE following texts in the Tsimshian dialect of the Tsimshian language were written down by Mr. Henry W. Tate, a full-blood Indian of Port Simpson, British Columbia, in Tsimshian, with interlinear translation, according to the alphabet adopted by Bishop Ridley in his Tsimshi...
Introduction. Part 02 : p. 5 TSIMSHIAN TEXTS NASS RIVER DIALECT Recorded and translated by FRANZ BOAS INTRODUCTION The following texts were collected in Kinkolith, at the mouth of the Nass river, during the months of November and December, 1894, while I was engaged in researches under the auspices of the British...
Abstracts. Smoke Hole : SMOKE-HOLE A man attains supernatural strength by always sleeping at the edge of his smoke-hole.
Abstracts. She Who Has A Labret On One Side : SHE-WHO-HAS-A-LABRET-ON-ONE-SIDE A scabby slave girl appears on the street of a village. A prince marries her. When his mother feeds her, she puts into the empty dish a scab, which is transformed into an abalone shell. In the evening the girl's mother, Evening Sky, comes and announces that her...
4. Story Of Porcupine And Beaver : p. 227 4. STORY OF PORCUPINE AND BEAVER. One day when Porcupine went about at the edge of a large lake, Great-Beaver was swimming about in the great lake, being happy. He struck the water with his big tail, dived, and was happy. Then Porcupine was standing at the edge of the water, and saw how...
The Porcupine And The Beaver : p. 73 THE PORCUPINE AND THE BEAVER [Told by Moses] The Porcupine and the Beaver were friends. They loved each other. The Beaver used to invite the Porcupine to his house all the year round. The Porcupine went and entered the Beaver's house. The house of the Beaver was in the middle of a great lake...
Next. Txa'msem And Lo : p. 25 TX'MSEM [1, 4, and 2a told by Philip; 2 and 3 by Moses] 1. He came to the house of a chief who was, asleep. He stood in the doorway. The water was in the house of this chief. Then Tx'msEm thought he would steal it. He tore off the bark of a rotten tree. He chewed it and made it look like...
The Sealion Hunters : p. 108 THE SEALION HUNTERS [Told by Moses] There were four men--one of the Wolf clan, one of the Raven clan, one of the Eagle clan, and one of the Bear clan. They were great hunters. There were four rocks. The men went out in their canoes to these rocks, and when they arrived there they found...
Abstracts. The Stars : THE STARS A boy ridicules a Star and is taken up by it to the sky where he is tied to the smoke-hole of the Star's house. The boy's father is told by a woman how to recover his boy. He shoots arrows up to the sky, making a chain, which he climbs. He sees a man, to whom he gives tobacco, red paint...
Smoke Hole : p. 116 SMOKE-HOLE [Told by Moses] There was a man who never slept in his house. He always lay at the edge of his smoke-hole. Therefore he grew exceedingly strong. When he went to gather firewood, he pulled out a whole tree and carried it home on his shoulder. In the evening, when he had eaten, he...
Kelku : p. 102 K*?LKU [Told by Moses] A number of children played camping every day. Many played this game in one large hollow log. They went into it and played that it was their house. They made a fire in it and ate there. They took a large quantity of provisions into the log. They ate salmon. They did...
Abstracts. Asi Hwi'l : ASI-HW'L The people in two villages are starving. Two sisters who live in these villages start to visit each other and meet half way. They make a small hut, and a supernatural being, "Good-luck," appears and marries the younger sister. Their son is named Asi-hw'l. He receives from his father magic...
Rotten Feathers : p. 94 ROTTEN-FEATHERS [Told by Moses] There was a town, and a large prairie on which many children were playing. They were always making a noise. They did so every morning all the year round. Then the Heaven heard it. He was much annoyed, and therefore he sent down feathers. They came down...
Abstracts. The Origin Of The Gispawaduwe'da : THE ORIGIN OF THE G*ISPAWADUWE'DA There are two towns on opposite sides of Nass river. The eldest of four brothers from one of these towns is killed while hunting. The reason for his accident is the faithlessness of his wife, whose lover is the son of the chief of the other village. The surviving...
Abstracts. The Grizzly Bear : THE GRIZZLY BEAR The eldest of four brothers goes hunting with his two dogs. He comes to a glacier, which he crosses, and suddenly finds himself in front of the den of a Grizzly Bear, who kills him and his dogs. The second and third brothers meet the same fate. The youngest, on reaching the den...
Supplementary Stories. Rotten Feathers : p. 234 ROTTEN-FEATHERS [The continuation of this story from page 100, line 6, was told by Chief Mountain, as follows:] Twice she tried to cut it, then the feather snapped and the boys all fell down. The eldest one kept the feather and received the name Rotten-feathers. At the same time when...
