A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

In Philip’s fifteenth episode, Txa’msEm finds houses in a town of the air and hears people announcing his arrival, but cannot see anyone. A voice invites him into the chief’s house. A mat is spread for him, a box opens, and salmon emerges. A dish travels to the fire and then places itself before him. Cranberries with grease and water follow, together with a spoon whose handle has no visible holder.

Women laugh nearby and repeat what the visitor is thinking. Boas’s English translation leaves the content of this thought unresolved with question marks; it is not reconstructed here. Txa’msEm walks toward their voices but finds nobody, then returns to the fire. His inability to see the people does not prevent their speech, organised hospitality or awareness of his actions.

He next tries to take a bundle of salmon out of the house. At the door he is dragged back and told to sit down. A second attempt to move the berry box brings blows from apparently self-moving sticks. The sticks strike his body, head, hands and feet although no assailant is visible. He leaves distressed and continues travelling.

The complete episode makes the escalation clear: feeding precedes restraint, and punishment follows attempted theft. It does not identify these people as dead souls, describe them as transparent bodies, or provide a separate name for each moving utensil. The household is retained as one community in this specifically attributed account.

Voices without visible bodiesServing vessels move unaidedThought repeated by unseen womenTheft brings restraint and blows
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Origins & earliest records

Franz Boas, Tsimshian Texts, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 27 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902). Recorded at Kinkolith, at the Nass River’s mouth, in November–December 1894. Boas’s introduction, dated June 1899, names Philip, Moses, Chief Mountain and Moody as the collection’s narrators. The volume prints the language it calls Nîsqa’E alongside English translation; individual story headings identify their tellers.

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Records & interpretation

Complete third Txa’msEm English sequence, pp.34–71, read including short page-boundary continuations and final alternative3a. Heading attributes episodes1–17 to Philip and18–20,3a to Moses.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Tsimshian Texts: Nass River Dialect

    Philip, teller; Franz Boas, recorder and translator · 1902

    Third Txa’msEm, episode15, Philip; third sequence34–71 and introduction5.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Primary textBoas 1902 original Nass River collectionResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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