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Overview

Three men from K-lax-g’ils, on the south side of the Skeena, seek the source of shamans’ powers in a deep pit within the Cave of Fear. The first two are driven back by stinging insects. The steersman reaches the dark bottom without feeling the stings. Thunder-like sounds precede an opening on the east side, where a hairy young man invites him through a doorway bright as sunlight. The visitor finds a chief seated by a fire with living rattles beside him.

A younger shaman enters with his regalia, and the musical implements move by themselves. Boards used to mark time run in like serpents, followed by weasel batons; the batons strike without human hands, and a skin drum likewise moves and sounds. More shamans appear and transfer their powers from their mouths into the visitor’s mouth. The great chief touches him and rubs his eyes. The assembly then disappears, leaving him in darkness with the rope still attached so his companions can haul him up.

The results are delayed and uneven. The two companions first display signs of acquired power, while the steersman waits until later in the summer. Supernatural powers then take him away for four days, and he returns to his house amid whistling. They give him the name Only One. His subsequent feats include retrieving the dead, recognizing hostile deception, relocating a spring and restoring another shaman whose power has been confined in a corpse’s bone. These are the story’s claims about supernatural agency, not demonstrated treatments or procedures.

The full account follows Only One to the household of Chief Bagus, where he obtains another helper after curing the chief’s son. Its conclusion says that, after many further years, he did not die but was taken into the deep-pit home of the powers. This ending connects his final destination with the opening initiation. The subterranean assembly, autonomous instruments and later acquired helper are presented within one narrative, without assigning each unnamed figure a separate universal divine identity.

Hairy doorkeeperLight within a dark pitLiving rattles and self-playing drumSerpent-like moving boards and weasel batonsPowers transferred to a visitorFinal reception of Only One
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Origins & earliest records

Franz Boas, Tsimshian Mythology, based on texts recorded by Henry W. Tate, published in 1916 in the Bureau of American Ethnology’s thirty-first report for 1909–1910. Boas translated Tate’s free interlinear English renderings of his Tsimshian texts. The preface notes Tate’s editorial choices and some influence from published collections; the 1916 volume omits the original-language text.

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Records & interpretation

Story 55, Great Shaman, complete pp. 331–336; preface pp. 31–32.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Tsimshian Mythology

    Henry W. Tate, recorder; Franz Boas, translator and editor · 1916

    Story 55, Great Shaman, complete pp. 331–336; preface pp. 31–32.

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/Tate 1916: Great ShamanResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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