A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
In Boas’s Snanaimug account, a successful seal hunter’s wife washes dishes and a sealskin at the shore after feeding their guests. A finwhale carries her away on its back and takes her down to the seabed. Her husband pursues by canoe, ties a deerskin rope around himself, and descends while his companions hold it. Below, a path leads him to several blind old women sharing food. He intercepts the dishes until they recognize a stranger, asks where his wife has gone, then restores their sight in thanks. His address to a woman as grandmother does not by itself establish a biological relationship.
The husband next pushes Crane into a fire, questions it, heals its burned back and gives it his fish spear. Further on he breaks the wedge of an enslaved woodcutter working for the whale. The woodcutter fears punishment and explains that his master intends to cook and eat the captive woman. After the husband repairs the wedge, the worker proposes the rescue: he will pretend to stumble while fetching water and spill it into the fire. These helpers have separate actions and motives; the rescuer’s earlier injuries and damage are part of how their assistance is obtained.
During the resulting distraction, the husband takes his wife and flees. The whale orders Crane to kill them, but Crane deliberately misses. They reach the rope, signal the waiting companions and are pulled to safety, then return home with too great a lead for the whale to catch them. The whale survives the tale, and the woman is rescued before the threatened meal. Its house, orders and dependants mark a social undersea being within this narrative, without requiring the source to describe a human-shaped transformation or turning every ordinary finwhale into an identical abductor.
Origins & earliest records
This account appears in Boas’s Snanaimug V.3, pp.55–56 of the 1895 German collection. The named regional section is retained as provenance; neither the publication date nor the collector’s translation establishes when the tradition began. This episode supplies no individually named narrator.
Records & interpretation
Complete Snanaimug V.3, pp.55–56 and original page images inspected. Regional narrative attribution is distinguished from the collector’s spelling and general translation mediation. This record supports the described tradition, not the physical existence of its beings.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas
Complete Snanaimug V.3, pp.55–56 including endings and stated variants, read in German and checked against original printed pages. Preface describes multiple oral translation routes; no unrecorded individual interview date or direct Indigenous-language collation is claimed.
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.
- PrimaryBoas 1895, Snanaimug V.3, pp.55–56Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.