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

Overview

Five hunters shelter ashore and watch killer whales assembling beneath a high precipice after a prince has been killed. The monster’s den is called the Living Depths Horror. It pulls victims toward a mouth among its arms, described with suckers and a sawlike edge. Killer-whale warriors attack in successive groups, severing arms but repeatedly rising dead. Their society has four clans, with distinguishing dorsal-fin forms; these are the story’s whale communities. The passage does not establish a zoological species or a reliable fixed arm count.

Bird Garment, a Raven-clan killer whale, returns alive from three dives after removing three arms. He then calls others to join him; they cut the remaining arms while he attacks the monster’s heart. The whales bring up its body. This victory belongs to an animal warrior, not to a human hunter killing an ordinary octopus.

Many years later the old monster’s offspring occupies the same place and is worse, pulling down people and canoes. It swallows two young eagles and the salmon they are pursuing. Their father calls a coalition including Thunderbirds, mountain eagles, hawks and ravens. Eagles are swallowed first; Thunderbird’s lightning disables two arms. A raven enters the opened mouth and plucks out the heart, killing this second monster.

The ending explains the devilfish’s fear of ravens through these connected victories. In the narrated practice, a person imitates a raven while the creature is still beneath a canoe; waiting until it surfaces is too late. This conditional conclusion is retained as part of Tate’s account, not offered as an effective response to a real marine animal. The original and offspring share one profile because the text deliberately connects their stories.

Powerful sucking arms and central mouthKills killer-whale warriorsDefeated through attacks on its heartOffspring renews the dangerFear of the raven’s call
01

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.

02

Records & interpretation

Story 13, The Giant Devilfish, complete pp. 135–138, both connected episodes and closing raven-call explanation; comparative note p. 739 and preface pp. 31–32 also read.

In the literature

“the giant monster died there.”
Henry W.Tate; Franz Boas · Tsimshian Mythology
13. The Giant Devilfish, complete pp.135–138, two connected episodes; brief prose p.138 · Franz Boas, based on Henry W.Tate’s free interlinear rendering, Preface31

A Giant Devilfish kills a Killer-Whale chief’s son, provoking successive attacks by four clans. Their warriors die while cutting away arms, until Raven-clan warrior Bird Garment survives repeated dives and leads the final victory. Years later the old Devilfish’s young one grows into a still more dangerous monster and swallows two sons of an Eagle chief. Birds assemble; Eagles are devoured, Thunderbird strikes the arms, and Raven kills the monster. The closing passage links the two stories and explains Devilfish fear of Ravens.

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 13, The Giant Devilfish, complete pp. 135–138, both connected episodes and closing raven-call explanation; comparative note p. 739 and preface pp. 31–32 also read.

  2. 02

    Tsimshian Mythology — 13. The Giant Devilfish, complete pp.135–138, two connected episodes

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

    Washington: Government Printing Office,1916; Thirty-first Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,1909–1910. Complete selected English narrative(s) and attached technical footnotes read in retained OCR. Original selected opening/identity/ending pages visually checked. Preface31–32 translation provenance independently inspected. Comparative chapters not included in this reading claim.

Family, evolution & connections

Two generations of giant devilfish — Tate’s connected episodes

Complete story 13, pp. 135–138; two connected episodes with parentage on p. 137.

  • Earlier giant devilfish, parent’s sex unspecified
    • Its grown offspring, monster of the second episode

Explicit statement identifying the later monster as the earlier monster’s offspring. Neither monster has a personal name, and the older parent’s sex and other parent are unknown. This is narrative parentage, not a natural-species phylogeny. Bird Garment is a warrior, not an identified son of the chief. Eagle and killer-whale victims belong to separate stated households; no lineage across species is inferred.

Tate/Boas, Tsimshian Mythology (1916), story 13, pp. 135–138, especially p. 137

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

Tsimshian Mythology — 13. The Giant Devilfish, complete pp.135–138, two connected episodes

Washington: Government Printing Office,1916; Thirty-first Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,1909–1910. Complete selected English narrative(s) and attached technical footnotes read in retained OCR. Original selected opening/identity/ending pages visually checked. Preface31–32 translation provenance independently inspected. Comparative chapters not included in this reading claim.

  1. A Giant Devilfish kills a Killer-Whale chief’s son, provoking successive attacks by four clans. Their warriors die while cutting away arms, until Raven-clan warrior Bird Garment survives repeated dives and leads the final victory. Years later the old Devilfish’s young one grows into a still more dangerous monster and swallows two sons of an Eagle chief. Birds assemble; Eagles are devoured, Thunderbird strikes the arms, and Raven kills the monster. The closing passage links the two stories and explains Devilfish fear of Ravens.

    13. The Giant Devilfish, complete pp.135–138, two connected episodes

No whole volume or independent Tsimshian translation claimed; no songs, prayers, net-making procedures, food processing or ritual preparation reproduced.

References

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

  1. Primary textBoas/Tate 1916: complete two-part giant-devilfish storyResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

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