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Overview

Two brothers visit the Lake of the Beginning to obtain supernatural power after its great whale has caused flooding. The elder descends into a house below the water, where lightning, thunder and hail precede a series of living visitors. A grizzly bear directs him to open its back and becomes a carved box. Thunderbird becomes a drum, lightning provides red ocher, and Living Eyes is identified with hail and a baton. Mouth At Each End and Cuttlefish also enter the box. These are transformations of beings into particular regalia, not a general equation between all ordinary objects and animals.

The grizzly gives the visitor the name Mouth At Each End, which he shares with one of the helpers. When he returns after a long absence, he finds his younger brother’s bones: the waiting man has starved and martens have consumed his body. The elder restores him through supernatural acts and names him Devoured By Martens. Live martens and a vessel of blood become the younger brother’s powers. The human recipients and similarly named helpers remain distinct agents within the account.

Enemies challenge the elder brother. Mouth At Each End and Cuttlefish defend against waterborne attacks, the grizzly against those on land, and Thunderbird, lightning and hail against aerial adversaries. These powers nevertheless have limits. Two rival shamans send Blood, which kills the two aquatic helpers and their human master. Devoured By Martens sends his own Blood and Martens, defeats the rivals and inherits the surviving bear box and weather regalia. The text says his dead brother returns to the lake bottom.

The conclusion turns from combat to communal subsistence. During a famine, Devoured By Martens leads his people down the Skeena to the coast near Stephens Island. Guided by his power, they make fishing equipment, catch halibut and overcome their initial fear of this unfamiliar food. They establish a new settlement rather than returning upriver. This source frames their access to the sea and halibut fishing through collective work and supernatural guidance; it is not independent archaeological proof of a first coastal migration. Boas separately questions whether one printed passage is a song or a spoken statement, and no sound recording is claimed here.

Grizzly transforms into a boxThunderbird becomes a drumLiving Eyes associated with hail and batonDistinct land, water and aerial helpersHelpers can be defeatedGuide famine relief and coastal settlement
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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 61, The Deluge, complete pp. 346–350; 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 61, The Deluge, complete pp. 346–350; 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: The DelugeResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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