A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
A young visitor courts a princess whose parents have refused other suitors. She agrees to travel with him from Metlakahtla and lies down in his canoe. On arrival she discovers that his home is a mink’s den. Realising his identity, she regrets leaving and cries; the story does not describe an external spell compelling her departure.
Mink brings home eels each morning, strings and smokes them, and carefully counts his winter supplies. His wife hides the dried catch as a joke. Unable to explain its disappearance, he wonders aloud whether he has eaten everything, though his stomach feels empty. He hesitates to question her because he fears angering her. When she reveals the hiding place, he recovers the food and apologises for having troubled her with his remarks.
While watching canoes heading toward the Nass River fishing grounds, Mink admires the travellers’ white bone ornaments. His wife associates them with her rank and promises to give him similar ear ornaments. He is afraid the procedure will kill him, but accepts her reassurance and the prospect of recognition by her father’s people. Instead she kills him under the pretence of piercing his ears and returns home.
The story shifts between an unhappy human marriage and Mink’s domestic concern for food and acceptance. It gives no later revenge or revival, and does not identify this husband with every Mink trickster of neighbouring traditions. The harmful deception at the end is the wife’s action, rather than an invented power of the animal husband.
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.
Records & interpretation
Story 23, The Mink Who Married a Princess, complete pp. 177–178, ending before story 24 on p. 179; Tate’s ornament footnote and preface pp. 31–32.
In the literature
“Mink died there,”
23. The Mink Who Married a Princess, complete pp.177–178; brief prose p.178 · Franz Boas, based on Henry W.Tate’s free interlinear rendering, Preface31
A young man takes a princess from her guarded home to a Mink den; she discovers his identity and regrets the marriage. He gathers Eels and anxiously counts them; she hides them and laughs at his confusion before revealing the trick. Seeing human rank ornaments, Mink asks his wife to give him similar ones. She reassures and threatens to leave him, then kills him in the supposed ornament-making and returns to her father’s house.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Tsimshian Mythology
Story 23, The Mink Who Married a Princess, complete pp. 177–178, ending before story 24 on p. 179; Tate’s ornament footnote and preface pp. 31–32.
- 02
Tsimshian Mythology — 23. The Mink Who Married a Princess, complete pp.177–178
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 & 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.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Tsimshian Mythology — 23. The Mink Who Married a Princess, complete pp.177–178
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.
- A young man takes a princess from her guarded home to a Mink den; she discovers his identity and regrets the marriage. He gathers Eels and anxiously counts them; she hides them and laughs at his confusion before revealing the trick. Seeing human rank ornaments, Mink asks his wife to give him similar ones. She reassures and threatens to leave him, then kills him in the supposed ornament-making and returns to her father’s house.
Selected narrative only; not whole volume or comparative chapter. No songs, ritual/healing, plant use, food preparation, practical hunting or ornament-making instructions reproduced.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textBoas/Tate 1916: The Mink Who Married a PrincessResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.