Mink and the fire ransom, Snanaimug

Overview

Boas’s Snanaimug fire account begins with people lacking fire. Mink, printed as K’ak’ëiq, travels with his grandmother to the chief who keeps it. At night the chief and his wife sleep while a bird rocks their child. The bird attempts to alert the household, but Mink makes it sleep, takes the infant and escapes by canoe. His grandmother pinches the child as they pass villages so that its cries will be noticed. The chief subsequently follows those reports to Mink’s home on Gabriola Island. This makes the child both a hostage and the source of a deliberately audible trail.

Mink changes hats, appearances and doors while his grandmother provides the rhythm for his dancing. The chief mistakes the successive appearances for a numerous household and hesitates to attack. He offers copper valuables for his child, but the grandmother tells Mink to refuse them. Only when he offers the fire drill does she advise acceptance. The child returns alive to its father, and Mink makes the great fire from which people obtain fire. The grandmother’s judgment is central; Mink does not simply steal a burning brand and escape alone.

The separately numbered variant 1a makes the owners spirits of the dead and spells Mink’s name K’ä’iq. Here the child hangs in a cradle from a branch, and the spirits pursuing the thief fear his feather-decorated dancing. Their offers include the woven blankets and hides provided to them at death before they mention the fire drill, which Mink accepts in exchange for the child. The two tellings share the hostage bargain but differ in the owners’ identification and the dramatic means of deterring them. Neither contains the beheading of the chief found in the separately attributed Lower Fraser sequence.

Origins & earliest records

This account appears in Boas’s Snanaimug V.1 and 1a, pp.54–55 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.1 and 1a, pp.54–55 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.

1. 01

   Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas

   Franz Boas · 1895

   Complete Snanaimug V.1 and 1a, pp.54–55 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

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References

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

1. PrimaryBoas 1895, Snanaimug V.1 and 1a, pp.54–55Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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