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

Overview

Moses’s narrative begins with affection between Porcupine and Beaver, whose homes require different skills. Beaver lives in the middle of a lake and carries his guest across the water. Porcupine cannot swim and fears drowning. Beaver offers sticks at his feast, then proposes a game in which he carries Porcupine while diving repeatedly. The frightened passenger nearly dies before Beaver returns him to shore.

Porcupine tells his own people what happened, and they recommend inviting Beaver in return. His first performance misfires: striking the hearth with his tail burns it, prompting Beaver to sing about the injury. Porcupine then serves bark and spruce needles, encourages his reluctant guest to eat, and proposes a game near a tree. During the night he addresses the sky; it clears, and the ground is icy by morning. His claws let him cross the slippery slope, while Beaver struggles and must be led by the hand.

At the tree, Porcupine climbs to the top and drops onto rock without dying. He carries Beaver upward and leaves him on a branch, then repeats the fall unharmed. Beaver, unable to grip securely and reassured by his companion’s survival, finally lets go. His landing is fatal. The story ends with that death; it supplies no revival or reconciliation. The unequal abilities matter throughout: Porcupine’s survival does not make the same action safe for Beaver.

The heading identifies Moses as teller. Boas recorded this Nisga’a collection at Kinkolith in late 1894 and published the original-language text with English translation in 1902. This profile follows that complete witness, including its early failed retaliation and final death, rather than merging it with the collection’s separate beaver ancestors or with every Northwest Coast Porcupine story.

Friendship and reciprocal feastsContrasting water and mountain abilitiesPorcupine addresses the skySurvival of falls not shared by Beaver
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Origins & earliest records

Franz Boas, Tsimshian Texts, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 27 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902). Recorded at Kinkolith, at the Nass River’s mouth, in November–December 1894. Boas’s introduction, dated June 1899, names Philip, Moses, Chief Mountain and Moody as the collection’s narrators. The volume prints the language it calls Nîsqa’E alongside English translation; individual story headings identify their tellers.

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Records & interpretation

Complete English narrative The Porcupine and the Beaver, pp.73–82, with its Moses heading and introduction p.5. Original-language interlinear text accompanies the translation; no independent retranslation is claimed.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Tsimshian Texts: Nass River Dialect

    Moses, teller; Franz Boas, recorder and translator · 1902

    The Porcupine and the Beaver, complete pp.73–82; named Moses heading and introduction p.5.

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 1902 original Nass River collectionResearch 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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