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Overview
A chief’s carefully guarded daughter kicks a snail aside during her daily walk and mockingly asks whether it wants to marry her. A handsome young man subsequently visits her bed, his skin exceptionally smooth. After four nights she agrees to leave with him. At his family’s house she discovers two enormous snails beside the fire, one described as whale-sized: these are his parents. Mouse Woman explains that Chief Snail sent his son in response to her remark.
A woman shaman locates the missing princess, and her six brothers attempt the rescue in turn. The youngest reaches the rim of an inaccessible valley and, being a woodworker, makes wearable wooden eagles. Several designs fail before a construction combining different woods and mountain-goat horn carries him safely. He flies into the village, finds his sister while the great animals sleep and takes her away on his back.
The three snails pursue by scent, felling trees as they descend Xlen Mountain and swimming after the fugitives. The human community prepares sharpened young trees as weapons and evacuates women and children to Beaver-Tail Island, identified in the edition as Douglas Island. They fight on the water and kill all three animals near the island. Their fat spreads across the sea and shore.
The ending links the fat in the water to an edible, rock-clinging shellfish with a row of hard back plates, and the fat on land to small snails. Their present slowness is explained through the ancestors’ failed pursuit. The prince and his parents belong to this connected family account; their immense bodies and actions are not zoological descriptions of ordinary snails.
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 20, Prince Snail, complete pp. 161–166, including the shellfish and land-snail ending; collection preface pp. 31–32.
In the literature
“Then the three large animals were killed there.”
20. Prince Snail, complete pp.161–166; brief prose p.165 · Franz Boas, based on Henry W.Tate’s free interlinear rendering, Preface31
A closely guarded chief’s daughter kicks a Snail and jokingly asks about marriage. A handsome visitor takes her to a distant house where two enormous Snails are his parents. Mouse Woman explains that Chief Snail sent his son in response to the girl’s words. After five elder brothers fail to locate her, the youngest reaches the valley with an Eagle-shaped flying device and brings her home. The Snail household pursues them, destroying trees and swimming to Beaver-Tail Island, where all three are killed. Their remains explain shellfish and land-snail origins in the closing account.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Tsimshian Mythology
Story 20, Prince Snail, complete pp. 161–166, including the shellfish and land-snail ending; collection preface pp. 31–32.
- 02
Tsimshian Mythology — 20. Prince Snail, complete pp.161–166
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
Prince Snail and his two parents — Tate’s story 20
Complete story 20, pp. 161–166; explicit household parentage on p. 162.
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- Two enormous snail parents, including Chief Snail
Literal two-parent statement and repeated husband/daughter-in-law descriptions. The parents and prince lack personal names. The wife’s six brothers belong to her separate human household; her youngest rescuer is not a snail sibling. No offspring of the marriage are supplied. The concluding animal-origin explanation is narrative, not biological phylogeny. The original Tate manuscript has not been collated.
The two unnamed enormous snail parents
The two enormous snails in the house are explicitly the prince’s parents. His father is subsequently called Chief Snail. No personal names or other offspring are supplied.
The unnamed human princess
The narrator and explanatory dialogue identify the human princess as the snail prince’s wife. She later leaves with her youngest brother; no offspring of the marriage are stated.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Tsimshian Mythology — 20. Prince Snail, complete pp.161–166
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 closely guarded chief’s daughter kicks a Snail and jokingly asks about marriage. A handsome visitor takes her to a distant house where two enormous Snails are his parents. Mouse Woman explains that Chief Snail sent his son in response to the girl’s words. After five elder brothers fail to locate her, the youngest reaches the valley with an Eagle-shaped flying device and brings her home. The Snail household pursues them, destroying trees and swimming to Beaver-Tail Island, where all three are killed. Their remains explain shellfish and land-snail origins in the closing account.
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.
- Primary textBoas/Tate 1916: Story 20, Prince Snail, complete pp. 161–166, including the shellfish and land-snail ending; collection preface pp. 31–32.Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.