Radiant mountain bridegroom and son (Tate’s account)

Overview

A woman at Git-qxala grieves after her husband takes another wife. While gathering berries near a steep rock associated with supernatural beings, she meets a radiant young man who asks her to marry him. He belongs to the household of a mountain chief. Their son shares his father’s brightness, although the woman’s former husband initially mistakes the child for his own. Brightness is a comparison with sunlight; this narrative does not identify the bridegroom with the Sun’s son of Tate’s separate lightning-garment story.

The mountain household sends fish and other gifts. During a crabapple harvest, unseen helpers shake down abundant fruit and separate it from the leaves. The text identifies these servants as silver-blue cod belonging to the mountain chief. When the supernatural grandfather asks to keep the child for two days, a carved, living cradle carries him upon the waves while a lullaby sounds from the mountain. His mother and her parents subsequently collect him by canoe. Gifts for the mountain household are lowered into the water.

The bridegroom forbids his wife to marry another man and announces vengeance against her former husband’s new wife. A killer whale he sends overturns her canoe, killing her and the enslaved people travelling with her. This whale is an agent he dispatches; the text does not describe him becoming it. His generosity and his coercive violence both belong to the account.

The bright child becomes an accomplished hunter and fisherman. His human grandfather celebrates him with feasts and transfers names to him; after that grandfather dies, the son grows wealthy and widely honoured. He never marries, and his mother avoids remarriage through fear of her supernatural husband. In a final visit, the bridegroom tells her to rely on their son for future provision and disappears. The name K-xamin is associated with the mountain; its placement in the translated prose does not securely establish it as the bridegroom’s personal name.

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 34, The Young Chief Who Married his Cousin, complete pp. 238–243; 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 34, The Young Chief Who Married his Cousin, complete pp. 238–243; preface pp. 31–32.

Family & connections

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References

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

1. Primary textBoas/Tate 1916: story 34, The Young Chief Who Married his CousinResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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