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Overview

A widow advises her daughter to choose a husband whose palms are rough, meaning a skilled canoe builder. The daughter accepts a night visitor on that basis. He leaves before dawn, so she does not see his face. Each morning an animal appears on the shore: first a halibut despite the midwinter season, then a seal, followed by increasingly large gifts. These provisions make the widow wealthy.

Curious about her unseen son-in-law, the widow waits for his arrival. A red bear emerges from the water carrying a whale on each side and lays them on the beach. As soon as he notices that he is being watched, he becomes a rock. The story identifies him as a supernatural sea being and presents the rock as a surviving landmark, without giving its precise location in this short account.

The mistaken interpretation of rough hands connects the daughter’s marriage choice with the animal husband’s concealed identity. The text does not describe a warning against watching, a child, the wife’s death, or his later return. Red is the source’s colour description, not proof of a separate zoological species. The account explicitly names the widow’s Tsimshian community in the edition’s transcription rather than claiming that every coastal bear-marriage story follows this ending.

Rough palms mistaken for craftsmanshipUnseen night visitorProvides winter sea animalsCarries two whalesBecomes a shore rock
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Origins & earliest records

Franz Boas, Tsimshian Mythology (1916), story 26. Unlike the surrounding Tate narratives, the printed footnote explicitly marks this account as translated from Boas 1, p. 290. The volume’s bibliography uses Boas 1 for his reports on the North-Western Tribes of Canada. The exact original report and its narrator have not been independently resolved here; Tate must not be assumed to have recorded this inserted text.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete story 26, The Bear Who Married a Woman, p. 192, including its source footnote; printed page visually inspected. Bibliography p. 39 identifies Boas 1.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Tsimshian Mythology

    Franz Boas, translator and editor of this inserted account · 1916

    Complete story 26, The Bear Who Married a Woman, p. 192, including its source footnote; printed page visually inspected. Bibliography p. 39 identifies Boas 1.

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 1916: The Bear Who Married a WomanResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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