Sleep’s household (Chief Mountain’s account)

Overview

In Chief Mountain’s continuation, Rotten-feathers has acquired the name Labret after escaping Knife-hand. He hears that the supernatural being Sleep has a beautiful wife and goes to take her away, despite Great-goose’s warning. Sleep is asleep when the visitor arrives. His wife agrees to leave and reveals a swift canoe that travels by itself. They board it and escape together.

Sleep’s household includes objects with the assigned task of waking him when danger approaches. A chamber pot first strikes him and spills its contents over him, but cannot rouse him. A wooden maul then strikes until he wakes and tells him that Labret has taken his wife. These are active attendants in the narrative, with the maul also speaking; the story does not supply separate personal names or independent adventures for them.

Sleep launches a canoe in pursuit and demands that Labret stop. He raises a mountain in the fugitives’ path, but Labret opens a passage with his feather. Sleep next throws his comb ahead, producing a dense forest. The feather again clears their way, and the couple escapes. Sleep’s formidable landscape-making power therefore fails against this particular counterpower; the account does not end with the wife’s recapture or Sleep’s death.

The final sentence links a mask of Sleep with the G’ispawaduwE’da. That is a claim recorded in the 1902 publication, not an independently verified statement about present practice. The story belongs to the continuation expressly credited to Chief Mountain in Boas’s Kinkolith collection, rather than Henry W. Tate’s later manuscript corpus.

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.

Records & interpretation

Complete English Rotten-feathers continuation, pp.234–235, explicitly attributed to Chief Mountain; the earlier section pp.94–101 and collection introduction p.5 also read. No individual teller heading appears at p.94.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Tsimshian Texts: Nass River Dialect

   Chief Mountain, teller of continuation; Franz Boas, recorder and translator · 1902

   Rotten-feathers continuation, complete pp.234–235; earlier text pp.94–101 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

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