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Overview
A chief’s senior wife falsely accuses one of his younger wife’s four brothers after he rejects her proposed meeting. The chief orders all four killed. Their sister mourns beside their bodies with her child, while the household humiliates her by repeatedly tripping her with a rope. A handsome stranger appears in a flash of lightning and says that his father, the Sun, has sent him to learn why her crying continues.
He gives her a bundle containing his leggings, snowshoes and moccasins, instructing her to present it as the dead brothers’ equipment. A flash from the bundle frightens the chief, who summons the entire village to interpret it. The stranger has also predicted that a blind old man named Disbeliever will first refuse the summons. He tells the woman that he will assume that elder’s appearance when messengers are sent again, and warns her to leave the house when he arrives.
The real Disbeliever mocks the first report. On their second errand the messengers meet the disguised supernatural visitor, whom they lead inside. The woman escapes with her child. Pretending disbelief, the visitor handles the garments and reassures the chief, then puts them on and moves around the fire. Lightning consumes the building and all those assembled in it. The name Disbeliever belongs to the impersonated elder; it is not a second personal name for the Sun’s son.
Afterward the visitor returns to the grieving woman and asks her to arrange her brothers’ bodies. Still wearing his own equipment, he leaps four times over each brother and brings all four back to life. He disappears when she approaches him. The restored brothers inspect the destroyed village, then take their sister to their mountain home, named Ts!Ets!a’ut in the edition. This narrative ending does not establish the historical origin or identity of every member of that community.
Boas adds a tentative comparison with a dance description from Kincolith involving Ts!Ets!a’ut hunters and a Thunderbird mask. His note says the performance may refer to this tale. That proposed relationship does not make the unnamed Sun’s son unambiguously Thunderbird, nor does the story portray its garments as independently living creatures.
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 30, Burning Leggings and Burning Snowshoes, complete pp. 216–221, including Boas’s tentative performance comparison on p. 221; preface pp. 31–32.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
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Tsimshian Mythology
Story 30, Burning Leggings and Burning Snowshoes, complete pp. 216–221, including Boas’s tentative performance comparison on p. 221; preface pp. 31–32.
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.
- Primary textBoas/Tate 1916: Burning Leggings and Burning SnowshoesResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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