Supernatural halibuts (Tate’s accounts)

Overview

Omen encounters a supernatural halibut while wandering after the destruction of Dzi’gwa. A thunder-like noise rises from a lake, and the being emerges in the shape of a house with a carved front. She passes it without entering or being swallowed, incorporating the encounter into her mourning. Later her children reproduce a supernatural halibut among the crests arising from her journey. The text does not give this lake being the predatory action of the halibut in the next story.

In Explanation of the Beaver Hat, displaced Eagle-clan people travel south from Copper River in Alaska after warfare. At an inlet where they hope to settle, a huge halibut swallows a canoe containing two princesses and a prince. Two rescuers deliberately enter the same danger and cut the creature internally after their own canoe is swallowed. It thrashes through the inlet and finally runs ashore dead. The survivors open it and find both canoes and all five people; the ensuing mourning gives no basis for claiming a successful rescue alive.

The second encounter leads into a separate copper-beaver episode and a narrative of crest ownership. These two halibuts are compared within one source-scoped profile because the edition names both supernatural halibut; their forms and actions remain distinct. Neither is equated with every halibut in Tsimshian narratives or given a speculative zoological species.

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

Stories 40, The Story of Asdilda and Omen, complete pp. 260–270; 41, Explanation of the Beaver Hat, complete pp. 270–272; 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

   Stories 40, The Story of Asdilda and Omen, complete pp. 260–270; 41, Explanation of the Beaver Hat, complete pp. 270–272; 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.

1. Primary textBoas/Tate 1916: Supernatural halibuts (Tate’s accounts)Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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