A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
A mountain-goat hunter pursues a white bear and wounds it in the side. It disappears into a steep rock, after which a man emerges and invites the hunter into a house inside the mountain. Matthias’s account describes the bear and the inviting man successively without explicitly showing one transform into the other. The hunter is seated on the right and observes four groups performing different dances, with some groups frightened of others.
He believes that his stay lasts three days, but outside three years have passed. The mountain host then sends him back with instructions to imitate what he has seen. The white bear carries him to his own settlement and leaves him at the top of a tree. His descent brings violent attacks on people below. Eventually the community overpowers him and restores him with medicine; once recovered, he teaches the four dances seen in the mountain.
The ending matters: this particular return leads through restraint and recovery to the transmission of knowledge. It differs from Tate’s Gather On The Water, where attempts to control the transformed dancer fail and his voice only ceases after two generations. The similar tree descent and dangerous behavior do not make the protagonists or the white bear identical across the two accounts.
The original German narrative is story 17, Die Entstehung des Wihalait, in Boas’s 1895 collection, printed p. 304. An attribution after story 18 names Matthias of Metlakatla as teller of stories 15–18. Boas later rendered the account in English as story 63 in his 1916 volume. Descriptions of violence in these collector-mediated narratives are retained as narrative claims, not independent historical verification of the practices or character of a whole people. The white bear is not assigned a modern zoological species solely from its color.
Origins & earliest records
Franz Boas, Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas (Berlin: A. Asher & Co., 1895), a collected reprint of earlier journal installments. The preface describes recordings mediated variously through Chinook Jargon and direct translation from Indigenous languages; it does not specify one method for every story.
Records & interpretation
Complete German story 17, Die Entstehung des Wihalait, p. 304, with attribution of stories 15–18 to Matthias on p. 305; complete English story 63, Origin of the Cannibals, pp. 353–354 in Boas 1916.
In the literature
“es waren aber in Wahrheit drei Jahre.”
XXIII. Sagen der Tsimschian; 17. Die Entstehung des Wihalait, complete p.304 and attached note; brief exact German prose p.304 · Boas’s German collected narrative witness; no independent Tsimshian-language translation claimed
A hunter wounds and follows a white Bear into a mountain. A man invites him into a large interior house, where he sees four groups. His apparently three-day stay lasts three years. The Bear returns him to the home village on a tree. He initially attacks and kills people until the community restrains and heals him. The closing account associates his experience with the narrated origin of dances.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas
Tsimshian section, story 17, p. 304; named teller attribution p. 305.
- 02
Tsimshian Mythology
Inserted story 63, Origin of the Cannibals, complete pp. 353–354.
- 03
Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas — XXIII. Sagen der Tsimschian; 17. Die Entstehung des Wihalait, complete p.304 and attached note
Berlin: A. Asher & Co.,1895, actual title imprint checked; original304–305 complete selected story and attribution visually read. Physical PDF317–318 correspond to304–305; late-volume inserted leaves change earlier offset.
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.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas — XXIII. Sagen der Tsimschian; 17. Die Entstehung des Wihalait, complete p.304 and attached note
Berlin: A. Asher & Co.,1895, actual title imprint checked; original304–305 complete selected story and attribution visually read. Physical PDF317–318 correspond to304–305; late-volume inserted leaves change earlier offset.
- A hunter wounds and follows a white Bear into a mountain. A man invites him into a large interior house, where he sees four groups. His apparently three-day stay lasts three years. The Bear returns him to the home village on a tree. He initially attacks and kills people until the community restrains and heals him. The closing account associates his experience with the narrated origin of dances.
XXIII. Sagen der Tsimschian; 17. Die Entstehung des Wihalait, complete p.304 and attached note
No whole book, oral performance or independent Tsimshian translation claimed. Cultural procedures and practical treatment protocols excluded; adjacent narratives not presumed fully read.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textBoas 1895 original German editionResearch access: 2026-10-05
- Primary textBoas 1916 English renderingResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.