Preface
The following collection of Tsimshian myths was recorded during the last twelve years by Mr. Henry W. Tate, of Port Simpson, British Columbia, in Tsimshian, his native language. Mr. Tate died in April, 1914. The translation of the tales as here presented was made by me, based on a free interlinear rendering by Mr. Tate.
A comparison of the form of the tales with those recorded by me on Nass River and on a number of points on the lower Skeena River shows very clearly that Mr. Tate felt it incumbent upon himself to omit some of those traits of the myths of his people that seem inappropriate to us, and there is no doubt that in this respect the tales do not quite express the old type of Tsimshian traditions, A few of the tales also bear evidence of the fact that Mr. Tate had read part of the collection of tales from the Kwakiutl published by myself in conjunction with Mr. George Hunt.[1] A few others indicate his familiarity with my collection of tales from Nass River. At the time when I received these tales I called his attention at once to the necessity of keeping strictly to the form in which the traditions are told by the Tsimshian; and by far the greater part of the tales bear internal evidence of being a faithful record of the form in which the traditions are transmitted among the people.
Christian influences are evidently very strong among all tribes of northern British Columbia, and a study of the collection of tales recorded by Doctor Swanton among the Haida and Tlingit[2] shows also very clearly that the coarseness of their tales has been very much toned down. It is necessary to bear these facts in mind in comparative studies based on the material presented here and on that recorded by Doctor Swanton. I have also had the personal experience that informants were reluctant to express themselves freely in the traditional form, being impressed by the restrictions of what we call proper and improper.
The collection here presented evidently contains the bulk of the important traditions of the Tsimshian. A small number of these were recorded by me in 1888, and published in my collections of myths from the North Pacific coast.[2] We have from the same linguistic group a collection of Nass River tales.[2] One of the tales of Mr. Tate’s series was published by me with text in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie.[2] Another group of these tales was published with text in the Publications of the American Ethnological Society.
The series contained in the present volume is given without text, partly for the reason that it has been impossible to revise phonetics and grammar of the texts, partly because there is no immediate prospect of carrying through such a revision.
In the second part of the present paper a description of the life, social organization, and religious ideas and practices, of the people, is given as it appears from their mythology.
In the third part I I have discussed certain aspects of the social life of the Tsimshian.
In the fourth part a discussion is presented of the mythology of the Tsimshian in its bearing upon their general mythical concepts and in relation to the phenomena of dissemination of myths in northwestern America.
The music contained in the present volume was reproduced as written by Mr. Tate. I presume no claim for accuracy can be made for it.
I am indebted to Mr. C. M. Barbeau for the phonetic equivalents of some Tsimshian names used by Mr. Tate: to Dr. E. Sapir for those of some Nootka names. In an appendix I have given a number of hitherto unpublished Bellabella tales collected by Professor Livingston Farrand and of Nootka tales collected by Mr. George Hunt.
I wish to express my thanks to Miss Harriet A. Andrews for her efficient help in the preparation of the volume, and to Dr. H. K. Haeberlin for assistance in the preparation of the index of quotations.
Franz Boas.
Columbia University, New York,
Summer of 1916.
Alphabet
[Note de transcription : les signes de la colonne de gauche sont en partie peu lisibles sur le scan ; ceux qui restent douteux sont signalés par (?).]
a — short a with a strong leaning toward ä (?), the strength of which depends largely upon the following consonant. Before m, n, w, the a is fairly pure, like the continental a. Before l, ł, k·, it is almost ä (?).
ā — long sound, always produced with retracted lips, and therefore more like ä in German Bär.
b, d — distinctly sonant, but more strongly articulated than in English.
ᴇ — obscure, weak e, as in flower.
ē — continental e with glide toward continental i.
g· — distinctly sonant, anterior palatal, with affricative glide toward y, more strongly articulated than English g.
g — distinctly sonant, middle palatal, like English g in good, but more strongly articulated.
g̣ — the analogous velar sound.
h — as in English.
i, ī — continental i.
ĭ (?) — open i, as in hill.
k·, k·! — surd and fortis of g·.
k, k! — surd and fortis of g.
q, q! — surd and fortis of g̣.
l — sonant l, with full glottal articulation and long continued.
l! — the same, with great stress of articulation.
m — as in English.
m! — the same, with great stress of articulation.
n — with fuller glottal articulation than in English.
n! — the same, with great stress of articulation.
o, ō — as in note, short and long.
ô (?) — like o in German voll.
â (?) — like aw in law.
p, p! — surd and fortis of b.
r — a very weak, strongly sonant, middle palatal trill.
ł (?) — the tip of the tongue is turned up and touches the palate just behind the alveoli. The teeth are closed, and the air escapes laterally. The acoustic effect is intermediate between s and sh.
t, t! — surd and fortis of d.
u, ū — like oo in root, short and long.
w — as in English, but more strongly sonant.
w! — the same, with greater stress of articulation.
x — velar spirant, like ch in German Bach.
y — as in year, but more strongly sonant, with full breath.
y! — the same, with greater stress of articulation.
dz, ts, ts! — affricative sonant, surd, and fortis, with purer s sound than the ł described before.
° — indicates parasitic vowels which accompany some short and all long vowels. These are weak glottal stops with the timbre of the preceding vowel. ā°, for instance, sounds almost like äᴀ (where ᴀ indicates a very weak a), ī° like īɪ, ē° like ēɪ. After short vowels, the sound resembles a weak glottal stop.
Tsimshian Mythology
By Franz Boas