The Devil-Fish's Daughter

A Haida Indian was rowing his canoe at low tide along with his family of his wife and two children. They had been on the water for hours, when they came across a place where some Devil-fish stones lay. There were tracks left by the Devil-fish which led them to where its food lay, all piled up in a heap.

The Haida man was a Shaman and hauled his canoe onto the rocks with the intention of finding and killing the Devil-fish, but whilst he was searching, the great monster itself emerged from its hole and dragged the Shaman down into its dark deep den. His forlorn family felt for sure that he was dead and so paddled mournfully away. The creature that had entrapped the man was a female Devil-fish and she had dragged him into the very deep recesses of the town where her father lived. He was Chief of the Devil-fish. In time the Shaman married the female Devil-fish which had caught him.

Many, many years passed and the man started to become home-sick and greatly wished to see his wife and family. He pleaded with the Chief to let him go, and after some hard thinking his request was granted. The Shaman soon departed and was given a canoe to depart with, so too was his wife, the Devil-fish. The two canoes were magical and sped along without oars. Soon they reached his father's dwellings, found by the enchanted crafts. They were laden with much wealth from the Devil-fish kingdom with which he traded and became a great Chief. After a while his own children finally found him and came to him. They were now adults and he organized a great home-coming feast, in fact, he held five great feasts, one following the other and at every one his human wife and children attended.

Eventually the Devil-fish wife pined for her watery world. Then one day while she and her husband sat in her father-in-law's house, her spouse began to melt. At the same moment the Devil-fish wife disappeared through the gaps between the floor planks. Her husband then took on the form of a Devil-fish and his soft shiny body followed his wife between the floor planks. They both returned to the realm of the Devil-fish and her father.

Many myths have been told that relate to this one, and from many Tribes who tell the tales of Seal-wives who escape from their human husbands and the Swan-wives and other Bird-brides who pine for their natural environments, taking to the wing, eventually leaving their unnatural lives behind.

- Maggi. (T.N.A.I.S)

n.b. Many thanks to Ray Foord, Editor of the "Thunderbirds North- American Indian Society" of Great Britain, ("T.N.A.I.S.") for his kind permission in allowing me to reproduce this here, now preserved online forever.

- Red.