Property Woman
Haida · numen · mythic perennial · Recorded classification
Property Woman, whom Swanton records as Skîl djā'ada-i, is a Haida supernatural woman who dispenses wealth and good fortune. She is imagined as a spirit-woman, often glimpsed only briefly in the woods or by the water, sometimes carrying a child; those who see her, or in some tellings who seize the child, are rewarded with prosperity of every kind. Her name is built on the Haida root skîl, 'wealth' or 'property', the same value embodied in the engraved coppers that were the ultimate marker of Haida rank.
Domains
- wealth
- good fortune
Powers
- to bring wealth and good fortune to those who glimpse her
Sources
- Property Woman (Skîl Jáadei) is a Haida wealth-bringing supernatural woman who confers prosperity on those who encounter her.: John R. Swanton, Contributions to the Ethnology of the Haida (Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, Jesup North Pacific Expedition Vol. 5, Pt. 1), 1905 (secondary); Marius Barbeau, Haida Myths Illustrated in Argillite Carvings (National Museum of Canada Bulletin 127), 1953 (secondary)