Asdiwal, called Asi-hwil in the Nass version, is the hunter-hero of the most celebrated of the Tsimshianic sagas, preserved in four texts collected by Franz Boas between 1895 and 1916 and made famous by Claude Levi-Strauss's structural analysis. He is born to a destitute woman of the winter famine and to Hatsenas, a bird of good omen who visits her in human form; the father hastens his growth and endows him with weapons and gear that never fail and that make him invisible. Chasing a white she-bear who proves to be the daughter of the Sun, Asdiwal climbs to the sky-world, marries Evening Star, and survives the Sun's murderous trials. Returning to earth he passes through further marriages and quarrels along the Nass and Skeena, until, having boasted against the mountain and forgotten his snowshoes, he is stranded and perishes on a peak among the mountain goats. The saga maps the seasonal movements and marriage rules of the Nass and Skeena peoples onto a single restless life.