Ba'wis
Nisga'a & Gitxsan · numen · Nisga'a & Gitxsan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Ba'wis, spelled variously Bawus, Ba'oosh or Pu'gwis, is the wild man of the woods in Tsimshianic tradition, a hairy, human-shaped being of the deep wilderness. Reclusive by nature, he rarely troubles people. Ethnographers note his kinship with the Bakwas of the Kwakwaka'wakw and with the ghost-beings of other Northwest Coast peoples; in some tellings he wears the face of a corpse, with drawn skin and lips curled from the teeth. He personifies the untamed forest that lies beyond the villages of the Nass and Skeena.
Domains
- wilderness
Powers
- haunts the forest reclusively
Sources
- Ba'wis (Ba'oosh, Pu'gwis) is a hairy, sasquatch-like wild being of the wilderness, reclusive and rarely bothering people, etymologically related to the Kwakwaka'wakw Bakwas.: Native Languages of the Americas, 'Tsimshian Legends' (native-languages.org). (secondary)