Hatsenas

Nisga'a & Gitxsan · numen · Nisga'a & Gitxsan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification

Hatsenas, whose name Boas glosses as a 'bird of good omen' and which tradition links to the robin, is the sky-being father of Asdiwal. In the opening of the saga two women, mother and daughter, are left to starve through a winter famine; a stranger comes to them who is Hatsenas in human shape, and through him they begin to find food again. He takes the younger woman to wife and she bears Asdiwal, whose growth the father magically hastens and whom he equips with the bow, lance, snowshoes and cloak that will carry the hero through every ordeal. Belonging to the class of avian omen-beings, Hatsenas embodies the reversal of famine into plenty with which the great saga begins.

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