A man’s second son became a kivigtok, fleeing society to live in isolation. Despite two summers of searching, his family finally found his cave, filled with meat and skins. The son promised to return home but deceived them, disappearing with the remaining supplies. Later, he taunted them from an unreachable cliff, leaving his family no choice but to abandon their efforts to retrieve him.
Source:
Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo
by Henry Rink
[William Blackwood and Sons]
Edinburgh and London, 1875
► Themes of the story
Community and Isolation: The protagonist’s deliberate separation from his family and society highlights the tension between communal bonds and the choice of isolation.
Cunning and Deception: The kivigtok’s deceitful promise to return home, followed by his subsequent disappearance, underscores themes of trickery and betrayal.
Family Dynamics: The persistent efforts of the family to retrieve their lost member, juxtaposed with his rejection and taunting, reflect complex familial relationships and the challenges therein.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Inuit peoples
There was once a man who had several sons; of these, the second son turned kivigtok (viz., fled the society of mankind). This happened in the winter-time; but next summer the father, as well as his other sons, went away from home in order to search for the fugitive. In this manner summer went by and winter came round, but still they had not found him. When summer was again approaching, they made all preparations for another search, this time to other places, along another firth. Late in autumn they at length chanced to find out his solitary abode, in an out-of-the-way place, after having traversed the country in every direction for ever so long.
► Continue reading…
His habitation was a cave or hollow in a rock, the inside being covered with reindeer-skin, and the entrance of which had been carefully closed up. At the time of their arrival the kivigtok was still out hunting; but a little later they saw him advance towards the place from the inland, dragging a whole deer along with him. The brothers were lying in ambush for him; and when he came close to them they seized hold of him. He recognised them at once, and gave a loud cry like that of a reindeer, and said, “Do let me off; I shan’t flee.” The father now asked him to return with them, adding, “This is the second summer in which we have given up our hunt in order to find thee out, and, now we have succeeded, thou really must come home with us;” and he answered, “Yes, that I will.” They remained in the cave during the night, enjoying each other’s company. Next day they had much to do with the things that had to be taken back with them, the store-room, besides his dwelling-place, being filled with dry meat and skins. They tied up bundles to be taken down one by one to the tent of his relatives, which was pitched at some distance near the firth by which they were to travel home. When they were about to set off with the first loads, they wanted him to follow them; he excused himself, however, saying, “When ye go down the last time I shall follow; but I must stay and take care of these things.” They went without him; but on their return the kivigtok had disappeared, and taken the remainder of the provisions with him, and the brothers grew exceedingly vexed with themselves, that they had thus relied on his word, without leaving any one in charge of him. But all too late. Some time afterwards, when they had gone out again to look for him, he terrified them by yelling and howling at them from the summit of a steep and altogether inaccessible rock. How he had got there they could not make out, but finding it impossible to follow him, they were obliged to give him up for lost.
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