A father and son kayaking encounter a menacing kayariak but escape by killing it on an ice floe. Before dying, the creature creates a fog, leaving them lost at sea. They reach land and find a mysterious house inhabited by black and white figures, later revealed to be gulls, ravens, and a falcon in a cave.
Source:
Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo
by Henry Rink
[William Blackwood and Sons]
Edinburgh and London, 1875
► Themes of the story
Supernatural Beings: The father and son encounter a kayariak, a mythical creature, during their journey.
Transformation: The mysterious house’s inhabitants are revealed to be gulls, ravens, and a falcon, indicating a transformation or disguise.
Conflict with Nature: The protagonists face challenges posed by natural elements, such as the fog created by the kayariak and their subsequent struggle to find land.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Inuit peoples
Abridged version of the story.
A father and his son, while kayaking far off the land, fell in with a kayariak, who at once gave chase to them. They fortunately escaped by jumping out on a flake of ice, from which they struck their persecutor dead; but before sinking into the sea he spat repeatedly, turning round to all parts of the horizon, on which a dense fog arose, causing them to wander, and preventing their gaining their home. At last they reached land, and the father, being angakok, soon perceived a house and entered it. They found one side of it inhabited by black people, and the other by white ones. After staying a while and having some talk with the inmates on both sides, they left the house; but on looking behind them, they saw that the house was a cave in the rock, the inhabitants gulls and ravens, and a drollish visitor staying with them, a falcon.
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