Near Okkak, a marked rock is tied to a tale about a poor orphan boy. Abused by his caretakers, he prayed to the man in the moon for help. The moon man descended, whipped him into great strength, and returned to the sky. Fueled by rage, the boy killed his tormentors, sparing only a kind girl who became his wife. He rose as the village leader.
Source:
The Labrador Eskimo
by E.W. Hawkes
[Canada, Department of Mines]
Geological Survey, Memoir 91
Anthropological Series no. 14
Ottawa, 1916
► Themes of the story
Transformation: The orphan boy undergoes a significant change, both physically and in his social status, after his encounter with the Moon Man.
Divine Intervention: The Moon Man descends from the sky to assist the boy, directly influencing his fate.
Revenge and Justice: The boy enacts vengeance upon his abusers, which leads to a restoration of order and his rise to leadership.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Inuit peoples
Near Okkak there is a rock, curiously marked with what the Eskimo say are the blood and brains of the people in the following story.
A long time ago there lived in a village near Okkak a poor orphan boy. He had no relatives and the people he lived with treated him very badly. They made him sleep in the entrance tunnel with the dogs and flung him only bones to pick. They would not give him a knife, but the little daughter of the house gave him one secretly, and carried him bits of food when she could do so. Her kindness pleased him very much, and made him long to escape and improve his hard condition in life.
► Continue reading…
One night he was lying on the ground, outside the passageway, trying to think of a plan for escape, and gazing at the moon. The more he gazed at it, the more he thought he discerned the outlines of the face of a man in it. Finally he was sure it was a man, and cried out to him to come down and help him escape from his hard life.
The man in the moon heard him, and came down. He took the little orphan boy down to the beach and beat him with a big whip. Every time he struck him he grew bigger and stronger. When he had finished, the little orphan boy was so strong, he could throw about big boulders like so many pebbles. Then the moon man went back up into the sky. The boy practised lifting and throwing big rocks all night; then he went home. When the people with whom he lived saw how big and strong he had grown, and remembered how they had abused him, they were very much afraid. But the minute he saw them, he went mad with anger. He seized them by the legs and dashed their brains out on the rocks. The boy killed everyone but the little girl who had been kind to him. He took her for his wife. He took all the possessions of his former housemates, and became the head man of the village.
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Dreamtime Whispers 