Near the abandoned Hudson’s Bay Company post at Nachvak lies a stone resembling a woman deep in thought. Local Eskimo legend tells of an outcast woman who, exhausted and despairing, wished to become stone. A crow circled her, cawing thrice, and turned her into rock. Today, the figure remains revered, adorned with offerings like beads, needles, and tobacco by passersby.
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 woman’s change from human to stone.
Supernatural Beings: The crow’s mystical role in her transformation.
Sacred Spaces: The stone’s significance as a revered site where offerings are made.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Inuit peoples
About half a mile from the old Hudson’s Bay Company post at Nachvak (now abandoned) is a curiously formed stone. It is situated on a point, and in going by in a boat, it appears like a woman seated with her chin on her hand, thinking. The Eskimo of that vicinity relate the following story in connexion with this rock.
Once there was a woman who was an outcast from the village. She had no people nor relatives, and was a slave for everybody. One day she was going along in a boat by this point. She had been rowing in the umiak all day, and was very tired. She went ashore, and sat down on a rock and started thinking.
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First she wished that she were dead and her labour over. Then she wished that she could be changed into a stone, like the one she was sitting on. While she was thinking this, a crow flew over her. He made three circles over her, and as he cawed three times, she was gradually turned into a stone.
She is still seen in the same position with her hand to her chin, thinking. The Eskimo make offerings to her of needles, tobacco, and matches, whenever they pass. Some of the women have put a necklace of beads around her neck.
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Dreamtime Whispers 