In the village of Kin-i’-gun, a mistreated orphan reported a fiery apparition that led to a terrifying encounter with a skeleton-like tunghak, which killed the villagers who followed it. A fisherman later faced the tunghak but escaped using enchanted items that turned into protective dogs. Guided by a mysterious black man and a magical woman, he received an amulet, became a shaman, but ultimately vanished seeking the woman.
Source:
The Eskimo about Bering Strait
by Edward William Nelson
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Eighteenth Annual Report
Washington, 1900
► Themes of the story
Supernatural Beings: The appearance of the fiery apparition and the skeleton-like tunghak highlights interactions with otherworldly entities.
Divine Punishment: The villagers’ mistreatment of the orphan leads to their demise, suggesting retribution from higher powers for their transgressions.
Transformation: The fisherman’s enchanted items turning into protective dogs symbolize physical changes aiding in his escape from the tunghak.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Inuit peoples
from Sledge Island
In the village of Kin-i’-gun (Cape Prince of Wales), very long ago, there lived a poor orphan boy who had no one to care for him and was treated badly by everyone, being made to rim here and there at the bidding of the villagers. One evening he was told to go out of the kashim and see how the weather was. He had no skin boots, and being winter, he did not wish to go, but he was driven out. Very soon he came back and said there was no change in the weather. After this the men kept sending him out on the same errand until at last he came back and told them that he had seen a great ball of fire like the moon coming over the hill not far away. The people laughed at him and made him go out again, when he saw that the tire had come nearer until it was quite close. Then the orphan ran inside telling what he had seen and hid himself because he was frightened.
► Continue reading…
Soon after this the people in the kashim saw a fiery figure dancing on the gut-skin covering over the roof hole, and directly after a human skeleton came crawling into the room through the passageway, creeping on its knees and elbows. When it came into the room the skeleton made a motion toward the people, causing all of them to fall upon their knees and elbows in the same position taken by the skeleton. Then turning about it crawled out as it had come, followed by the people, who were forced to go after it. Outside the skeleton crept away from the village, followed by all the men, and in a short time everyone of them was dead and the skeleton had vanished. Some of the villagers had been absent when the skeleton, or tunghak, came, and when they returned they found dead people lying on the ground all about. Entering the kashim they found the orphan boy, who told them how the people had been killed. After this they followed the tracks of the tunghak; through the snow and were led up the side of the mountain until they came to a very ancient grave, where the tracks ended.
In a few days the brother of one of the men who had been killed went fishing upon the sea ice far from the village. He stayed late, and it became dark while he was still a long way from home. As he was walking along the tunghak suddenly appeared before him and began to cross back and forth in his path. The young man tried to pass it and escape, but could not, as the tunghak kept in front of him, do what he might. As he could think of nothing else, he suddenly caught a fish out of his basket and threw it at the tunghak. When he threw the fish it was frozen hard, but as it was thrown and came near the tunghak, it turned back suddenly, passing over the young man’s shoulders, and fell into his basket again, where it began to flap about, having become alive.
Then the fisherman pulled off one of his dogskin mittens and threw it. As it fell near the tunghak the mitten changed into a dog, which ran growling and snarling about the apparition, distracting its attention so that the young man was able to dart by and run as fast as he could toward the village. When he had gone part of the way he was again stopped by the tunghak, and at the same time a voice from overhead said, “Untie his feet; they are bound with cord;” but he was too badly frightened to obey. He then threw his other mitten, and it, too, changed into a dog, delaying the tunghak as the first one had done.
The young man ran off as fast as he could, and fell exhausted near the kashim door as the tunghak came up. The latter passed very near without seeing him and went into the house, but finding no one there, came out and went away. The young man then got up and went home, but did not dare to tell his mother what he had seen. The following day he went fishing again, and on his way came to a man lying in the path whose face and hands were black. When he drew near, the black man told him to get on his back and close his eyes. He obeyed, and in a short time was told to open his eyes. When the young man did this he saw just before him a house and near it a fine young woman. She spoke to him, saying, “Why did you not do as I told you the other night when the tunghak pursued you?” and he replied that he had been afraid to do it. The woman then gave him a magic stone as an amulet to protect him from the tunghat in the future, and the black man again took him on his back, and when he opened his eyes he was at home.
After this the young man claimed to be a shaman, but he thought continually of the beautiful young woman he had seen, so that he did not have much power. At last his father said to him, “You are no shaman; you will make me ashamed of you; go somewhere else.” The next morning the young man left the village at daybreak, and was never heard of again.
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Dreamtime Whispers 