Creatures and Spirits
Qalupalik is a myth/legend that was told by Inuit parents and elders to prevent children from wandering to the shore where the Qalupaliks live. Qalupalik: human-like creatures that live in the sea, long hair with green skin and long finger nails. Qalupaliks wear an amautik so it can take babies and children who disobey their parents or wander off alone and takes the children in her amautik under water were she adopts them as their own. Qalupaliks have a distinctive humming sound, and the elders have said you can hear the Qalupaliks humming when they are near. Up to today the Qalupalik story is still being told in schools, books and by parents who don’t want their children to wander off to the dangerous shore. The myth was adapted as a 2010 stop motion animation short Qalupalik by Ame Papatsie.
Saumen kars or 'Tornits' are the Inuit version of the hairy man or yeti myth. Tizheruk are snake-like monsters. Tupilaq are avenging monsters which were invoked using Shamanic magic. "Qallupilluit" are "troll-like" creature that come after misbehaving children.
Read more about this topic: Inuit Mythology
Famous quotes containing the words creatures and/or spirits:
“What have we achieved in mowing down mountain ranges, harnessing the energy of mighty rivers, or moving whole populations about like chess pieces, if we ourselves remain the same restless, miserable, frustrated creatures we were before? To call such activity progress is utter delusion. We may succeed in altering the face of the earth until it is unrecognizable even to the Creator, but if we are unaffected wherein lies the meaning?”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“But we are spirits of another sort.
I with the morning’s love have oft made sport,
And like a forester the groves may tread
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessèd beams,
Turns unto yellow gold his salt green streams.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)