January 1, 2001

A Kayak Full of Ghosts

A girl named Kala stood on a lonely headland and she saw two men in a kayak paddling toward her. One of the men shouted that he had no wife. Would she like to lie with him? But she had no interest in him, or the other one, so she told them to paddle on their way or they would taste her spear-point. And as she turned her back to them, she felt her hands and legs become stone. She called out:

"Kayak men, come back. You may take me to wife if you wish."

The kayak men paddled on. Now Kala felt her shoulders and head grow stiff. She called out again:

"Kayak men, dear kayak men. Please take me to wife."

Again they ignored her. Now all but her navel turned to stone.

"Dear kayak men, you may both take me..."

Too late! She was now a pillar of stone. For the Stone Spirit had married her as it marries anyone who turns his back on his fellow human beings.

Forever more Kala remained on that headland. She did not have offspring. Sea-birds came and shat upon her.

From "A Kayak Full of Ghosts". Gathered and retold by Lawrence Millman. A raw and graphic collection of Eskimo folk tales so crude that I struggled to find an excerpt from the book that I could post to the web site. An interesting read, but not for those that are easily offended by the use of vulgar language.