Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters
Speaker 2: in time. In this episode, I'd like to turn to
Speaker 2: the traditions of the Inuit, specifically the Inuit of the
Speaker 2: eastern Hudson Bay region of what is now Canada. In
Speaker 2: the Dictionary of Native American Mythology, Sam D. Gill and
Speaker 2: Irene F. Sullivan relate the story of a pair of killers.
Speaker 2: In other tellings, monsters who terrorized the people. Ikutayuk, whose
Speaker 2: name means one who drills and his brother would capture people,
Speaker 2: pin them down on their backs, and then murder them
Speaker 2: by drilling holes in their bodies. Afterwards, they would cover
Speaker 2: a corpse with piles of rocks kirns, or to the
Speaker 2: Inuit inuksuk inusuk, were largely used to aid navigation, but
Speaker 2: were sometimes used as warnings of dangerous grounds. According to
Speaker 2: the myth, the brothers continued their horrible crimes until a
Speaker 2: twu Nit set out to stop them. The Tunit were
Speaker 2: a legendary people said to live long ago, possibly connected
Speaker 2: to an actual Paleo Esquima culture. They were tall giants even,
Speaker 2: and possessed of fierce energy and competition. Gill and Sullivan's
Speaker 2: share that tunit were said to die of exhaustion from
Speaker 2: fierce competitions and feats of hunting and archery. And so
Speaker 2: one brave Tunit took it on himself to rid the
Speaker 2: people of the Kutuyuk and his brother. He challenged Akutuyuk
Speaker 2: to a fight, and they battled while tied together with
Speaker 2: a rope. The Canadian Museum of History features a nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty carving by Inuit artist Issa Kupirowala a la Usa
Speaker 2: depicting the back, which you can view on their website.
Speaker 2: In the end, the two knit hero succeeded in killing
Speaker 2: a Kutayuk, and the remaining brother fled into the wilderness.
Speaker 2: The story of a Kuduyuk was also related by Inuit
Speaker 2: author Jonasi Kuinurayak, who lived eighteen ninety five through nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty four. Now you might wonder what manner of drill
Speaker 2: this monstrous killer would have used. The Inuit traditionally made
Speaker 2: use of the pump drill, an ancient hand powered tool
Speaker 2: used in fire making as well as for drilling small
Speaker 2: holes and objects for jewelry and the like. It's a
Speaker 2: simple hand powered flywheel tool. The craftsperson revolves the drill
Speaker 2: shaft by vertically working a bow or bar carrying a
Speaker 2: cord attached at the center to the upper end of
Speaker 2: the shaft. I realize this is hard to picture, so
Speaker 2: I recommend looking up an image or video. Materially, the
Speaker 2: pump typically involves some combination of wood, ivory, rawhide, metal, stone,
Speaker 2: sometimes jadeite. According to the Pin Museum, there's also the
Speaker 2: Inuit mouth drill. This was essentially a small bow drill
Speaker 2: used for fire making, and the user would brace the
Speaker 2: tool and provide downward pressure with the head via a
Speaker 2: mouth or chin block. Now, to be clear, neither of
Speaker 2: these tools was a weapon, but according to Robert Fortune
Speaker 2: in his nineteen eighty five article Lancets of Stone Traditional
Speaker 2: Methods of surgery among the Alaska Natives, there is reason
Speaker 2: to believe that dental drilling may have been practiced to
Speaker 2: alleviate toothpain, and that cranial drilling may also have been
Speaker 2: practiced in some cases for either medical or magico religious purposes,
Speaker 2: known as trepanation. This practice is found in cultures around
Speaker 2: the world dating back to prehistoric times, with some rare
Speaker 2: modern proponents of the procedure as well, so one can
Speaker 2: imagine how the idea of murderous drillers might have emerged
Speaker 2: in Inuit mythology and storytelling based on everyday technology and
Speaker 2: or painful surgical procedures that had been experienced or witnessed.
Speaker 2: The possibility of actual isolated drill based torture is, I
Speaker 2: suppose not impossible. I ran across one reference to isolated
Speaker 2: drill marks on Inuit remains a nineteen ninety three article
Speaker 2: by Melby in Fairgrief titled a Massacre and Possible Cannibalism
Speaker 2: in the Canadian Artic, But the consensus would seem to
Speaker 2: be that the evidence in question suggested a mortuary practice,
Speaker 2: with drill holes being just one of the classifications of
Speaker 2: cuts found to the bone. Ikudu Yuk and his brother
Speaker 2: are haunting figures to consider, and yet another fascinating aspect
Speaker 2: of Inuit culture. Tune in to additional episodes of The
Speaker 2: Monster Fact or The Artifact, or a new upcoming short
Speaker 2: form series each week. As always, you can email us
Speaker 2: at contact at Stuff to Blow Your Mind dot.
Speaker 1: Com Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.