Inuit religion Inuit religion is the shared spiritual beliefs and practices of the Inuit, an indigenous people from Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, and parts of Siberia. Their religion shares many similarities with some Alaska Native religions. Traditional ...

, Adlivun (''those who live beneath us'',Boas 1888, Sedna and the fulmar p. 589 from ''at ~ al'' below, ''-lirn'' in a certain direction, ''-vun'' possessive first person plural; also known as Idliragijenget) are the spirits of the departed who reside in the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

, and by extension the underworld itself, located beneath the land and the sea. The souls are purified there, in preparation for the travel to the Land of the Moon ( Quidlivun or Qudlivun, ''the uppermost ones''),Boas 1888, Glossary p. 662 where they find eternal rest and peace.Gabryl 1895, p. 333 Sedna, Torngarsuk and the tornat (spirits of animals and natural formations) and

tupilaq A ( or in Inuktitut syllabics, plural ) is a monster or carving of a monster. In Inuit religion, especially in Greenland, a tupilaq was an avenging monster fabricated by an angakkuq (a practitioner of witchcraft or shamanism) by using various ...

(souls of dead people) live in Adlivun,Leach 1956, Roll over p. 50 which is usually described as a frozen wasteland. Sedna is the ruler of the land, and is said to imprison the souls of the living as part of the preparation for the next stage of their journey. When an

Inuk Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labr ...

dies, they are wrapped in

caribou The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only represe ...

skin and buried. Elderly corpses have their feet pointing towards west or southwest, while children's feet point east or southeast and young adults towards the south. Three days of mourning follow, with relatives staying in the deceased's hut with nostrils closed by a piece of caribou skin. After three days, the mourners ritualistically circle the grave three times, promising

venison Venison refers primarily to the meat of deer (or antelope in South Africa). Venison can be used to refer to any part of the animal, so long as it is edible, including the internal organs. Venison, much like beef or pork, is categorized into spe ...

to the spirit, which is then brought when the grave is visited. The

psychopomp Psychopomps (from the Greek word , , literally meaning the 'guide of souls') are creatures, spirits, angels, demons, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife. Their role is ...

s Pinga and Anguta bring the souls of the dead to Adlivun, where they must stay for one year before moving on.

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* * * Inuit mythology Inuit legendary creatures Underworld {{NorthAm-myth-stub