Inuit mythology Inuit religion is the shared spiritual beliefs and practices of the Inuit, an Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous people from Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, and parts of Siberia. Their religion shares many similarities with some A ...

the Tariaksuq (Taqriaqsuk, Taqriaqsuq, Tarriaksuk, Tarriaksuq, Tarriassuk, Tarriassuq; (plural) "Shadow-People", Taqriaqsuit, Tariaksuit, Tarriaksuit, Tarriassuit) is a

humanoid A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and '' -oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. By the 20th century, the term came to describe fossils which were morphologically similar, but not identical, to those of ...

creature associated with

shadows A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensiona ...

invisibility Invisibility is the state of an object that cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be ''invisible'' (literally, "not visible"). The phenomenon is studied by physics and perceptual psychology. Since objects can be seen by light fr ...

and obscurity. It is said that, for the most part, they are the same as any other human being. They have houses, families, weapons, tools, and more. Where they deviate from normal people, however, is that they are not visible by looking straight at them. In looking directly at them, they either disappear into the separate world which they occupy, apart from our own, or they are only seen for the shadow they cast. They only become visible if they are killed, and they are said to appear as half-man-half-

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 ...

creatures. Aside from the strange condition of their visibility, it is also known that they can only catch prey while hunting it on foot.

References

{{Inuit religion Inuit legendary creatures

See also

References