Jawnomicon

Pal-Rai-Yuk

Also called Palraiyuk, Pal Rai Yuk, Tizheruk, Yuk.

The Pal-Rai-Yuk is the furred, six-legged sea serpent of Alaskan Inuit tradition, drawn to knocking on boat hulls and repelled by its own painted image.

At a glance

Tradition
Inuit mythology
Region
Alaska (place of origin)

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Six-legged body
    why

    The art shows a serpentine, dragon-like beast with a head like a crocodile's or a snake's, a long tongue, short horns, a body covered in thick fur, three dorsal fins, a tail ending in a flipper, and three pairs of legs — the middle pair rudimentary.

Behaviour

  • Image as protective ward
    why

    Its counter-measure is its own portrait: the creature recoils from its likeness, and so its image was painted on the bottoms of kayaks and umiaks, turning the hull itself into a ward.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.