Uvavnuk had gone outside one winter evening to make water. It was particularly dark that evening, as the moon was not visible. Then suddenly there appeared a glowing ball of fire in the sky, and it came rushing down to earth straight towards her. She would have got up and fled, but before she could move, the ball of fire struck her and entered into her. She perceived that all within her grew light, and she lost consciousness.

When she came to, without knowing what she was doing, she ran into the house singing. There was nothing that was hidden from her now, and she began to reveal all the offences that had been committed by those in the house. Thus she purified them all. “I dive into the ocean” was the song she sang.

UVAVNUK was an Inuk angakkuq (spiritual healer) born in the 19th century. Her story was written down by Inuk–Danish anthropologist Knud Rasmussen in the early 1920s.