A Greenland "tupilak", as known to tourists, is a small grotesque figure carved in steatite or in a sperm whale tooth. It has a body, head and four limbs, but resembles some sort of composite animal. It often possesses a distorted face and sometimes is adorned with skeleton ornamentation. Strictly speaking, experts do not call these figures tupilaks, but "tupilak figures", as in reality they are depictions of the genuine "tupilak", but without its magical properties.

The history of the tupilak is a very ancient one going back 5,000 years. The tupilak proper was a magically-created troll animal, which the heathen Greenlanders manufactured in bygone days from the bones of children or various animals.

The tupilak was made at a lonely well-concealed spot, the individual bones being put into place by the thumb and little finger alone. If other fingers were used the attempt would. be a failure. Earth or seaweed was used for the musculature. The whole thing was wrapped in a piece of old skin, and life was given to it by the singing of a magic song.

The creator of a tupilak had no need to be a shaman, as tupilak magic came more under »witchcraft« and consequently any one skilled in the latter could make a tupilak provided he adhered to the proper procedure.

The purpose of producing these objects was generally to be rid of an enemy, and the tupilak attacked in the form of the animal it representea. If it was a seal, it would drag down the hunter and drown him. As a polar bear it would eat the enemy, and as an invisible tupilak - for such there were according to report - it would frighten the victim to death or steal its soul. In some cases reference is made to the tupilak's attack as "the consuming of intestines", for it was believed that the soul dwelt in the abdomen, and the tupilak was thus a "devourer of souls".

The tupilak was a magical implement devoid of independent will. It thus was compelled to obey a person possessing insight into the supernatural world. Were the tupilak to be given orders by two human beings, it would obey the one whose magical ability was the greater. Should the victim prove to be the more adept in the magic art and had reason to suspect what was taking place, he would return the tupilak in order that it could hunt its creator instead.

Should the suspicion of the victim be aroused, he could also apply to a shaman who owned spirits capable of hunting the tupilak. In that event they would chase and destroy it.

It was also possible that the tupilak itself might think of attacking its creator. Should this happen the latter could only save himself by open confession.

When the Greenland explorer, Gustav Holm, reached Angmagssalik in 1884, he asked what a tupilak looked like. The people of Angmagssalik found it difficult to draw it on the spot, and therefore carved one in wood. This was the beginning of the tupilak production which gradually spread all over Greenland.