Traditional walrus hunting at the coast of the
Chukchi Peninsula, the notheastern extremity of Asia.
The inhabitants, the Chukchi people, are said to believe in Sedna, the Goddess of Sea Creatures, worshipped by hunters who depended on her goodwill to supply food.
According to
Wikipedia, in one myth, Sedna, similar to a mermaid, was the daughter of the creator-god Anguta. She is said to have been so huge and hungry that she ate everything in her parents' home, and even gnawed off one of her father's arms as he slept. According to some versions of the myth, she took a dog for her husband.
Anguta was so angry that he threw her over the side of his kayak. She clung to its sides, whereupon he chopped her fingers off one by one until she let go. She sank to the underworld, becoming the ruler of the monsters of the deep, and her huge fingers became the seals, walrus and whales hunted by the Inuit.
