This work recalls the celebrated sculpture by Davidaluk, Inuk Delousing a Male Spirit from 1952, in the TD Bank Collection (see Swinton 1972/92, fig. 369 and elsewhere). Here, however, we can identify the spirit to which the man attends as Katjutajuk. With incised nipples on her cheeks and distinctive three three-toed feet, Katjutajuk is a subject that Davidialuk would revisit in his sculptural and graphic works multiple times over his lengthy career.

Though in his account of the female spirit in Eskimo Stories from Povungnituk (1969) Davidialuk insinuates that Katjutajuk is a mischievous and intrusive spirit, here she allows the man — perhaps a shaman — to pick through her hair without fuss. The man kneels before her, naked, his wide eyes cast downward in concentration. It is a charming and surprisingly intimate scene with a mood of private, self-contained interiority.