While everyday life is a common theme among Inuit sculpture, that normally manifests itself in hunting scenes, or a mother caring for a child. When stories are also in sculpture, they are represented as a select scene from the story, not usually as a telling of the story. Rarely does the topic of stories and everyday life combine into a scene of a man taking the time to read a book. Traditionally, stories and legends were passed down orally, and the Inuit did not have a writing system to write stories down. When the missionaries arrived, they taught the Inuit syllabics in order for them to read Catholic and Anglican prayer books. Literacy increased rapidly in the north, spreading with it Christianity..