Though many of us are driven to the brink of insanity by the barrage of puzzles, others find such pursuits entirely pleasurable.

Take Hunter Tootoo, for example. The Iqaluit resident has held onto the same puzzle for the last 20 years. A gift from his Uncle Barney in Rankin Inlet, Tootoo loves stumping friends and family almost as much as he loves showing everyone how easy the solution is. And it does look relatively simple from the outside -- a piece of wood with several rings affixed to the surface. The goal is to free an unattached piece of metal from the rings.

"It took me a while to figure it out," laughed Tootoo. "I won't help anyone. They have to figure it out on their own."

The actual creation of the puzzle was a puzzle in itself. Uncle Barney said he saw a similar puzzle years ago and, by trial and error, he finally managed to build one that would come apart. "I kept trying to make it until I got one that worked," said Barney, from Rankin Inlet.

The ring puzzles were an instant hit in the Kivalliq region. But why? What exactly is it about puzzles that fascinates their users?

"It passes the time," said Barney. "It eases people's minds or makes their minds work a little more. And it drives people nuts -- that helps when you're living here," he said.

While there is a joking element to Barney's words, there is also a strong element of truth in what he says. String games and bone games -- the ancestors of modern-day puzzles -- were used to pass the time in iglus.

Culture expert Peter Irniq said Inuit used the bones of bearded seals to play games.

"We would use certain bones to make an iglu. Certain bones would be the man out hunting and we would use certain bones to pretend to be the wife sewing. We did all of this with bones," remembered Irniq.

"We learned to do this by imitating our parents, especially on windy days when it was cold and there was a blizzard. It passed the time away."