Sanaaq (4 page)

Qalingu, the brother of Aqiarulaaq, had no
qajaq.
At daybreak, the two
qatannguuk,
now sisters-in-law, went to prepare the
amiksait.
The skins had been left to soak in a stone cache. Aqiarulaaq said to her brother, “Brother, Qalingu! Get these skins ready. Take them out of the stone cache.”

“Yes, I'll pull them out of the stone cache. We'll carry them away with one person holding each side. They're bundled up in a laced skin bag... Let's get going! They're very heavy, so hold onto them on each side!”

They went to the
avvik
and started preparing the skins on that late summer day.

“I'll put the
avvik
into place,” said Sanaaq. “We'll stretch a skin over it... With this sharpening stone I'll first hone my ulu, which is under the baseboard of the sleeping platform. There's no longer any cutting edge on it.”

“I sharpened my ulu today,” said Aqiarulaaq, “but it doesn't seem to be cutting properly. The edge isn't quite right. It'll do the job only if we break it in on some leather first.”

They went to work on the raw hides. They first stripped off the blubber layer under the skins while chatting amongst themselves. Suddenly Aqiarulaaq yelled, “A
puiji
down there!”

She ran off shouting, “Son! Son! A
puiji
down there! It's swimming to the hunting lookout!”

“I've got to hurry up and finish removing the
mami,
” said Sanaaq. “It's getting dark out...
Ii!
There I go, I just sliced off a bit of my skin while my mind was on that dirty little
puiji
over there... Arnatuinnaq! Get cooking. You're going to make some boiled meat!”

“OK, I'm going! But first I'll watch that guy go after the
puiji.
Look at the two of them. He seems to be taking aim... Listen for the gun going off. I can hear it go off,
Tikkuu! A – Ii!
There it is down below. It's starting to float, near the area where the water looks darker because of the wind.”

Sanaaq could now see it. “Yes, there it is!
Ii!
Will it sink?”

“No! He's right by it,” answered Arnatuinnaq.

The man down below, Jiimialuk, seemed to be shouting for something: “A line! A line!”

“What?” said Arnatuinnaq.

“A line!”

Only Aqiarulaaq understood.

“He's saying: A line! Take him this leather line, the one in the
uati,
just across from my place!”

Arnatuinnaq hurried away with the line. When she got to him, she asked, “Did you catch a
puttajiaq?
I'm late because it took us a while to figure out what you were calling for... Your mother was the first to understand what you were shouting.”

“
Ai!
” replied Jiimialuk. “I'm going to try and get a hold on it.
Ai!
”

“Yes!” said Arnatuinnaq.

He was trying to throw the line around the animal.
“Ii!
”

With each throw, the stone at the end hit the surface and threw up a spray of water.
Sarvaq!
was the sound it made.

“
Ii!
I can't get hold of it! Let's try one more time...
Ii!
Got it, it's mine!” Jiimialuk
had lassoed the line around the seal. “It's a lot fatter than the last one I caught... Let's go! We'll haul it away... Or rather I'll carry it off on my back,
ai!
I don't want to scrape its fur off!”

Back at his tent, Jiimialuk began skinning the animal. He removed its small intestines and cleaned them out to make
nikku.
Then he strung them out to dry, forming a hose stretching from one side of the tent top to the other. While skinning the animal, he avidly licked the blood that dripped from his fingers. “
Am! Am!
” he said. He cut off a lumbar vertebra and ate all the meat while continuing with his work. “
U! Uu!
Is it ever good! Is it ever good!
Uu!
”

He stopped. He had finished eating and his mouth was smeared with blood. He went to rinse the sealskin in the water and also rinsed his hands and mouth. By now the
qajaq
skins were ready.

Sanaaq and Aqiarulaaq had completed their work. With night falling, Sanaaq shouted, “Come and help us. We're done! The skins need to be carried away to the tent with someone on each side.”

So Sanaaq, Qalingu, Aqiarulaaq, and Jiimialuk started to carry them off, with two people on each side. They were straining.

“
Uuppaa!
Uuppaa!
Not heavy at all!” said Jiimialuk
.
“Let's go that way!”

They now stopped. They had come to their tent.

“Mother
ai!
” said Qumaq. “Let's drink some tea!”

“Let's have tea!” replied Sanaaq.
“Arnatuinnaq! Has any tea been put in the teapot?”

“Yes, I put some tea in. Help yourself!”

“Go ahead. Let's have tea! Where's my daughter's cup? There it is down there, on the other side of the trunk... Qumaq! Drink your tea without spilling!”

“OK!”

“
Iii!
”

“She's spilled all her tea down the front of her shirt… Is the teapot empty? She's spilled all her tea!”

“Will we be double-stitching everything tomorrow?” asked Arnatuinnaq
.
“I'm going out for a short visit.”

She went to visit Aqiarulaaq, who told her, “
Ai!
Arnatuinnaq
ai
!
Take home some of the meat. Here, take this shoulder.”

“Sure!” said Arnatuinnaq. “The sea is very calm. Once we start sewing, we should work as fast as possible, to get it all done in a single day.”

“You're right! We'll try to get up early and do it all in one shot.”

Arnatuinnaq now went home. She undressed for bed because it was nighttime. Everyone went to bed and drifted off to sleep. Qalingu was snoring loud and hard.

“
Qaa!
Qaa!
” This was the sound of his snoring.

They had all planned to wake up early that morning. Around five o'clock, Aqiarulaaq entered the home of her camp mates and said, “My kinfolk! Wake up, it's high time you got up!”

“Yes!” answered Sanaaq. “We're up!”

Arnatuinnaq awoke too and dressed after having some tea. They were going to cover Qalingu's
qajaq.
For this, Qalingu started cutting the skins to fit the frame. He stretched the
utjuk
skins over the
qajaq
with Jiimialuk's help while the others — the elderly and the women — looked on and told them how to do the job.

“
Jiimialuk! You hold while I cut,” said Qalingu. “But how are they supposed to be cut?”

Aqiarulaaq explained. “You cut the skin along a line from the big hoof of the front foot to the corner of the lips and then along another line from the hind foot to the udder. That's how we usually cut it... Try to remember that this is how we cut skins for a
qajaq!
”

“Yes,” said Qalingu. “I'll try. Jiimialuk!
Attach the skin with a leather strap.”

Once this was done, the three women went to work inside the tent. They double-stitched the skins together while talking and chatting.

“
Irtuu!
” said Sanaaq. “I should first make some
qitirsirait
with this old caribou skin. Only with
qitirsirait
can we hold the thread right while sewing... Let's get to it! Let's get sewing!”

They began to sew. Qumaq was playing. She knew more and more about the world around her and talked incessantly while playing with the husky pups. There were five of them. She often opened the door and the draft from the strong wind outside caused the oil lamp's flame, which was heating the tea, to waver this way and that.

Sanaaq scolded her daughter. “Stop opening the door all the time. The oil lamp is exposed to the draft and its flame is being blown about by the wind!
Ii!
Iii!
Dirty pups! They're running into the tent one after another!”

“
Uai!
” shouted Arnatuinnaq. “Bunch of good-for-nothing mutts! What a pack of useless bums.” She went after them, giving one pup after another a good kick. “
Uai
bums! Look at all these pups!”

“
Maa maa maa!
” whimpered the pups as they scampered away.

The women had finished sewing. The entire team would now fasten the covering of skin to the frame. While the men rinsed the stitched skins in the sea, Taqriasuk daubed the
qajaq
frame with oil to make it slippery, using a piece of sealskin. The men then came back and the women began stretching the skin over the frame. Meanwhile, Jiimialuk was preparing boiled meat in a large pot and filling it with whatever could go in. As he cut the meat into morsels, he said, “I'll set up a windbreak because the wind is blowing hard and the meat is really going to take too long to cook.”

He erected a windbreak using a large
mangittaq
of old
qajaq
skins. He could now go ahead with the cooking... The flames were already high. When the meat morsels began to boil, he turned them over with a long metal pick. But as he was turning them over, he splashed himself in the face with the boiling hot water. He screamed,
“Aatataa!
I've scalded myself something awful... My eye has been burned open!
Aa! Aatataa!
All I've got is my left eye now... There's fluid spilling out of my burned eyeball. It's stinging really bad.”

“
Ii!
” exclaimed Aqiarulaaq. “My son has lost an eye. His eye is wide open. It's been burned open by boiling liquid! Who will provide for us now that our only provider has lost an eye?”

“Mother! I'm probably going to die. My eye was burned open when the boiled meat I was preparing was almost done. I've lost my lens...
Ii!
There it is, a tiny little lens! Look! That used to be my lens! But what's to be done with it now? It may end up being eaten by the dogs…”

They knew nothing about the existence of doctors or even big ships. When the women working on the
qajaq
had finished their work, they got down to eating some of the boiled meat.

“Come and have some boiled meat!” shouted Sanaaq to her companions. “Have some!”

“I will!” answered Aqiarulaaq, “but my son can no longer have any. He's burned himself very badly... Look at this. It used to be his lens!”

“
Ii! Autualu!
” said Sanaaq.

Qumaq was beside her. She saw the lens and, still not knowing many things about life, said, “Mother, I want to eat that eye!”

“
Ii!
It's just not done. You can't eat an eye like that. It's a man's eye. It was your little cousin's. It was his eye!”

“I want it! Give it to me!”

“But I told you it was a man's eye! It is said that the eyes of people who eat human flesh turn completely white… We'll throw it away because your eyes would turn white.”

“Yes!” said Qumaq, who seemed to understand.

Night had fallen. They undressed for bed. Jiimialuk soaked a cloth compress in water and placed it over his eye. Unable to fall asleep, he tossed and turned because of his burn. Everyone else went to sleep, leaving him alone with his pain.

While they slept, at daybreak, a very large boat arrived. Arnatuinnaq was taken aback when she left the tent that morning. It was the first time she had ever seen such a thing. She shouted to her kinfolk,
“Ilakka!
Wake up! What's this thing standing still in front of us?”

Just as her last words trailed off, the ship made a loud booming sound and, coming nearer and nearer, made several more. The strange sight filled everyone with fear, and they made frenzied efforts to hide behind tent covers. Some, like Arnatuinnaq and Qumaq, even began to cry. Finally, a large outboard full of
Qallunaat
headed to shore. These beings were clearly human, and the camp's inhabitants, though still surprised, were no longer afraid. The
Qallunaat
had come to visit.

Once they were ashore, Aqiarulaaq shouted to the Big Eyebrows, “
Ai!
”

They failed to understand, not making the slightest response. They began to talk among themselves. The Inuit were astonished to hear them speak and greatly appreciated the many gifts that they handed out, even the empty tin cans.

Sanaaq left to go visiting. She had heard about the
Qallunaat
and told everyone, “People say the Big Eyebrows are really nice! Don't be afraid. It's even said that they have doctors.”

Qumaq was not at all intimidated by the
Qallunaat.
They were soon well liked because of all the gifts they handed out.

The
Qallunaat
went back to their big boat, to get things ready for moving ashore. Once they were inside, a loud clanging and banging could be heard. The Inuit were filled with astonishment and cried out, “Listen to that! There's an awful racket going on!”

“You said it!” said Aqiarulaaq. “But what can they be up to? Look over there, that little boat is full of stuff!”

The outboard landed on the shore again and the Inuit went to meet the newcomers, who began unloading large wooden crates. The Inuit watched with amazement.

“It'll be nice to have them in our country,” said Sanaaq
.
“There'll now be Big Eyebrows here!”

Jiimialuk hardly felt any pain in his eye anymore. He accompanied those who welcomed the newcomers. He shouted, “Isn't it great that the pain has almost gone from my eye?” He even began to sing, “
Laa laa laa.
Isn't it just great? What does it matter that I'm now one-eyed? Who cares, the pain's going away!”

The newcomers continued to unload. They picked things up and laid them on the shore while the others worked at building a large house.