The Beothuk Saga

by Bernard Assiniwi

  24

  The celebration of Anin’s initiation that followed the feast-for-everyone went on for half a moon. It was the longest feast held by the Addaboutik known to the elders. According to the Living Memory, who was the repository of the oral traditions of the Addaboutik, descendants of the first Beothuk, no celebration had ever been held for a hero like Anin. Anin had travelled completely around the known land in three season-cycles. He had faced the sea and its dangers, fought the Bouguishamesh and taken two of their cutting sticks. He had met the Ashwans in single combat, saved the life of the last surviving Beothuk, taken her for his wife and had a child with her. He had also faced a bear for many suns without knowing that he was meeting his spirit protector. He had been saved by this animal, which killed two Ashwans. He had spent three cold seasons in unfamiliar lands, in forests he did not know, with animals and plants he had never seen before. He had saved the life of a Bouguishamesh woman when her own people wanted to kill her. He had slain three giants with his own hands, and saved three other strangers by adopting them. Finally, he had founded the Bear Clan, so named out of respect for an animal that was more benevolent to him than malevolent.

  What other village could boast so great a hero? Anin deserved all the honours accorded him. Most of all, he deserved to be named the first Chief of the Addaboutik of the great Beothuk nation. Anin, founder of the Bear Clan, was the son of the two Addaboutik clans, the clan of Edruh the Otter and the clan of Appawet the Seal, and so the proper leader of this great people. Until now, the two older clans had not wanted to place a single chief at their head for fear of causing quarrels between them. Anin had settled the matter by refusing to land his tapatook without the unanimous consent of both clans. He had created harmony between the Addaboutik peoples. His good sense and impartiality had made him the greatest man in the nation. Because there were many young people, it was necessary that the community have a model at its head, in order to give the nation the spirit it needed to survive.

  So spoke the elder of the Seal Clan, with the agreement of the elder of the Otter Clan. Anin was no longer just the chief of the Bear Clan, he was the first Chief of the entire nation. In honour of Woasut’s people, and because the Addaboutik had once belonged to that family, the new nation would be called Beothuk. The elder also told the young people and the new Beothuk that they must follow the counsel of this man who had just proven beyond all doubt that he was the greatest of the great. He explained to the young people of the new Beothuk Nation that courage, boldness, and valour in combat were not enough to make a great people. If those qualities were not united with wisdom and respect for the rights of the community, they were not worth speaking of. He invited anyone who was not in agreement with him to explain their reasons at this time. If they had not done so by the rising of the next sun, it would be too late and Anin would be the new chief for the rest of his life. The elder also said that the first Chief, in council with the elders, must choose his successor when the time came. He stipulated that if the nation had not produced another hero of Anin’s stature at the time of Anin’s death, then Anin’s oldest male child would automatically be named the first Chief of the Beothuk Nation.

  No one dared to stand in opposition to this decision, since no one felt powerful enough to take on the task of directing this nation of individuals who lived only for the good of their community. Anin was proud, but he understood that this honour was like a weapon that cut on both sides. He knew that from now on he could no longer live solely for his own family and for his own clan, that he must keep the good of the entire community in view. He knew that one of his dreams during his voyage, that of ensuring the expansion and spreading of his people, began with assuming the responsibilities of the chief. His time was now the time of the Beothuk, and his alliances were now as important as the wars he would have to conduct in the case of invasion. This island was his country. He had claimed his right to it by being the first to encircle it during his journey of initiation, in the name of his people. He also knew that exploring and settling the interior of the island was equally important, and that the occupation of the sun-rising coast, the central areas, and the region of cold was of the first importance in establishing the Beothuk territory.

  In view of all that, he must now rest for several suns. Later he would take counsel with his elders and the bravest of the young people. This night, in the midst of the celebrations honouring the nomination of the first Chief of the Beothuk, he had become a thoughtful man, conscious of the enormity of his responsibilities. Although honoured and proud of having attained the ultimate goal of his life, he was none the less troubled. More and more strangers were coming into his territory, and he did not know how to keep everyone on the alert. How could he stop those huge tapatooks that moved by the force of the wind, filled with so many warriors, from taking possession of his own people? Had not Gudruide told him that a single invasion of the Viking drakkars could bring more people than all the Addaboutik that now lived? That was the first problem he had to face. The council would meet tomorrow to form a plan of expansion, and that plan must include ways to increase the number of individuals. Consultations would be held. Everyone must be made aware of the importance of settling the land within the territory.

  That night, around the fire, he spoke at great length with the other members of his clan. He required much information from the Viking women and from the two Scots members who knew a great deal about the lands Anin had never seen. The questions he posed to them were answered clearly, but the chances of limiting or countering that which he feared would happen seemed small. He learned that his dreams could very well remain dreams, and that to realize them would take longer than the lifetime of one man. But his people had already lived for many generations, and he hoped they would continue to live for many generations to come. He could make plans that could be carried out over several lifetimes. Perhaps he would return for another lifetime after this one, in order to complete his work? That night he had no heart to ask one of his wives to couple with him. Gwenid had not returned to the mamateek. Robb had been invited to stay with the parents of a new friend he had made, and Gudruide was already asleep, her child in her arms. Della was lying in the arms of Woasut, who was holding her with tenderness … and with love.

  25

  That warm season there was an exceptional amount of activity in the Beothuk village of Baétha, situated where the river of gulls joined the sea of winds. Everyone able to walk was employed in amassing great stores of provisions for the coming season of cold and snow. Contrary to custom, children carried the catch of the fishermen from the tapatooks to the drying racks and smoke huts that had been built along the shore. All the fishing vessels were constantly plying the open sea, casting for halibut, cod, salmon, lobsters, and herring. The women and younger children gathered snails, clams, and other shellfish, as well as wild fruit. Herbs were also collected to be used in preserving first the snails and then the other food that came from the sea.

  Just before the season of falling leaves, all the men of hunting age were divided into two groups. The first group began the cold-season hunt, while the second broke up into three smaller groups, each of which went off to explore separate areas in the island’s interior. The group led by Anin headed off to the sun-rising coast; another, led by Whooch the Crow, went north toward the region of cold; and the third group went to the bare mountains, the source of cold winds, led by Berroïk the Cloud. The three groups were told to be back in Baétha before the season of cold and snow set in. Only the elders, the women and children were left in the village. They were given the task of gathering small game and preparing for the cold season. That season of falling leaves was a long one for the women of Baétha.

  For the first time in memory, no guardians were left behind to protect the village from attack by the Ashwans, the people the Viking women called Skraelings. There was, however, a plan of defence: the older children were placed on sentry duty up and down the coast, constantly scanning the horizon as well as
the shore at the base of the cliffs. At the first alarm the entire village would be abandoned, the people retreating into the interior while the sentries ran to alert the hunting groups. The seal hunters, being closest, would form the first line of attack, acting as shock troops until the others arrived from farther away. The women were trained in the use of spears and arrows, so that they could also take part in the fighting. Woasut, who had seen what had happened to her own people, was not entirely content with these preparations. She knew how crafty were these Ashwans, who moved with such stealth down from the cold and attacked when they were least expected. She knew that prisoners taken by the Ashwans lived short but horrible lives, submitted to unimaginable tortures. She also knew that these barbarians never took male prisoners, and killed without mercy. She remained anxious and lived in constant fear. She described the massacre of her clan the previous warm season to Gudruide, Della, and Gwenid. She also told of an earlier attack on her village when she had been a young girl. She sketched scenes of horror with such vividness and emotion that when she was finished the four women huddled together in sympathy, shivering and afraid. This reminded them that they would have to endure an entire season with no male warmth to comfort them. They began speaking of their physical needs and the effect this isolation would have on their moods. Gwenid said she knew what it was like to be neglected. She said that at first she was so afraid of becoming dried up that she had made up her mind to seduce Anin when they were alone together in the forest. She told them about the anger that dwelt in her heart when the clan chief coupled with Della in front of the other women, after the birth of Gudruide’s child. She explained how she had hated the young Scottish slave at that moment.

  “I do not think that our condition has changed very much since then,” she said. “Now the nation is everything, and we are more and more neglected for the greater good of the people. My need for physical satisfaction grows stronger and yet is not appeased. I have a great need to please, and a strong desire to be pleased. I am always ready, I think about coupling constantly. I would even gladly couple with you, Della and Woasut.”

  The three women burst into laughter at these words. The laughter was a sign of the frank honesty and friendship that existed among the wives of one man. It rose from the understanding that must exist among such women, whose lot is for each to await her turn, believing that her turn will come, that their husband will be fair and not choose the same woman twice in a row. Encouraged by this understanding, Gwenid continued her confidences.

  “During the home-coming feast, my desire was so strong and my frustration so great that I coupled with three young men, each of whom came to me one after the other, and none of them satisfied me. That is what we have to look forward to during the moons that lie ahead.”

  Gudruide regarded the three other women sadly, and lowered her head. No man had desired her since the birth of her child.

  “I have not even had the comfort and caresses of other women,” she said. “I am not as fortunate as Woasut and Della, who miss no opportunity to show their affection for each other. I do not say this in reproach. I speak only out of sorrow for myself.”

  Woasut looked at Gudruide with sympathy. “But know that I love you as well as I love Della,” she said. “I do not give my caresses to Ashwameet, little Red Ochre, because I prefer her to you, but because I sense that her need is greater than yours. She needs sympathy and understanding, and I have enough for both of us. You seem so strong to me by comparison, so removed from such needs. It never occurred to me that you would feel neglected.”

  Woasut turned to Della. “The affection we feel for each other does not come from any desire to possess each other to the exclusion of others, does it, Della?”

  Della smiled, but did not know what to reply to Woasut’s appeal. She looked at her Viking sisters. “When I felt such longing for tenderness,” she said, “it could have been satisfied by anyone whom I loved. I had no intention of playing favourites, because I knew that we all had to learn to live together in peace if we were to survive. I love you both equally, Gudruide and Gwenid, and I would never discourage your offers of tenderness and friendship.”

  26

  By the end of the falling-leaf season, there were enough provisions for the entire season of cold and snow, since the hunters had been bringing in game steadily for several moons. The cold season was approaching rapidly. Each morning the ground was covered with a soft blanket of frost that drained the green from the plants. The weather turned cold and windy, and gusts of snow swirled and melted in the pale light of the sun. The hunters began to wait for the snow that remained on the ground so they could hunt fresh, red meat. The caribou would soon be leaving their warm-season grounds to seek shelter in the forests or food on the high plateaux, where the snow was less deep and lichen grew on exposed rocks. In the meantime, there were beaver pelts and rabbit furs and sealskins to provide, and clothing to be made for the cold season. The previous cold season had been mild, and there was general consent that nature’s balance would be restored this time around.

  With the explorer groups still gone, the hunters felt themselves obliged to show that they were responsible men. Each night, one of them, named Kabik, laid out the strategy for the next sun’s hunt, explaining how each animal was to be hunted and advising each hunter to hunt only the animal he was assigned. Thus each morning the hunters left the village with a definite plan and a destination in mind. There was no duplication of effort, and therefore no wasted time. Occasionally a chance encounter with unexpected game would cause a hunter to change his plan.

  Besides Kabik, another hunter, a young woman barely old enough to take a husband, was in the process of making a reputation for herself among the people of the new Beothuk Nation. She had developed great skill with the bow and arrow. The elder who made the clan’s weapons had made her a gift of three bows. The least taut she used to hunt small game from short distances; the bow of medium tautness was good for larger game; and the tautest bow was for killing caribou and marine mammals. Her name was Boubishat, which meant fire, because of her spirited character and boundless energy. She had been raised by a woman who had never taken a husband. No one knew who her father was, and she did not wish to find out. It was her mother who taught her how to hunt small game, and she had gone out with the young men to learn how to shoot larger animals. She had practised her skills for many suns until they were perfected, until she could shoot a bird from the air as easily as one that was standing motionless on the ground. There was no one in the village to equal her in contests of skill that did not require great physical strength. And even in contests in which skill was not the sole requirement, she acquitted herself well. She backed away from no one and nothing, and the other young people knew better than to provoke her. Her forceful character made her a formidable rival in everything she undertook. If she did not place first, she went away and trained until she was able to issue a return challenge. But despite her popularity, she had no male suitors. The young men of the village respected her abilities so much they forgot to consider her as a woman. Also, she and Della had become great friends. Boubishat taught Della the use of the bow and arrow, and Della showed Boubishat how to wield the Viking axe. The two women would often hunt together. A firm friendship was established between them, and the young huntress spent many nights with the Bear Clan women, listening as Anin’s wives recounted the adventures they had undergone during their husband’s voyage of initiation. Woasut would often invite Boubishat’s mother to eat with them, and she, too, became a frequent visitor to the mamateek of the leader of the Bear Clan and first Chief of the Beothuk Nation.

  Thus the circle of neglected women grew with each passing sun. While performing such communal tasks as drying and smoking meat, they would often discuss the customs and traditions of the Beothuk people. Whenever they disagreed on a point, they would consult the elder. If the elder was unable to decide because he had never been asked that question before, the women decided the correct way to proceed amon
g themselves. Then they would go back to the elder and tell him that from then on such and such would be integrated into the clan’s customs, because they, the women, had determined it to be the best way.

  And since the women had been left alone in the village while the men were exploring, they demanded the right to sit on the national council. They explained to the elder that he must convince the other council members of the legitimacy and desirability of this decision. Once the principle was accepted, they held a meeting among themselves to elect a representative. The old man, who was the true Living Memory of the traditions and customs of the ancient Addaboutik people, descended from the even more ancient Beothuk, realized he had much to learn from these women. He was proud of them, since to his knowledge no women before these had displayed such interest in the affairs of the nation. He was a wise man, and not at all disturbed by these new ideas. He understood their legitimacy right away: if women were being called upon to play such an important role in the growth of the new nation, they obviously must have a say in the nation’s destiny. If they agreed to have children to increase the population, which would allow the nation to spread into new territories, they must also take part in the nation’s decisions. Any other arrangement would not be fair.

  The voice of Gwenid, who was now known to everyone as either Boagadoret or Botchmouth, that is Buttocks or Breasts, was the loudest and strongest in demanding this new right for the nation’s women. Woasut supported her demands and said she was willing to try to convince Anin of their justness, if he needed to be convinced. Thus the four wives of the Beothuk chief concluded a pact among themselves: they would be united in their appeal to their husband.

  When the first group of explorers returned to the village, disappointment showed clearly on their faces. In the direction of the warm wind, they said, the mountains were completely bare. No game, no good sites for establishing a village, no trees to provide wood for the construction of mamateeks, and only the sea to provide enough food to enable them to survive. On the other hand, the high plateaux were easy to defend from any eventual invaders. There were a few beaches that curved into points that stuck out into the sea, where the wind had deposited much sand and formed steep dunes. But that was all. Berroïk, who had led the expedition, reported to the council that no one but the best hunters of sea mammals could survive in this region, and even then they would also have to be good at fishing. He described rock-strewn shorelines dotted with small beaches of fine sand. He thought that perhaps settlers there could gather shellfish along these beaches, but added that the lack of vegetation would allow no variation in their diet and that would lead to much illness during the long seasons of cold and snow. He suggested they await the findings of the other explorer groups, but in his mind the lesson to be drawn thus far was that the first Addaboutik people had chosen well when they established their village at the mouth of the river of gulls. Berroïk also said that they had seen several islands a short distance offshore on which there appeared to be large colonies of nesting birds, which might provide another source of food for anyone attempting to settle in the region.