Sanaaq

by Salomé Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk

  23

  SCENES OF SUMMER LIFE

  Sanaaq and her family saw a plane arrive once more in the sky, and it seemed to be low on fuel... It looked as if it would land there, as Sanaaq and her family looked on dumbfounded. Inside the plane were two occupants, who were also short of food. Qalingu went closer and said, “Autualu! His eyes are wide open with fear, the poor man!”

  * * *

  Summer was coming and large motionless clouds could be seen, apparently held back by strong winds from the cloudless part of the sky — a sure sign that a thunderstorm was forming. The two Qallunaak headed to the tents. As night fell, it began to thunder loudly.

  “I’m going to tell Qumaq not to go to sleep,” said Sanaaq. “A storm is brewing and I’m afraid she’ll be badly shaken by the sound of thunder!”

  Arnatuinnaq, who was very afraid, went to stay with her camp neighbours, where there were lots of people.

  “I’m afraid and without protection!” she said, coming in. “I have no one who can really reassure me.”

  “Are you afraid of being struck by lightning?” asked Aqiarulaaq. “It’s getting closer and closer. Just listen! The rain is pouring, with huge raindrops... The nikkuit that I put out to dry will probably be ruined, as well as the iluliarusiit and the uliuliniit. I’m worried about them, but I forget, there are also the slices of beluga tail... With this heavy rain, nothing is safe... Arnatuinnaq ai! Let’s both eat some nikku.”

  Arnatuinnaq ate some nikku from the beluga’s shoulder blades and some ordinary nikku. She then said, “I don’t want any more. I no longer feel like eating because I’m afraid. Stuffing my mouth no longer gives me any pleasure... I’ll go back to eating when it stops thundering. Irq! Look at that big flash of lightning!”

  Aqiarulaaq ate some nikku and dipped it in oil, but it was not enough for her and she cried out, “Aanikallak! Cut me a piece of blubber with skin. Some seal blubber, from the seal here on the ground.”

  “Ii!” said Aanikallak. “Filthy creatures! Those big maggots are so disgusting! They look dangerous... They’re really wriggling about!”

  “Listen ai!” mused Aqiarulaaq. “People say that maggots make you fatter! My kinfolk, I’m going to get jowls from eating them. What do you think?”

  She was teasing, but Aanikallak answered tit for tat. “Maybe it’s because my mother ate maggots that she’s starting to get jowls... She even has a double chin and is a bit plump!” she said, laughing.

  Arnatuinnaq had previously planned to make boots but instead had gone visiting. She could not sit still, though, worried as she was by everything she still had to do and by her fear of thunder.

  “But what’s happened to the thunder?” she said. “It seems to have stopped!”

  So she decided to go home. She tried to finish her boots because she wanted to go fishing on the foreshore the next day. She chewed on the skin of the sole to soften it and did the same with the skin of the top half before assembling them. She first did the mirsutaq, then the ilullitaq, and finally the two folds gathered together from the back of the leg to the heel. The next day, at sunrise, she dressed and made ready to go fishing on the foreshore. She took a packsaddle to be carried by a dog on the way back. The tide having reached its lowest level, Arnatuinnaq and Aqiarulaaq walked down to the foreshore, chatting all the while.

  “Look at all the clams!” said Arnatuinnaq. “Let’s gather clams!”

  She dug into the sand with a scraper to unearth the molluscs. Aqiarulaaq, who was very slow, had taken along only a small bucket for the clams she picked. Meanwhile, Arnatuinnaq, when hers was full, would empty it into the packsaddle. She gathered clams for a long while. Suddenly Arnatuinnaq shouted, “Ii! Ai! There’s a big insect! Look at the centipede!”

  “I’m going to look for kanajuit over here,” said Aqiarulaaq, unperturbed. “Look at the big suluppaujaq! It looks dangerous... It’s disgusting!... I don’t want to look for sculpins anymore!”

  “I’ve filled my bucket again,” said Arnatuinnaq, “and the packsaddle is full. I’m now going to catch some little sculpins a bit higher up on the beach. The dog should be able to go home all by itself, for the tide is starting to come in.”

  “Oh, is it ever cold!” exclaimed Aqiarulaaq. “My boots are letting water in. And it’s cold! The water’s leaking inside in several places that have worn through. Never mind! Let’s fish a little more!”

  Arnatuinnaq forgot all about the dog, despite the rising tide. She was lifting many stones.

  “Aa! That one over there! Is it a kanajuq or a nipisaq? Ii! Not at all! It’s a dirty ningiurqaluk! It’s disgusting!”

  Just then, Arnatuinnaq noticed — too late — that the rising tide had surrounded her dog and her packsaddle full of clams. She ran to the animal and called to it, all the while thinking apprehensively, “If it swims, it may not get away because the packsaddle is too heavy for it…”

  She called to it, “Hau! Hau!” The dog began to swim to shore with the packsaddle on its back.

  Aqiarulaaq, too, approached and said, “Look at that dog! It was caught off-guard by the tide…”

  “It was surrounded by the water while standing on a small mound... But it’s coming!”

  Arnatuinnaq was feeling more confident now, after being so afraid. She was reassuring herself about the swimming dog. Once it had made its way across, she pulled it to shore by its leash, without looking at the bag’s contents. The tide was now high. She looked in the packsaddle and saw that it was completely empty.

  “Ii! The clams I gathered are all gone... Not a single one remains. The stitching on the packsaddle’s bottom came loose!”

  “Too bad! But the tide is high... Do you have your bucket of sculpins?”

  “No, I left it back there! It too has probably been swept away by the tide!”

  She hastened to go and look. The tide had carried it off while her attention was on the dog. Her bucket was floating on the water and the sculpins she had caught were clearly lost... She even tried to wade into the water in her boots, but she could not grab it and came back with nothing... She felt overcome by sorrow, thinking about all she had gathered on the foreshore… No wonder. She was going home having lost everything.

  * * *

  Sanaaq was braiding some sinews into a thread to be used for sewing skins onto Qalingu’s qajaq. It was midday and, since awaking that morning, she and her family had not left their tent.

  “Give my little boy something to eat! Cut off a piece of mattaq for him, Qumaq!”

  Qumaq cut into a piece of mattaq with an ulu.

  “Take it, little brother!” she said.

  “Yes!”

  “Ii! What’s he doing?” exclaimed Sanaaq. “Autualu! He’s swallowing and choking, the poor thing! How do we get rid of whatever’s choking him?”

  Qalingu was filling a barrel. Later, he would make a laced bag to put meat in. He removed the rind of the blubber and cut it into pieces. As the pieces piled up, he put them onto a plate and carried them to a spot near the barrel. He threw away the rinds he had removed and kept the blubber pieces, the meat pieces, and the guts — some of which he had thrown away. Sanaaq was cutting thin slices of meat. Qalingu told her, “The barrel isn’t completely full... A little more blubber should be put in… It’d be nice if we caught another beluga!”

  “It sure would,” replied Sanaaq, “but we should find a way to dry the slices of mattaq I’ve cut up.”

  “When I’m done, I’ll make a meat-drying rack out of a crossbar... Watch out! My son’s going to slip and fall on a piece of blubber!”

  The little one did, in fact, slip on the blubber... He was smeared all over with grease and had hit himself on the face. “Aatataa! I’m hurt! Mommy! Aappuu!” he wailed.

  “Ii! Autualu!” exclaimed Sanaaq. “Look, he’s really skinned himself! He’s given himself a bump on the forehead... aalummi! Let
me see, let me make you aappuu!”

  Qumaq, realizing that her little brother had hurt himself, came running and tried to console him. She said, “Little brother! Let’s play together! Let’s have fun, over there, throwing rocks... Let’s also play with the little boat... Where’s your little boat?”

  “Look! I’ve given myself a big lump! I’ve got a real bump on my forehead!”

  “Let’s go! Let’s go down there! Akutsiaq! Come with us!”

  “Yes!”

  They both started playing with the little boat and were quite happy. Akutsiak shouted, “Hey! I’m going to fall into the water!”

  She indeed fell in and began to cough and splutter. “Hai! Hai!”

  Qumaq burst into a fit of laughter and grabbed her by the hand. Akutsiak was furious over being made fun of. She said, “Don’t laugh at me, dirty Qumaq! Didn’t I fall into the water because you told me to come?”

  She was soaking wet, for she had fallen the full length of her body into the water. She began to wring her clothes and hang them to dry elsewhere so that her mother would not know. Predictably, though, Ningiukuluk started to call, “Daughter! Come and set this sealskin on a drying rack!”

  Akutsiak hesitated because her clothes were not dry yet, but went home nonetheless and was given a talking-to by Ningiukuluk. “Why did you pretend you couldn’t hear me? Is your dress all wet?”

  Her daughter nodded and set the skin on the drying rack, using a kaijjiaq.

  * * *

  Qalingu was making an ungirlaaq out of mattaq, using half of a beluga skin and lacing it with a leather strap. Once the bag had been laced, he filled it with meat, after placing it inside a stone cache, whose interior he had carefully dried. After filling and closing the bag, he covered the cache again with stones and wedged it shut. When he was done, he went home and said, “Ai! There are lots of belugas out there. Looks like they’re staying at the same place, on this side of the little point. I’ll keep my gun ready!”

  Sanaaq took the thin slices she had cut and laid them on the drying rack, saying, “The dogs don’t look hungry... They’re lying around and don’t even feel like stealing the food!”

  Her little boy joined her after playing with Qumaq. The legs of his boots had slid up the entire length of his legs. Everyone now went into the tent.

  24

  THE LEGEND OF LUMAAJUQ

  In the tent, Arnatuinnaq heard a strange noise from outside.

  “What is it?” she said. “Could it be someone shouting?” She went out to see. “A! What’s that big thing in the distance? What could that possibly be, that black thing among the belugas? Come and see!”

  Her whole family, Qalingu, Sanaaq, and her daughter Qumaq, went out to see. Qalingu in turn said, “What is that big thing? I can’t make it out. Look, Sanaaq! Can you make out what that is?”

  “Yes! Ii! It’s all black and it’s making noise! Qatannguuk! Qatannguuk! Take a look! What’s that black thing among the belugas that’s making sounds?”

  “What? Whereabouts?” said Aqiarulaaq. “Let me look! Ii! Autualuk! There are lots of yellowish belugas and among them is something else that’s not a beluga. Let’s try and find out what it could be!”

  Aqiarulaaq went to consult Ningiukuluk and Taqriasuk. Ningiukuluk said, “I know what it is from what I’ve heard people say. Among those belugas is a lumaartalik. Whenever such a beluga surfaces to breathe, it drags behind itself a being who sings ‘Lu lu lumaaq! Up there, up there, I want to go to the top of the hill, lu lumaaq! I want to go there because it’s clean, lu lu lumaaq! Up there, up there, on top of the hill, I want to use my scraper, lu lumaaq…’ After expressing itself in this manner, it dives again… The beluga is attached to a Lumaajuq. It’s a very old beluga!”

  Now that the animal had been identified, Qalingu lost interest and did not even go near the belugas. Sanaaq and Aqiarulaaq did likewise. Sanaaq said, “Look, my kinfolk, at all the migrating belugas, with a Lumaajuq among them!”

  “Ilai qatannguuk!” said Aqiarulaaq. “The belugas are yellowish in colour, probably because they’re very old and no good to eat!”

  “Yes! Ningiukuluk and Taqriasuk must know about this, for they are old and wise. I’ll ask Ningiukuluk. Ningiukuluk! Have you heard about these beings?”

  “Yes! A lumaartalik is inedible. You may even die if you eat one. It can bring about death because it’s a very old beluga. You must not even shoot at it!”

  Taqriasuk recounted the legend of their origin:

  “A very long time ago, a blind boy killed a polar bear with an arrow. But he was tricked by his mother, who led him to believe that he had accidentally killed their dog, Uugaq. They indeed had a dog by that name. The mother had a daughter a little younger than the boy. The mother went with her daughter to cook the bear meat a bit further away, while the blind boy stayed home, although he was the one who had killed the bear. They were gone the whole day. While the blind boy was at home, he heard birds flying north in their migration and he called out to them, ‘Give me back my sight!’ The mother and daughter had boiled the bear meat, and the daughter pretended to eat some, but in fact she tucked some pieces for her brother into her jacket by sliding them down her neck. She then headed home and gave him the meat, telling him it was from their dog Uugaq, for she was afraid of their mother, who was claiming that he had killed their dog Uugaq. Thanks to his sister, the blind son did not die of hunger, though knowing full well that he had killed a polar bear. When he again heard the cry of the migrating birds flying overhead, he once more called out, ‘Give me back my sight!’ Then and there some loons visited him. They led him to a small lake, to give him his sight back. The loons plunged the blind boy underwater after telling him to move his body the moment he began to choke, to let them know. Just when he was about to drown, they brought him back to the surface to breathe. He could now make out a lemming’s burrow off in the distance, atop a small hill… The loons plunged him a second time underwater, until he again began to choke, this being indicated by a movement of his body. They brought him back to the surface. Because his sight had improved, they let him go home by himself. On the way back, he came to the level land where the polar bear’s skin was staked to the ground. He ripped it to pieces so that it could no longer be used. His mother realized that he was not blind anymore and went to meet him… When summer arrived and they were all alone in their camp, the mother asked her son how the people at the neighbouring camp hunted belugas. The son answered that a hunter would catch them with the help of his mother, whom he would attach to the end of his harpoon line… The son’s mother, who envied the other camp’s hunting success, insisted that she be attached to the end of her son’s harpoon line when they went beluga hunting. He had successfully convinced her, falsely, that she would be needed to help him capture his prey. Despite her ill will towards her son, she told him, ‘That one! That one! That little grey calf! Harpoon it!’ But he harpooned the largest of the belugas, an all-white beluga. Because she was attached to the harpoon line by her waist, she was dragged over the shoreline rocks and out to sea as if she were a float...”

  That was Taqriasuk’s tale. Sanaaq exclaimed, “Aa! So that’s it! The woman who became Lumaajuq is this dark-coloured form that appears at the surface behind a beluga!”

  “I understand the story you’ve just told,” said Aqiarulaaq, “and it’s very nice to hear, just like Lumaajuq’s song!”

  “Thank you!” said Qalingu. “We now know that she’s the one among the belugas!”

  “I’m grateful to you,” added Arnatuinaaq. “It’s the first time I’ve heard about Lumaajuq and seen her! I’m glad to have heard Taqriasuk’s tale, which was passed down to him by our ancestors. I’m glad he’s still alive, despite his advanced age. He’s a very good grandfather, who knows much about all subjects!”

  “That’s not what I think!” said Qalingu. “I’m not very glad. I wanted to capture another belug
a, and it seems that these ones are not edible and could poison us!”

  “It’s a lucky thing,” said Aqiarulaaq, “that the belugas didn’t arrive at night. Qalingu would’ve hunted them in the dark and he might have killed one, without being able to see properly. Had he done so, we’d all be dead now from having eaten one of them!”

  “There are many Lumaajuit to be found among belugas,” said Sanaaq. “The one we just saw and heard has gone under water, but many other ones like it may still come here!”

  “When I saw it,” said Arnatuinaaq, “I first thought it was something I had never seen before and then, because it was daylight, its dark colour reminded me a lot of an avataq, although it was in fact the old woman who had become Lumaajuq!”

  “I heard that legend because I’m old,” said Taqriasuk. “She’s said to be easy to recognize because she’s pulled by a beluga… She was an Inuk, a very long time ago, and she’ll probably stay in that form until the end of the world... The line attached to her is bigger than the ones used by the Inuit, because over time it’s been covered with mattaq!”

  Qumaq watched and silently listened to everything while thinking, “I saw a Lumaajuq with my folks. One day soon I’ll try to draw or carve a likeness of it…”

  All day long the belugas surfaced and frolicked at the same place, but Qalingu refrained from hunting them, for fear of dying. After all that Taqriasuk had recounted… The whole day, his thoughts turned over and over in his mind.

  “Because of what Taqriasuk said, I haven’t killed a single beluga, although many were in view. All because Ningiukuluk and Taqriasuk, as elders, knew better about everything... Had we not listened to them, we’d probably all be dead by now... There have been belugas here the whole day and we could have easily killed some... I’m glad we’ve got elders among us. If none were around, we wouldn’t have been told and, along with all our camp mates, we’d have eaten some and probably be dead...”