Sanaaq

  “Irq! Autualu! My son fell flat on his stomach in the water. His clothes need to be wrung dry.”

  “But what will he wear when it stops raining?” asked Sanaaq. “I was wanting to go fishing for iqaluk... Arnatuinnaq ai! We’ll quickly sew him some new clothes. The lake ice should now have lots of holes.”

  “It does!”

  When the rain stopped, Qalingu left to hunt for uuttuq, taking along his hunting screen. Pools dotted the sheets of land-fast ice and, further out, meltwater covered the pack ice too. He sighted an uuttuq. He crawled to get nearer and killed it. Plugging the wound with a cartridge case, he walked back, dragging his catch behind him. There was a long trail of blood because the seal was bleeding profusely. His family spotted him.

  “He’s killed a seal!” shouted Arnatuinnaq. “He’s dragging it behind him. We’ll get some tea ready... Let’s make an arrival meal!”

  When he arrived, he said, “I’ve killed a seal ai! Its back has lost some of its fur. All that dragging has left a mark because the ice has sharp edges... It’s not a good idea to drag seals over the ice.”

  “Arnatuinnaq!” said Sanaaq. “Remove its small intestine and make some nikku!”

  “Don’t!” said Qalingu, cutting in. “We’ll make a meat bag out of its skin. The skin has no market value, Sanaaq.”

  Sanaaq said, “I feel like going iqaluk fishing today. I’ll talk to my qatanngut about it!”

  She went to her cousin’s place and entered.

  “Qatannguuk ai!” said Aqiarulaaq. “Have a seat!”

  “No, I’ve only come to talk to you.”

  “About what?”

  “I want to go fishing for iqaluk today!”

  “Let’s go now ai! Will there just be the two of us?”

  “No, Arnatuinnaq will come too. We’ll walk, but I’ve got to go and prepare myself ai!”

  “Sure! I’m coming right away.”

  Sanaaq prepared a load of everything she would be carrying on her back. Aqiarulaaq prepared her load too. “Since my load is too heavy,” she said, “I’ll carry my teapot in my hands. Let’s go! Let’s start walking.”

  “But I’m not ready yet,” said Sanaaq.

  “You’re really slow getting yourself ready ai!” replied her cousin.

  They set out on their way and walked for a long while. They then took a rest and cooked outside. Arnatuinnaq, the third one in the group, gathered fuel for a fire. She yanked up heather and small shrubs of black crowberries.

  “Qatannguuk!” shouted Aqiarulaaq. “Go look for something to put the teapot on. I’m going to build a fireplace!”

  They built a support out of stones. Arnatuinnaq went for water, filling the teapot by dunking it. She came back and started cooking. They lit brushwood and stoked the fire continually, in the lee of the wind. The smoke made blowing on the fire bothersome.

  “My eyes are all swollen because of the smoke! The cooking’s not coming along right. The water’s hissing, though.”

  They had their meal. Sanaaq’s son ate eagerly, completely smearing his face.

  “Nuakuluk!” chided Arnatuinnaq. “Looks like you’ve bitten somebody to death!”

  When she had finished eating and the water was boiling, she added some cold water to the teapot. They then started walking to their fishing ground, which soon came into view. Arnatuinnaq said, “The sole I sewed on has come unstitched and slipped to one side. I’m going to remove it.”

  Once they had arrived, they went onto the lake with their fishhooks and bait.

  “Is the ice breaking up?” asked Sanaaq.

  “No!” said Aqiarulaaq.

  The lake had many holes. To fish in them, they jerked their lines with their hands. They were now angling for fish at the ice holes, each angler at her own.

  “Listen!” said Sanaaq. “Sounds like a trout!”

  They could see straight to the bottom. Aqiarulaaq leaned over for a closer look and immediately saw something.

  “An iqaluk! Look at it! But it doesn’t seem to be hungry.”

  “Ii!” said Sanaaq. “I’ve caught an iqaluk ai!”

  Arnatuinnaq had not had any bites yet. It was now Aqiarulaaq’s turn to catch an iqaluk. When she pulled it in, she tried to remove the hook but the iqaluk was wriggling vigorously.

  Sanaaq pulled in a second one from the same hole and said, “This is really fun! I’ve caught another one!”

  “Mother!” said her son. “I want to eat the eye! Come on, let me eat the eye!”

  Sanaaq removed the eyes. “Ii! One of them has burst,” she said.

  Arnatuinnaq had not caught any iqaluk yet. She went over to Sanaaq, saying, “I’m so envious of those who catch lots of iqaluit! I haven’t caught anything yet, but I’m going to fish here. Move back, let me take your place!”

  “Go ahead, take it!”

  Arnatuinnaq was angling. Still not getting any nibbles, she said again, “I want to go home. I won’t catch any iqaluk!”

  “Wait a little!” said Aqiarulaaq. “Let’s go over there and leave the iqaluit we’ve caught here!”

  Leaving their catches behind, they walked further out and began fishing again. Right away Arnatuinnaq caught a very big iqaluk.

  “Look, both of you, at the big iqaluk I’ve caught!”

  Her two companions, however, were catching nothing, so they got up to return to their first fishing hole.

  “What’s that over there?” said Sanaaq.

  “Whereabouts?” asked Arnatuinnaq.

  “Those things, over there, like spots?”

  “A-ii!” said Arnatuinnaq. “Something’s moving about there... What could it possibly be?”

  “What could it be, qatannguuk?” echoed Sanaaq. “Looks like where we left our trout... Those wouldn’t be dogs, would they? Have the trout we caught been eaten? Arnatuinnaq, hurry up and run! Our trout have probably been eaten!”

  As they came close, the things flew off.

  “They’re gulls!” said Arnatuinnaq. “They’re flying off, filthy creatures! Look at that filthy creature still holding a trout in its beak!”

  “Did they take everything?”

  Once her companions caught up to her, Arnatuinnaq said, “The trout the two of you caught were all devoured by the gulls. Everything is gone!”

  “What a shame!” said Aqiarulaaq. “Gang of gluttons! Big throats! Big throats that gulp down a whole trout without even chewing. Suvakkualuk!”

  “Let’s try fishing a little bit longer, qatannguuk!” said Sanaaq.

  Although they did some more angling, no more fish were caught.

  “Let’s go home ai!” said Sanaaq.

  They headed home.

  “A pity the trout we caught were all devoured by the gulls,” said Aqiarulaaq. “Just because we went out there, to the other place.”

  “But we were lucky to have gone there,” replied Arnatuinnaq. “Had we not I wouldn’t have caught any trout!”

  Before going home, they again cooked outside.

  “Let me have the few tea leaves that are left,” said Arnatuinnaq.

  “Chew them thoroughly,” said Sanaaq. “Otherwise there won’t be enough to make the tea as dark as it should be… Our provisions of tea are all used up.”

  She chewed and put them into the teapot, thus darkening the water a bit. They finished and set out for home. Arnatuinnaq carried on her back the trout she had caught. It felt heavy, being very big.

  One of their folks at home, Qalingu, went to take a look from the hill. He came back and said, “The women who went fishing are appearing in the distance! One of them seems to be carrying a heavy load on her back... Looks like big iqaluit!”

  “Ai!” asked Taqriasuk. “Are they coming here?”

  “They’re coming this way!”

  When the fisherwomen were almost t
here, Qumaq and Akutsiaq rushed to meet them.

  “Mother!” said Qumaq. “Did you catch any iqaluit?”

  “No, mine were devoured by gulls!”

  Qalingu cut the iqaluk into pieces. “Let’s invite the others to come and eat!” he said.

  Qumaq went to tell the others about the invitation. “I was asked to tell you to come and eat some iqaluk!”

  And everyone came together for a community feast.

  33

  QALINGU MAKES A PUURTAQ AND QUMAQ HER FIRST BOOTS

  The next day, Qalingu was sitting on a rock and getting ready to strip the skin off a seal with a knife. He now had ample stores of meat, having killed many seals. When he finished removing the skin, he said, “Arnatuinnaq! Come and pull!”

  She began pulling the seal carcass out of its skin. He then inflated the skin, now turned inside out, by blowing into it, in order to scrape the blubber off. When the scraping was done, he took the skin to Sanaaq for her to sew a patch over the anus to cover it.

  “I’ll need a small piece of sealskin with the fur removed,” said Sanaaq.

  She sewed a patch over the anus and, when she had finished, Qalingu filled the bag, stuffing it with pieces of meat and blubber. Then he wiped it with vegetation and carried it to a stone cache. With a leather strap, he tied slipknots around the rear flippers, that is, around its knees, and also around a front flipper. It would be carried on each side by Arnatuinnaq, the young Maatiusi, and Sanaaq. Maatiusi cried out, “Wait a bit! You’ve got to stop a moment because my hand is being squeezed by the leather strap!”

  They halted and advanced a little further, but, just as they had almost put the meat bag into place, it began to rip...

  “It’s been torn by a sharp stone,” explained Qalingu. “But it’s only a little tear.”

  He closed up the stone cache and erected an inuksuk over it. Once he had finished, he went home.

  Night was now falling. Arnatuinnaq called out, “An uuttuq down there!”

  “I’ll go ai!” said Maatiusi. “I’ll use the seal-hunting screen... I’ve got to hurry!”

  “Are you really up to it?” asked Sanaaq.

  * * *

  Sanaaq was scraping the inside of a sealskin. It had fur and was that of an adult seal, not a young one. As she started to remove the flesh, she said, “The skin has become really thin. It’s a seal that’s been moulting... Look, Arnatuinnaq! Its mami is all black. The fur is falling off all by itself!”

  “Let me eat some of its mami!” said Arnatuinnaq. “It’s really good mami!”

  When Sanaaq had finished, she washed the skin because it was shedding. It could not be scraped with a kiliutaq. She laid it out to dry on a rock, with the furry side on top. She then went inside, saying, “Someone should go outside and keep an eye on the skin I laid out to dry. It could lose its fur because of the heat. It’s really sunny!”

  “The dogs ate a piece of our skin!” exclaimed Arnatuinnaq.

  “A big piece?” asked Sanaaq.

  “No, one of its rear flippers.”

  “Never mind! I’ll mend it and hang it on a drying rack.”

  She went about her mending. Once the operation was done, she asked, “But where are the leather straps to hang it with?”

  “On the edge of the kilu,” answered Arnatuinnaq.

  After making eyelets all along the edge of the skin, she hung it on the drying rack.

  Qumaq had grown up a little and was now trying for the first time to make boots by herself. She cut out what was needed to make the qalliniq and also to make the atungaq. She then began to sew. She stitched very badly, making holes in the skin and sewing asymmetrically, without really noticing how poor her work was. When she was done, her mother, Sanaaq, took a look and said, “Qumaq ai! It’s the first time you’ve made boots. We’ll offer them to your sanaji!”

  Ningiukuluk, her maternal grandmother, had also delivered her. As a qillaqut, they would offer a plate, some tobacco, a sealskin, and the boots that the little girl had just sewn.

  “Your arnaliaq has made her first boots!” said Sanaaq as she brought the gifts.

  “What? These things are for me?” said Ningiukuluk. “That girl, my arnaliaq, I made her skilful! And now I’m being given boots... They are truly beautiful boots!”

  Ningiukuluk found the boots to be very beautiful because they were the work of her arnaliaq, even though they were not at all well made... She even tried them on as a way of honouring her arnaliaq, and because she had received them as a qillaqut gift.

  34

  GATHERING EGGS

  Qalingu and Irsutuq were leaving in their two qajaak. They were going to gather eggs. As part of their preparations, they took a box to put the eggs in and a bag. Qalingu lashed his qajaq to his sled for the trip across the qainnguq to open water. Because he and his companion would be travelling by qajaq, they took something to sit on while paddling.

  “We’ll be back tomorrow,” said Qalingu.

  They set off in their two qajaak and headed to Pikiuliq Island. Because they landed while the tide was still coming in, each had to carry his qajaq to dry land. Qalingu began walking about on dry land and, as he made his way, eider ducks and gulls took off from the ground. A bird that had been laying flew from its nest as he passed by. Qalingu saw the eggs in the nest and called out, “I’ve found some eggs!”

  He put the eggs he had gathered in the box he had brought and the down from the nest in his bag. He decided to leave one, out of compassion for the eider duck, which was continually flying about in close proximity, full of anxiety for its eggs. Some of the eggs contained a chick embryo, others a germ, and still others no visible germ. Irsutuq too found some eggs, but only a few. He went to his companion and said, “I really don’t have a knack for this. I’ve only gathered a few eggs!”

  “It’s because you see poorly, on account of your advanced age.”

  “No, I don’t see poorly!”

  Some gulls swooped down from above. They feared for their eggs and their chicks. The two men stopped and began checking over the eggs they had gathered by dunking them in the water of a small lake.

  “We’ll check the eggs we’ve gathered,” said Qalingu, “to see whether they’ve got any embryos... The ones with embryos float. The other twenty don’t have embryos. I’ll use them for bartering!”

  After checking the eggs, they made their daily meal by boiling eider meat and eggs... They had also collected down. After loading their qajaak, they paddled off.

  “There are some places, over there towards land, where the water is darkened by the wind,” said Qalingu. “You can hear it howling... We’ll soon be caught in the wind!”

  “Just our luck! That’s not reassuring. Is it getting closer?”

  “Yes!” answered Qalingu.

  Despite their efforts to hurry by paddling as fast as possible, the wind began to blow in strong gusts. They barely avoided capsizing several times because of the dark waves it threw up.

  “I’m losing hope!” said Irsutuq. “We don’t seem to be making headway into this wind... It will probably blow us out to sea... I’d like to take shelter from the wind behind the island!”

  “Let’s go then, ai!”

  Their kinfolk — Sanaaq, Arnatuinnaq, Qumaq, Akutsiak, Taqriasuk, and Aqiarulaaq — were watching from a hilltop.

  “I’m very worried about them,” said Aqiarulaaq, “because we can’t see them... They said yesterday they’d come back today.”

  Taqriasuk looked through the telescope and said, “I still can’t see them and yet there’s no one left on Pikiuliq Island!”

  “Ai!” exclaimed Sanaaq. “I wonder where they could possibly be... Perhaps in the areas where the wind’s blowing very hard?”

  Arnatuinnaq saw something.

  “That’s probably them! The two of them appear at times in the storm, but t
hey often vanish from sight because of the breaking waves offshore. Try looking at them through your telescope!”

  “Yes, I can see them! They’re caught in the storm... They’ll probably seek shelter from the wind behind the ice floes.”

  “I’m scared!” said Qumaq.

  The wind was subsiding now and the women walked down to the shore while their husbands continued to watch on the hill. On their way, they picked up some brush for fuel.

  “We could gather some fuel for making boiled meat,” suggested Aqiarulaaq.

  Arnatuinnaq and Sanaaq pulled up large quantities of heather and black crowberry bushes.

  “There’s enough to cook with ai!” said Aqiarulaaq. “Each of us will take an armload.”

  Once they had arrived home, Arnatuinnaq went for water in which to boil Aqiarulaaq’s meat. After filling the outside cooking pot, she said, “I’m done! It’s ready!”

  Aqiarulaaq had just come in when she cried out suddenly, “Listen! Dogs growling at each other. Sounds like they’re eating the meat I put in to boil... Arnatuinnaq! Go quickly and see!”

  “They sure are eating it! All the meat is gone!”

  “What a shame!” said Aqiarulaaq. “Those were my only pieces of meat... I won’t be able to cook now... The worst thief among the dogs is going to have a paw tied to its neck!”

  Arnatuinnaq tied one of the dog’s paws to its neck... It began to whimper, “Maa maa…”

  “Serves you right!” said Arnatuinnaq.

  Their lookout arrived at that very moment, saying, “The weather is clearing up. They’re both coming!”

  “All the meat I cut has been eaten by the dogs! What a crying shame!” said Aqiarulaaq.

  “Which one did it?” asked Taqriasuk.

  “Once again it was that miserable Taqulik!”

  “Too bad, but this time it’s going to die, that dyed-in-the wool thief!”

  “I could try and look for something to make boiled meat with at Ningiukuluk’s place, because we’ve got nothing left…”

  Taqriasuk agreed. So Aqiarulaaq went looking for a gift. She entered the tent and said, “Ningiukuluk! I’ve come begging for meat. All the pieces I’d been boiling have been eaten!”