Sanaaq

by Salomé Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk

  Ningiukuluk, who disliked giving, replied, “I won’t give you any because you’re a fool and because you’re often robbed of your food. I don’t want to be short of food through the fault of others. You’re really stupid! Just go away!”

  Yet she had plenty of meat. Aqiarulaaq went to Sanaaq’s place and told her, “Qatannguuk! I’ve just been rudely sent away by Ningiukuluk after trying to get some meat... I didn’t get any, not even a little morsel. I was given a flat no!”

  “Ai!” said Sanaaq.

  The two qajaak were about to arrive.

  “The qajaak are arriving, out front!” announced Arnatuinnaq. “They’re heavily loaded. Let’s go to where they’ll be landing!”

  They all went. Ningiukuluk also wanted to go, despite feeling very embarrassed. She went anyway and when she arrived, she looked about furtively, saying, “Look at all the eggs they’ve got! How nice it would be to eat eggs! Aqiarulaaq ai! You’ll come and get some meat at our place!”

  “I won’t go again. I already asked for some today!” answered Aqiarulaaq.

  They went back and forth on the shore carrying the many things that the travellers had brought back. They got ready to boil the eggs and eider ducks. They skinned the ducks, removing the skin with the feathers.

  Ningiukuluk was no longer the centre of attention. With no more gifts being brought to her, she felt envious and dearly wished to receive more... Her daughter Akutsiaq, feeling the same way, visited her neighbours for something to eat. She expected those who prepared the boiled meat to offer her some. She waited a long time in the expectation of being offered food. When her hosts began to eat boiled meat, she joined them and, finding it very good, ate eagerly, soon finishing off the eggs and the pieces of duck she was given. She even scraped the fat off the duck skins with her teeth.

  “Pass me the soup pot!” she said after eating.

  It was passed to her. Although its contents were very hot, it did not give off any steam. She gulped down a mouthful, unaware that it was boiling hot, and scalded herself badly. “Aatataa! My throat has been scalded!”

  “But why are you eating so greedily?” asked Aqiarulaaq.

  “I’m not! I don’t eat greedily!” shot back Akutsiaq.

  35

  SPRING HUNT ON THE EDGE OF THE ICE

  It was spring. Qalingu and Taqriasuk were travelling by sled to the sinaa. Qalingu saw something right away and yelled, “Belugas!”

  “Whereabouts?”

  “Over there out to sea! They are coming this way and will probably swim under the ice of the cove.”

  The belugas did come and they all surfaced together. When the firing started, however, they immediately dove under and remained there for a long while. Not being wounded, they never reappeared.

  “All the same, I got a shot at them,” said Qalingu. “Ai! What a pity! I scared your game animals away. I was afraid I wouldn’t get another chance to shoot.”

  “Couldn’t be helped. But there’s no need to let me shoot first. I’m getting old and my vision is failing... I can’t even make out the front sight on my gun anymore...”

  “Ai! How many winters have you been through?”

  “Ai! I’ve been through eighty-nine winters!”

  “Suvakkualuk! You really are very old, yet you’re not at all frail!”

  “Sometimes, though, I wish I had a walking stick...”

  “If you want, I’ll buy a piece of wood and make you one.”

  “It would really please me if you did!”

  The two of them were now hunting on the sinaa. They saw some puiji and Taqriasuk fired on them. No sooner had he fired than he hit one, and Qalingu set out to recover the body and tow it back with his qajaq. On the way back, while landing, he saw another puiji. He fired and missed. Taqriasuk in turn fired at the animal that his companion had missed, hitting it with his first shot.

  Qalingu set off in his qajaq for another tow. Again and again he went back and forth, towing seals killed by his hunting partner. Back on the ice once more, he said, “I was thinking… You said you couldn’t even make out the front sight on your gun anymore, yet you’re still a very good marksman!”

  “Sometimes my vision gets better!”

  “Are you telling the truth?”

  “Do you think I’m not telling the truth?”

  The two of them headed to dry land. Their kinfolk were watching from a hilltop. As she climbed the hill with Aqiarulaaq, Sanaaq suddenly shouted, “Look at them! They’ve come quite close... They’re heavily loaded... What could they have possibly killed?”

  “I’d say that Qalingu has killed an ujjuk. I’m sure it’s not my old man who killed it!”

  With the hunters arriving, the women walked down to the campsite. The hunters had to climb up the shore, having arrived at low tide, and they halted several times because of their heavy load. During these stops the panting dogs pulled on their tuglines.

  “Uit!” said Qalingu. “The runners on our sled are no longer upright... It’ll really be something if we manage to climb all the way!”

  “That’s true!” said Taqriasuk. “Let’s get at it, let’s try to get all the way up!”

  By the time their sled finally reached dry land, its runners had become completely skewed and were no longer upright.

  “Leave it here ai!” suggested Qalingu. “I’ll go get my little sled!”

  He went to fetch it and arrived at his tent, saying, “I’ve come for a sled. The runners on ours have gone askew!”

  “Drink some tea first ai!” said Sanaaq. “The bannock has just been baked.”

  “I’ll just have a drink. My hunting companion must be tired of waiting.”

  He then returned to his companion, pulling his little sled behind him.

  “I took a while,” he said on arriving. “I was thirsty and wanted to have some tea.”

  “I was starting to get really cold after you left!”

  They transferred their load to the new sled, which proved to be more suitable. When they arrived at the tents, Aqiarulaaq said to her old man, “I really didn’t think you’d catch so many seals. I thought only Qalingu would get any. But now I’ve completely changed my mind about you!”

  “My vision got better,” said Taqriasuk, “so today I hit bang on while Qalingu shot very poorly!”

  36

  A CHILD’S CARELESSNESS

  Qumaq was growing up and for the first time went for a walk alone. She wandered back and forth, walking very fast and gathering uqaujait, sursat, killapat, kakagutit, and all kinds of other plants. Unaccustomed to being alone, she was afraid and easily startled. She soon headed home, collecting willow leaves on the way. She mused, “I feel like gathering plants, but there are many igutsait. So I’ll go home... And so what if my cup isn’t full... That’ll be enough, for I’m very scared of big bumblebees.” She saw another bumblebee and began to run away. “It’s tiny and it still scares me,” she thought. “Yet it’s just a little insect...”

  She pretended to be unafraid and tried to feel confident, while heading straight home and giving up on any further gathering. Her brother saw her and came to meet her.

  “My little sister’s coming! I must go and meet her. Little sister, let me see the plants you’ve gathered,” he said, approaching Qumaq.

  “But there are very few!” said Qumaq.

  “I don’t think there are too few! I’ll spit oil on them, to moisten them... Those ones look like bumblebee food or willow catkins.”

  “No, there are none of those here. I didn’t gather any bumblebee food, because I was afraid.”

  When her brother got home, he went inside and said, “Look, Mother! Arctic willow leaves collected by my sister. Look at all of that! Mother!”

  To Sanaaq it did not look like much. “Is that all you gathered? Did you have trouble finding them?”

 
“No!” said Qumaq. “On the contrary, there were a lot!”

  Sanaaq’s son cut off a piece of blubber from an ujjuk in the aki and tried to spit oil from it onto the little willow leaves...

  “Son! Your manu is getting stained,” said Sanaaq. “Don’t spit any more oil! There’s enough already. They’re well oiled.”

  Oil trickled down his forearm as he ate the leaves. “Take some ai!” he said when he was done and getting ready to leave again. “Father, make me a little boat!”

  “Out of what?” asked Qalingu.

  “Out of this piece of wood.”

  “Let’s go to it!” said his father, and he set to work making a little boat.

  “Use that for the mast. Father! Hurry! I want to go and play with the little boat!”

  Qalingu began to hurry.

  “Is it done, Father? Give it to me quick!” insisted the child.

  As he was about to leave, his father said, “Take care not to fall into the water!”

  He played with the little boat, chattering non-stop. “There it goes... It’s going over there... Wait a moment, we’ll first go a bit out to sea... It’s got a heavy load!”

  He repeatedly waded into the water, and several times the water came up over the top of his boots. He had been told many times to be careful, yet he went ahead and climbed onto a rock with a very slippery surface. The soles of his soaked boots had meanwhile shifted to one side. Suddenly he slipped and fell into the water... He stayed there a long time, for he was all alone. He wailed and whimpered but could not shout that he had fallen into the water… His parents had no idea what was happening.

  “Listen! Does that sound like someone crying?” said Sanaaq, suddenly worried.

  Qumaq went out to see.

  “It’s crying alright... He’s probably fallen into the water!”

  “Out of my way! I’m coming!” shouted Sanaaq as she rushed outside. “Autualuk! My son has fallen in!” She hurried over and rushed to pull him out. “Aalummi! Did you slip, little one? Come! From now on, you’ll no longer play all by yourself with the little boat! My son fell into the water! He got out just in the nick of time... We didn’t know what was happening for quite a while!”

  She carried the boy, who was weeping and dripping with water, so much so that she got all wet too. She took him home, pulled his boots off, removed his clothes, and put other ones on.

  “Keep your boots off for a while. Your boots are soaking wet and need to be dried.”

  She left him bootless on purpose, for fear he would fall again into the water. He said, “Mother! I want to put my boots on.”

  “Later! Wait for them to dry. You’re being really unreasonable! Remember, you just fell into the water!”

  He would not let up, so his mother lay down beside him on the sleeping platform until he fell asleep.

  Qumaq went to wash the clothes that her little brother was wearing when he fell into the water. Akutsiak came with her.

  “Let’s wash here,” suggested Qumaq.

  “Yes, let’s! But I’ll be clumsy like before... I’ll never manage to get the dirt out and I’ll be slow.”

  “No wonder. You’re always taking a break from your work!” said Qumaq.

  On hearing this, Akutsiaq went home to tell her mother how she had been offended. She simply left her wash behind, because she felt so humiliated.

  “Mother! I’m home because Qumaq has been very mean to me!”

  She voiced her discontent by telling lies. She felt badly treated although what she had been told was merely the truth.

  “Suvakkualuk!” exclaimed Ningiukuluk. “Let me handle this. I’ll find her... Qumaq! Why did you tell my daughter off again?”

  “She’s not telling the truth! I simply said she was always taking a break from her work. I only said that!”

  “Ai!” said Ningiukuluk.

  Qumaq no longer liked Akutsiaq. Hardly surprising. Akutsiaq tattled on others, complained all the time, and would not tell the truth. Qumaq too went home. And there she said, “Akutsiaq left behind the things she was washing. They’ll probably be torn to bits by a dog because she left them in the pool!”

  “But why did she leave them behind?” asked Sanaaq.

  “Because she went home!”

  “Did you make her angry?”

  Qumaq made no reply. She did not wish to repeat what the other girl had said. It was not worth it. So she changed the subject.

  “Let me eat too! I want some meat from the kujapigaq and also some dried small intestine that’s been pounded!”

  37

  A HOUSEHOLD QUARREL

  Qumaq’s little brother woke up and began walking about barefoot. He asked again and again for someone to put his boots on, but everyone turned a deaf ear. Qumaq said, “Irq! He’s going to hurt his feet, the little one! I’ll put his boots on.”

  “Go ahead,” said Sanaaq, “but take good care of him! Don’t let him wander off anywhere. He could fall into the water again!”

  “I’ll take good care! I feel bad about not looking after him properly... If he had drowned, I would’ve deserved being scolded by you.”

  “His breathing is still not back to normal. It’s probably because of the water he swallowed... I dread the moment when his father comes back... I feel like running far away, for fear of having to face his anger.”

  “Why?”

  “Out of fear... It’s true! I’ll run away because I’m terrified of facing him!”

  Her son began to vomit water continually… as Qalingu walked into the tent. Seized by fright, Sanaaq told him, “My son fell into the water today... I’m frightened because he’s still not fully recovered... He slipped while playing with the little boat and was in the water for a long time... Qumaq and I realized too late...”

  “Why are you so scared?” said Qalingu. “Is it because you let him fall into the water or is it because you’re afraid of my anger? The umiarjuaq is about to arrive. His only chance of pulling through will probably be for him to leave... I’ll go and see the Qallunaat at the trading post ai! I’ll go and talk to them, for his condition will probably get worse!”

  “But couldn’t he get better without having to leave?” protested Sanaaq timidly.

  Qalingu got ready to visit the Qallunaat at the trading post.

  “Let me soften your boots quickly!” offered Sanaaq, starting in earnest.

  She did not dare oppose Qalingu. He went straight to the employees at the trading post and to the iksigarjuaq. Sanaaq was unhappy. She feared seeing her child leave. She thought over and over, “If he goes, he may end up crying a lot, especially if he’s among people he’s never seen... If it takes time for him to recover, he’ll be gone for long... I can’t accept his having to leave... He’ll probably get better if he just stays here... I don’t want to be separated from my son because I love him very much!”

  Qalingu spoke to the trading post staff. “My young boy fell into the water while playing with a little boat. I’ve come for his sake because his condition is getting worse. He’s throwing up water all the time!”

  “If he fell into the water,” answered the chief factor, “he should leave on the big boat. He’ll have a chance of recovering!”

  “He will go!” concluded Qalingu. And he immediately went back to his family.

  “The chief thinks he should go,” he said as he arrived. “Here are some niaquujait for him, for the trip!”

  He gave them to Sanaaq, who responded heatedly. “He won’t leave! I’ll run away and take him with me. He can get better quite well just by staying here! If he goes, he will suffer all kinds of troubles... No way is he going. He isn’t even old enough to think for himself! I don’t want to be separated from him!”

  Sanaaq tried to have the last word. She fought to make her view prevail. Qalingu, for his part, refused to waver, concerned as he was t
o see his son get better.

  “Accept it,” he said, “or else his condition will get worse!”

  “He certainly won’t leave! I absolutely cannot accept it! I insist! I’m going to run away with him... I’ll get up very early and, while you’re all asleep, I’ll leave and take him with me!”

  “He’s going to go! Accept it!”

  “He won’t go. He’s my son and I love him! If anything, you’re the one who’ll leave... He will not go!”

  Both of them stuck to their guns, so much so that Sanaaq had used up almost all of her strength and resistance... Everyone now went to bed... and to sleep.

  38

  SANAAQ’S FLIGHT

  Sanaaq woke up very early the next morning. She rubbed her eyes and began to prepare to escape with her son. She dressed carefully in order not to wake the others. She did everything very slowly, so as not to interrupt their slumber. She dressed without making a noise, and they all remained sound asleep... She took hold of her sleeping son and placed him in the back pouch of her coat. He certainly was able to walk, but, out of affection for him, she was unwilling to make him walk so soon after awaking.

  No sooner had Sanaaq placed the child in her back pouch than he began to cry. Qalingu stirred. But he was too sleepy and dozed off again right away. Sanaaq rushed out to keep her child from crying. Once outside, he stopped crying and she was on her way. Some dogs started following her, but she threw stones at them, thus deterring them from coming any further. But they continued to watch the direction she was going in, for they were accustomed to following their mistress. A little later her son awoke and began to cry once more, for he was hungry and not feeling well. She explained to him her intention not to take him far.

  Back in the tent, meanwhile, Qalingu and Arnatuinnaq had woken up. Qalingu said to his sister-in-law, “Your older sister has run away. She’s gone!”