Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk - Sanaaq - An Inuit Novel

“No! No! Aaa! ” The poor little girl began to cry.

Qumaq looked her straight in the eyes and even tried to offer her some mattaq, hoping to console her. She kissed her again and again.

“Don’t cry, little girl!” She added, “Look! There’s a little willow ptarmigan on the ground… Let’s play, just the two of us. Let’s have fun looking around outside!”

“No! No!” Aanikallak was still weeping.

Her new mother nonetheless prepared for the trip home.

“Qumaq, come here!” said Arnatuinnaq. “I’ll carry you on my back. Iirq! My skirt has been ripped apart on this side… I’ll have to sew it together first. Hand me a needle and some sinew. There we are, all done! Here’s your needle.”

“Thanks!” said Ningiukuluk.

They were now ready to leave. Aqiarulaaq took her new daughter by the hand but could not make her budge. The little girl stood her ground and stamped her feet while weeping and wailing. Her new family finally set off on the walk home, yet she still resisted despite efforts to console her. At long last, after many efforts, she calmed down.

They all arrived at their destination and Aqiarulaaq was questioned by Taqriasuk.

“Did you get a new daughter? She’ll try to go to sleep. Get her undressed for bed… She can have a place under my bedspread… And give her some tea.”

“Here you are. Aanikallak, drink some tea. Put a shirt on and try to sleep.”

She undressed her and slipped another shirt on.

“ Ii! Autualu! It’s infested with fleas! Oh, it’s just crawling with those dirty fleas… Just look! Ii! This filthy shirt should be thrown away!”

It was tossed outside. The dogs came running and even started to fight over it. Kajualuk sank its teeth into the old shirt, making a popping sound as it crunched one flea after another.

Aqiarulaaq was now outside the tent.

“ Uai! Dirty no-good mutt! It’ll probably have blocked intestines after eating that old rag.”

Everyone now tried to fall asleep. It was late autumn. A frosty slush was spreading over the shoreline and the calm ocean surface had a thin layer of frazil.

When they awoke early the next morning, it seemed impossible to go out in the qajaq because a thin layer of ice covered the sea near the shore. Qalingu, however, had found a small channel of open water, having been up and about very early. He took the qajaq down to the water’s edge with Jiimialuk’s help, also taking along a float and a harpoon. But he had forgotten something and yelled from the shore, “Bring me the harpoon line!”

Arnatuinnaq came running but fell headlong into the soft ice and sank into it. Trying to pull herself out, she said, “It’d be nice to have something I could grab hold of because I’m really stuck in this soft ice!”

Qalingu was now leaving in his qajaq across the thin ice. He saw a puiji and fired his rifle.

“ Ii! Didn’t get it! I shot too far to the right and missed! Just like the last time!”

He then paddled away in his qajaq and thought about how to get home.

“Maybe I could go ashore on this point of land… Seems to be the best place.”

The women in his family were becoming very anxious. They watched from a hilltop.

“He probably won’t be able to land now,” said Sanaaq, “because there’s thin ice everywhere… But where’s the qajaq? ”

“There it is! Over there,” said Arnatuinnaq. “Just off the small point, looks like a qajaq coming… And the water over there doesn’t have any of that icy slush.”

He was still taking a long time to land. His folks, Sanaaq, Jiimialuk, and Arnatuinnaq, walked down to the stretch of shoreline where he would land and waited. When he came near them, Sanaaq shouted to her husband, “Do you think it might be impossible to land?”

“It’s this awful thin ice!” answered Qalingu. “All the same, as hard as it may be, I should be able to get ashore.”

And so he landed, with the rising tide, on a small point jutting out from the foot of the hill. They now all walked up to the camp, dragging the qajaq behind them.

“We should drag the qajaq with the paddle underneath,” said Qalingu. “Let’s go! Pull on each side by the taqrait. I’ll pull the usuujaq! ”

They began jerking the qajaq forward.

“It’s really heavy!” groaned Arnatuinnaq. “Is it heavy because it’s soaked up a lot of water? Uuppaa! Uuppaa! Just a moment! Let’s rest a little. I’m very tired!”

“Off in the distance, that patch of still water looks like it’s icing over,” said Sanaaq. “Or is it already a sheet of thin ice? Let’s go! We need to get pulling again. We’re almost there.”

They were now on dry land.

“I barely managed to get ashore!” confessed Qalingu. “I really thought I’d not make it, being so tired from paddling and so cold. The cold made the outside of my upper lip all swollen and my hands completely numb… I certainly won’t be going kayaking any more! Tomorrow I’ll build a snow house.”

They went to their tents.

“Let’s go! Let’s get moving!” said Sanaaq. “Tonight I’ll look for the brushwood I stashed away for fuel. It’s starting to get really cold at our place… Let’s go!”

They were now on their way. They walked along the qainnguq because it was becoming quite hard. After a while they arrived. Qalingu was carrying the equipment from his qajaq: the float, the harpoon line with the ipiraq, the guns, and the ammunition. Once inside, he placed them in the tent’s uati. He sat down. His clothes were soaked through and through with seawater. He took them off, his boots too. Qumaq was playing once more on the sleeping platform. She frolicked back and forth, snuggling under the bedspread several times. That evening, she asked her mother, “Mother, make me a doll!”

“Get undressed for bed,” answered her mother. “It’s late and we’re probably going to move to a new place.”

“I will!” agreed Qumaq.

When they were in bed, Sanaaq turned the wick of the oil lamp down and said, “It’s probably going to smoke during the night. I haven’t turned the wick down far enough.”

They tried to go to sleep. As feared, the oil lamp began to smoke as they slept. The remainder of the wick and the blubber started to burn for lack of oil… Qalingu awoke with a start and shouted, “The one over there is smoking!”

“Autualu! Ii! ” shouted back Sanaaq. “We’re completely engulfed in smoke!”

She added some oil, which started to crackle loudly. Qiiii… That was the sound of it crackling. Once she had finished adding oil, she went back to sleep because morning was still far off.

Dawn roused the people at the camp from their slumber. Arnatuinnaq stood up, shivering with cold as frost crystals fell from the tent ceiling. A coating of hoarfrost had formed overnight on the tent’s inner surface. The girl was so cold that her teeth were chattering.

“I can barely get my boots on!” she said. “They’re frozen rock-hard.”

She hurried to light some brushwood in the small stove cut out from a barrel. The water pail had frozen to the bottom and offered only a trickle of water. No one felt like sleeping anymore and they all got dressed. Qalingu went out for some good snow. In his hand was a snow knife and on his arms airqavaak. As for Sanaaq, she had been too busy yesterday to do all she had wanted to do.