Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk - Sanaaq - An Inuit Novel

He went back to where the ptarmigans had been, but they were no longer there.

“ Autualu! ” he said, disheartened.

His disappointment was understandable. He quickened his pace and again saw ptarmigan tracks. He followed them but found nothing, except the birds’ still fresh droppings… Qalingu was beginning to feel his empty stomach. Not seeing any more prey, he thought, “I’m going to turn back. I probably won’t see them any more.”

He was about to head back when suddenly he shouted, “ Aa! That gave me a start! What’s that thing that scampered away?”

It was an Arctic hare that he had seen and scared off. He called out to the animal, “ Itingit, itingit! ”

The hare stopped and sat down, as if ashamed to be seen with its many anuses. It is said to have seven. While it sat, Qalingu aimed his rifle, cradling it on a stone for fear of missing his target. The sound of the bullet hitting home could be readily heard. The hare had been struck but was only wounded. Qalingu fired once more and hit again. He ran to the animal and grabbed it. But Qalingu jumped with fright. “ Ii! ” The Arctic hare had begun to cry like a baby, “ Ungaa! Ungaa! Ungaa! ” He smothered it by standing on it… The hare died. Qalingu returned to his companion for the daily meal. Everything was ready when he arrived and he recounted what had happened.

“I killed the hare on my way back. I was lucky to run into it because the two ptarmigans had flown off… That hare was probably what made them fly away!”

“ Ai! What a nice stroke of luck! It will fetch a good price.”

“I’m not going to sell it!”

They set off with their dog team, up a slope.

“ Uit! ” shouted Qalingu. The dogs stretched their tuglines and he unravelled the tangled harnesses. He then ordered a change in direction: “ Hra! Hra! ” Qalingu was walking ahead and yelling, “ Hau! Hau! ” while dragging a piece of gamy meat at the end of a leather strap. His dogs, pulling with all their strength, suddenly bolted up the hill.

Taken off-guard, and about to climb onto the sled, Ilaijja clung to it with one hand and was dragged in the snow for some distance. “ Aatataa! Aa! Pack of big stomachs!” he yelled at the dogs. He was hurting badly, for the snow had scraped his face.

Once the sled had reached the top of the slope, Qalingu joined his companion and hopped aboard… The sled was advancing slowly because it was going over powder snow that squealed under the runners. Just then they came across fox tracks. Qalingu, who was behind the sled, noticed and shouted, “These tracks are very fresh!”

“ Ii! There it is, up there! It’s sitting on top of the hill!” said Ilaijja.

“Whereabouts? Is it an Arctic fox?”

“Yes! There it is, up there!”

“ Ai! ” said Qalingu. “I see it clearly! I’ll try to get nearer ai! ”

“Yes!” agreed Ilaijja.

“Get my ammo,” continued Qalingu, speaking softly. “Take it out of the satchel in the stove case!”

He crawled towards the animal, concealing himself behind a big rock. He called “psst! psst!” to the fox, which came running to the source of the noise. This is how one usually attracts foxes, by imitating the sound of a lemming. Qalingu aimed his gun, Tikkuu!

“I could hear the sound of it hitting the fox!” said Qalingu.

The fox writhed spasmodically before dying. The hunter grabbed it with satisfaction.

“ Ii! Thanks,” he said before firmly pressing his foot onto the animal and suffocating it.

With night falling, they pitched camp by a lake. Ilaijja untied the baggage from the sled and unharnessed the dogs while Qalingu built an igloo for shelter overnight. At this site, however, the snow was not very thick.

“I won’t be able to finish the dome from the inside because there’s not enough snow,” said Qalingu.

“ Ai! ” said Ilaijja.

From the outside, he was plugging the cracks that remained between the blocks of snow. He added chunks of snow, shaping the edges with the knife. Now that the igloo dome was complete, they put their things in order, lit the camp stove, and put snow on it to be melted. Once there was water, they made tea…

In this way they travelled for the whole week, at the end of which, as they settled in for the night in a makeshift igloo, hardly any provisions were left. Yet there still remained one more stop on the way home.

In the igloo, Qalingu said, “ Ii! The wind is howling something awful. Sounds like a blizzard coming.” Pointing to the igloo’s vent hole, he added, “We need to plug that hole up there. It should be stopped up to prevent hoarfrost from forming inside.”

Ilaijja plugged the vent hole and the whining of the wind died down.

They were short of kerosene and no longer using their stove, in order to save the precious fuel, but they had an oil lamp and used it to heat the igloo, for freshly built igloos are cold. Qalingu would keep the meat of the fox he had killed, to take back as a gift to his family. The wind was blowing very hard. It would undoubtedly eat away at their snow house. Night having come, they tried to doze off but were roused from their sleep by the wind blowing through a hole it had pierced through the wall. Qalingu was the first to awake in the dark dead of night and, seeing their igloo filling with snow, he called his companion.

“Wake up! The igloo has been completely eaten away by the wind! We’re being invaded by the blizzard! Get up!”

His companion stayed still for fear of the cold and did not move at all.

“Get up!” said Qalingu, but Ilaijja turned a deaf ear, not wanting to budge, and burying himself deeply under his covers. Qalingu insisted.

Ilaijja answered, “I don’t want to move. I’m staying still for fear of the cold!”

Qalingu became more insistent. “Get up. You’re in danger of freezing to death!”

Ilaijja tried to get up, but as he did so he said, “I’m afraid! I’m probably going to die! I’ve lost all hope.” His teeth were chattering. He was covered with snow.

Qalingu went to plug the holes on the outside of the igloo with chunks of snow. Ilaijja in turn got dressed, walked outside, and found himself facing a wind so strong and so cold that he could hardly breathe… He was really like a child. The two of them went to work building a snow windbreak outside their igloo to protect it better. The wind, however, was blowing so hard that the blizzard continued to eat away at their snow house. Early morning was not far off, so they gave up on going back to sleep.

When Qalingu crawled in, he said, “When it starts to be light out, we’ll get on our way. Here the wind just won’t stop eating away at our igloo… We should instead make a new igloo in a place sheltered from the wind!”

They prepared to leave while the night was still pitch-black. Qalingu said, “Put the harnesses on the dogs. Let’s get ready to leave.”

Ilaijja put the harnesses on the dogs, but they refused to budge. They would not move for fear of the biting cold. To harness a dog, he slipped its head through the neck of its harness, then its front paws through the neck straps and, once the harness was on, shouted, “ Uit! Uit! ” He then slipped all seven tugline loops onto the nuvviti one after another.

When the two men had finished harnessing the dogs and tying down the load, they set the kalirtisaikkut and attached the main tugline to the sled. Qalingu walked ahead but, because of the raging blizzard, could see nothing and stopped, for fear of losing his companion, who was urging the dog team on, “ Uit! Uit! ” The dogs could not pull properly, for they feared the cold. Ilaijja advanced in this manner for a long while and should have caught up to Qalingu, who had gone ahead. But being just an adolescent and afraid of the blizzard, he began to think, “I’ll probably get lost… I’ll probably never again see my mother’s home… But if I lose my companion, how will I avoid getting frozen? I’m starting to get afraid…”