Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk - Sanaaq - An Inuit Novel

“Qumaq! Show me what you caught,” said Arnatuinnaq.

“Here it is. All of that!”

“Look at all of what she collected in the give-away! She has sinews and matches!”

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!”