Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk - Sanaaq - An Inuit Novel

“It sure would,” replied Sanaaq, “but we should find a way to dry the slices of mattaq I’ve cut up.”

“When I’m done, I’ll make a meat-drying rack out of a crossbar… Watch out! My son’s going to slip and fall on a piece of blubber!”

The little one did, in fact, slip on the blubber… He was smeared all over with grease and had hit himself on the face. “ Aatataa! I’m hurt! Mommy! Aappuu! ” he wailed.

“ Ii! Autualu! ” exclaimed Sanaaq. “Look, he’s really skinned himself! He’s given himself a bump on the forehead… aalummi! Let me see, let me make you aappuu! ”

Qumaq, realizing that her little brother had hurt himself, came running and tried to console him. She said, “Little brother! Let’s play together! Let’s have fun, over there, throwing rocks… Let’s also play with the little boat… Where’s your little boat?”

“Look! I’ve given myself a big lump! I’ve got a real bump on my forehead!”

“Let’s go! Let’s go down there! Akutsiaq! Come with us!”

“Yes!”

They both started playing with the little boat and were quite happy. Akutsiak shouted, “Hey! I’m going to fall into the water!”

She indeed fell in and began to cough and splutter. “ Hai! Hai! ”

Qumaq burst into a fit of laughter and grabbed her by the hand. Akutsiak was furious over being made fun of. She said, “Don’t laugh at me, dirty Qumaq! Didn’t I fall into the water because you told me to come?”

She was soaking wet, for she had fallen the full length of her body into the water. She began to wring her clothes and hang them to dry elsewhere so that her mother would not know. Predictably, though, Ningiukuluk started to call, “Daughter! Come and set this sealskin on a drying rack!”

Akutsiak hesitated because her clothes were not dry yet, but went home nonetheless and was given a talking-to by Ningiukuluk. “Why did you pretend you couldn’t hear me? Is your dress all wet?”

Her daughter nodded and set the skin on the drying rack, using a kaijjiaq.

* * *

Qalingu was making an ungirlaaq out of mattaq, using half of a beluga skin and lacing it with a leather strap. Once the bag had been laced, he filled it with meat, after placing it inside a stone cache, whose interior he had carefully dried. After filling and closing the bag, he covered the cache again with stones and wedged it shut. When he was done, he went home and said, “ Ai! There are lots of belugas out there. Looks like they’re staying at the same place, on this side of the little point. I’ll keep my gun ready!”

Sanaaq took the thin slices she had cut and laid them on the drying rack, saying, “The dogs don’t look hungry… They’re lying around and don’t even feel like stealing the food!”

Her little boy joined her after playing with Qumaq. The legs of his boots had slid up the entire length of his legs. Everyone now went into the tent.

In the tent, Arnatuinnaq heard a strange noise from outside.

“What is it?” she said. “Could it be someone shouting?” She went out to see. “ A! What’s that big thing in the distance? What could that possibly be, that black thing among the belugas? Come and see!”

Her whole family, Qalingu, Sanaaq, and her daughter Qumaq, went out to see. Qalingu in turn said, “What is that big thing? I can’t make it out. Look, Sanaaq! Can you make out what that is?”

“Yes! Ii! It’s all black and it’s making noise! Qatannguuk! Qatannguuk! Take a look! What’s that black thing among the belugas that’s making sounds?”

“What? Whereabouts?” said Aqiarulaaq. “Let me look! Ii! Autualuk! There are lots of yellowish belugas and among them is something else that’s not a beluga. Let’s try and find out what it could be!”

Aqiarulaaq went to consult Ningiukuluk and Taqriasuk. Ningiukuluk said, “I know what it is from what I’ve heard people say. Among those belugas is a lumaartalik. Whenever such a beluga surfaces to breathe, it drags behind itself a being who sings ‘ Lu lu lumaaq! Up there, up there, I want to go to the top of the hill, lu lumaaq! I want to go there because it’s clean, lu lu lumaaq! Up there, up there, on top of the hill, I want to use my scraper, lu lumaaq… ’ After expressing itself in this manner, it dives again… The beluga is attached to a Lumaajuq. It’s a very old beluga!”

Now that the animal had been identified, Qalingu lost interest and did not even go near the belugas. Sanaaq and Aqiarulaaq did likewise. Sanaaq said, “Look, my kinfolk, at all the migrating belugas, with a Lumaajuq among them!”

“ Ilai qatannguuk! ” said Aqiarulaaq. “The belugas are yellowish in colour, probably because they’re very old and no good to eat!”

“Yes! Ningiukuluk and Taqriasuk must know about this, for they are old and wise. I’ll ask Ningiukuluk. Ningiukuluk! Have you heard about these beings?”

“Yes! A lumaartalik is inedible. You may even die if you eat one. It can bring about death because it’s a very old beluga. You must not even shoot at it!”

Taqriasuk recounted the legend of their origin:

“A very long time ago, a blind boy killed a polar bear with an arrow. But he was tricked by his mother, who led him to believe that he had accidentally killed their dog, Uugaq. They indeed had a dog by that name. The mother had a daughter a little younger than the boy. The mother went with her daughter to cook the bear meat a bit further away, while the blind boy stayed home, although he was the one who had killed the bear. They were gone the whole day. While the blind boy was at home, he heard birds flying north in their migration and he called out to them, ‘Give me back my sight!’ The mother and daughter had boiled the bear meat, and the daughter pretended to eat some, but in fact she tucked some pieces for her brother into her jacket by sliding them down her neck. She then headed home and gave him the meat, telling him it was from their dog Uugaq, for she was afraid of their mother, who was claiming that he had killed their dog Uugaq. Thanks to his sister, the blind son did not die of hunger, though knowing full well that he had killed a polar bear. When he again heard the cry of the migrating birds flying overhead, he once more called out, ‘Give me back my sight!’ Then and there some loons visited him. They led him to a small lake, to give him his sight back. The loons plunged the blind boy underwater after telling him to move his body the moment he began to choke, to let them know. Just when he was about to drown, they brought him back to the surface to breathe. He could now make out a lemming’s burrow off in the distance, atop a small hill… The loons plunged him a second time underwater, until he again began to choke, this being indicated by a movement of his body. They brought him back to the surface. Because his sight had improved, they let him go home by himself. On the way back, he came to the level land where the polar bear’s skin was staked to the ground. He ripped it to pieces so that it could no longer be used. His mother realized that he was not blind anymore and went to meet him… When summer arrived and they were all alone in their camp, the mother asked her son how the people at the neighbouring camp hunted belugas. The son answered that a hunter would catch them with the help of his mother, whom he would attach to the end of his harpoon line… The son’s mother, who envied the other camp’s hunting success, insisted that she be attached to the end of her son’s harpoon line when they went beluga hunting. He had successfully convinced her, falsely, that she would be needed to help him capture his prey. Despite her ill will towards her son, she told him, ‘That one! That one! That little grey calf! Harpoon it!’ But he harpooned the largest of the belugas, an all-white beluga. Because she was attached to the harpoon line by her waist, she was dragged over the shoreline rocks and out to sea as if she were a float…”