Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk - Sanaaq - An Inuit Novel

“Yes, I’ll pull them out of the stone cache. We’ll carry them away with one person holding each side. They’re bundled up in a laced skin bag… Let’s get going! They’re very heavy, so hold onto them on each side!”

They went to the avvik and started preparing the skins on that late summer day.

“I’ll put the avvik into place,” said Sanaaq. “We’ll stretch a skin over it… With this sharpening stone I’ll first hone my ulu, which is under the baseboard of the sleeping platform. There’s no longer any cutting edge on it.”

“I sharpened my ulu today,” said Aqiarulaaq, “but it doesn’t seem to be cutting properly. The edge isn’t quite right. It’ll do the job only if we break it in on some leather first.”

They went to work on the raw hides. They first stripped off the blubber layer under the skins while chatting amongst themselves. Suddenly Aqiarulaaq yelled, “A puiji down there!”

She ran off shouting, “Son! Son! A puiji down there! It’s swimming to the hunting lookout!”

“I’ve got to hurry up and finish removing the mami, ” said Sanaaq. “It’s getting dark out… Ii! There I go, I just sliced off a bit of my skin while my mind was on that dirty little puiji over there… Arnatuinnaq! Get cooking. You’re going to make some boiled meat!”

“OK, I’m going! But first I’ll watch that guy go after the puiji. Look at the two of them. He seems to be taking aim… Listen for the gun going off. I can hear it go off, Tikkuu! A — Ii! There it is down below. It’s starting to float, near the area where the water looks darker because of the wind.”

Sanaaq could now see it. “Yes, there it is! Ii! Will it sink?”

“No! He’s right by it,” answered Arnatuinnaq.

The man down below, Jiimialuk, seemed to be shouting for something: “A line! A line!”

“What?” said Arnatuinnaq.

“A line!”

Only Aqiarulaaq understood.

“He’s saying: A line! Take him this leather line, the one in the uati, just across from my place!”

Arnatuinnaq hurried away with the line. When she got to him, she asked, “Did you catch a puttajiaq? I’m late because it took us a while to figure out what you were calling for… Your mother was the first to understand what you were shouting.”

“ Ai! ” replied Jiimialuk. “I’m going to try and get a hold on it. Ai! ”

“Yes!” said Arnatuinnaq.

He was trying to throw the line around the animal. “Ii! ”

With each throw, the stone at the end hit the surface and threw up a spray of water. Sarvaq! was the sound it made.

“ Ii! I can’t get hold of it! Let’s try one more time… Ii! Got it, it’s mine!” Jiimialuk had lassoed the line around the seal. “It’s a lot fatter than the last one I caught… Let’s go! We’ll haul it away… Or rather I’ll carry it off on my back, ai! I don’t want to scrape its fur off!”

Back at his tent, Jiimialuk began skinning the animal. He removed its small intestines and cleaned them out to make nikku. Then he strung them out to dry, forming a hose stretching from one side of the tent top to the other. While skinning the animal, he avidly licked the blood that dripped from his fingers. “ Am! Am! ” he said. He cut off a lumbar vertebra and ate all the meat while continuing with his work. “ U! Uu! Is it ever good! Is it ever good! Uu! ”

He stopped. He had finished eating and his mouth was smeared with blood. He went to rinse the sealskin in the water and also rinsed his hands and mouth. By now the qajaq skins were ready.

Sanaaq and Aqiarulaaq had completed their work. With night falling, Sanaaq shouted, “Come and help us. We’re done! The skins need to be carried away to the tent with someone on each side.”

So Sanaaq, Qalingu, Aqiarulaaq, and Jiimialuk started to carry them off, with two people on each side. They were straining.

“ Uuppaa! Uuppaa! Not heavy at all!” said Jiimialuk. “Let’s go that way!”

They now stopped. They had come to their tent.

“Mother ai! ” said Qumaq. “Let’s drink some tea!”

“Let’s have tea!” replied Sanaaq. “Arnatuinnaq! Has any tea been put in the teapot?”

“Yes, I put some tea in. Help yourself!”

“Go ahead. Let’s have tea! Where’s my daughter’s cup? There it is down there, on the other side of the trunk… Qumaq! Drink your tea without spilling!”

“OK!”

“ Iii! ”

“She’s spilled all her tea down the front of her shirt… Is the teapot empty? She’s spilled all her tea!”

“Will we be double-stitching everything tomorrow?” asked Arnatuinnaq. “I’m going out for a short visit.”

She went to visit Aqiarulaaq, who told her, “ Ai! Arnatuinnaq ai! Take home some of the meat. Here, take this shoulder.”

“Sure!” said Arnatuinnaq. “The sea is very calm. Once we start sewing, we should work as fast as possible, to get it all done in a single day.”

“You’re right! We’ll try to get up early and do it all in one shot.”

Arnatuinnaq now went home. She undressed for bed because it was nighttime. Everyone went to bed and drifted off to sleep. Qalingu was snoring loud and hard.

“ Qaa! Qaa! ” This was the sound of his snoring.

They had all planned to wake up early that morning. Around five o’clock, Aqiarulaaq entered the home of her camp mates and said, “My kinfolk! Wake up, it’s high time you got up!”

“Yes!” answered Sanaaq. “We’re up!”

Arnatuinnaq awoke too and dressed after having some tea. They were going to cover Qalingu’s qajaq. For this, Qalingu started cutting the skins to fit the frame. He stretched the utjuk skins over the qajaq with Jiimialuk’s help while the others — the elderly and the women — looked on and told them how to do the job.

“ Jiimialuk! You hold while I cut,” said Qalingu. “But how are they supposed to be cut?”

Aqiarulaaq explained. “You cut the skin along a line from the big hoof of the front foot to the corner of the lips and then along another line from the hind foot to the udder. That’s how we usually cut it… Try to remember that this is how we cut skins for a qajaq! ”

“Yes,” said Qalingu. “I’ll try. Jiimialuk! Attach the skin with a leather strap.”

Once this was done, the three women went to work inside the tent. They double-stitched the skins together while talking and chatting.

“ Irtuu! ” said Sanaaq. “I should first make some qitirsirait with this old caribou skin. Only with qitirsirait can we hold the thread right while sewing… Let’s get to it! Let’s get sewing!”

They began to sew. Qumaq was playing. She knew more and more about the world around her and talked incessantly while playing with the husky pups. There were five of them. She often opened the door and the draft from the strong wind outside caused the oil lamp’s flame, which was heating the tea, to waver this way and that.

Sanaaq scolded her daughter. “Stop opening the door all the time. The oil lamp is exposed to the draft and its flame is being blown about by the wind! Ii! Iii! Dirty pups! They’re running into the tent one after another!”

“ Uai! ” shouted Arnatuinnaq. “Bunch of good-for-nothing mutts! What a pack of useless bums.” She went after them, giving one pup after another a good kick. “ Uai bums! Look at all these pups!”