Sanaaq (9 page)

Sanaaq heard something and said, “Listen! But what's with her?”

She seemed to lose all self-control because her child had been hurt. She was panic-stricken because her daughter's feet had been run over — her daughter who had been thinking, just a short while ago, that there was no danger. Sanaaq cried out, “Qumaq will probably die. She's just been hit by Qalingu!”

She seemed to share her wounded child's pain, even though it had not been caused on purpose. But there was nothing wrong with Qumaq's feet. Sanaaq removed her footwear and examined them.

“Let me see! Qumaq! Let me take your boots off!”

Qalingu
looked and said, “Didn't I tell her to make sure she didn't get clobbered?”

Sanaaq began thinking to herself, “She'll probably want to be spoiled more and more. I'm clearly wrong in coming to her defence... I'll be very careful not to come to her defence the next time. If she gets used to being defended too frequently, she may often start crying, even for no reason...”

Qalingu crawled into his home. He said that after his arrival meal he would feed his dogs. He had five dogs that were named Kajualuk (the same one and now very old), Sinarnaaluk, Kuutsiq (his dog with the longest tugline, his lead dog), Nuilaq, and Itigaittualuk. These were his dogs. Because night was falling, he went to feed them, saying, “My sealskin mittens! I'll use them because I'm afraid my hands will get cold.”

He took the snow knife to cut the gamy meat into pieces while Arnatuinnaq prevented the dogs from coming in. Arnatuinnaq went out, holding the snow stick to keep the dogs back. Qalingu said, “Go ahead! Let one of them in!”

“OK! Kajualuk! Kajualuk!
Ii
!
Uit!
Bunch of good-for-nothings!”

With all of them rushing forward, she whacked Kuutsiq, who began to whimper, “
Maa
!
Maa!
” Qalingu fed the first dog and called out to his wife, “Sanaaq! Get me some blubber rinds,
ai!
Let me give them a taste of blubber!”

“Here are some that have hardened in the sun. They're leftovers we can no longer pound any more oil out of.”

After feeding all of them, he used a
kiliutaq
to scrape away the bits of gamy meat on the ground in the two entranceways.

Arnatuinnaq came in, saying, “
Aa!
Are my feet ever cold! There are a lot of northern lights outside and it's starting to blow really hard.”

When she had finished speaking, Qalingu said, “Listen! Sounds like dogs yelping in the distance and pulling on their tuglines.”

“
Aaa!
” said Qumaq. “That's great!”

She was happy, the little one, to hear the travellers arrive. Qalingu went out and could clearly recognize the yelping of dogs pulling on their tuglines and parked on the land-fast ice. There were four dog teams out there despite the biting cold and wind. Arnatuinnaq also went out to look and immediately came back in, saying, “But who could be on those four sleds?”

“Hurry up and fill the teapot with water!” said Sanaaq. “They must be completely frozen!”

A lot of people had arrived with many children. On each sled was a child all bundled up and tied down. Two women were each carrying a baby in the back pouch of her coat: a boy and a girl. One of the children tied to a sled was let free by untying the leather strap. His name was Irsutuguluk. He exclaimed, “
Aaa
!
Am I ever cold!” and he began to cry.

Qalingu lifted him up and brought him into the igloo. The child was shivering with cold. The women who had just arrived came into Sanaaq's home one after another.

“
Ai!
” said Sanaaq. “Are you arriving? You're travelling in very cold weather! Be our guests! Arnatuinnaq! Is the tea ready?”

“Yes!”

The arrivals were warmed up with a hot drink.

“But who is this?” asked someone.

“It's Aanaqatak!” answered one of the arrivals.

The others brought their belongings in. They put some of their things in the entranceway and the bags and fur bedspreads in the snow house. Arnatuinnaq tried to scrape the snow off their belongings with the snow stick and said, “I can't manage to get this snow off. It's sticking really hard... The blizzard has glued it on!”

The others in turn entered and knocked the snow off their clothes with the snow stick. They undressed, beat their mittens, and put them on the drying rack. They were then offered tea by Arnatuinnaq.

“Here's some tea!”

“Sure! Thank you so much!”

“Here's some bannock,” added Arnatuinnaq.

Qumaq hid behind her mother's back. She felt very shy, she who had previously shown so much joy on hearing them arrive.

The man of the group of travellers, Ittusaq, finally entered and talked non-stop while having tea. He said, “I'm so thankful to have arrived among people who have tea! We came here because we're completely out of tea… Several times we even had to drink decoctions of
kakillanaquti
and
kallaquti!
”

“
Ai!
Suvakkualuk!
” replied Qalingu. “I'm getting ready to go inland tomorrow, before we completely run out of dog food.”

“Good thing,” said Ittusaq. “Let's hope you won't get bogged down in the soft snow. It's starting to snow and the wind is shifting to the east. As for me, I'm going to build a snow house tomorrow, even though the days are getting longer.”

It was evening and Sanaaq was sewing. She was making mittens out of sealskin that still had its fur. With her ulu she cut out the two pieces for the back of the hands, the pieces for the upper part of the palms and, finally, the pieces for the lower part of the palms. She then chewed on a piece of sinew, softening it and removing the remaining bits of meat. She pulled out a fibre, which she smeared with blubber and threaded through the eye of a glover's needle. She could now pierce the leather and sew the pieces together.

Having sewn all day, she said, “
Aa!
Am I ever tired! I no longer have any strength at all in my back. My back is really sore. I'm going to undress for bed. Arnatuinnaq! You'll finish the job.”

“Sure!” answered her younger sister.

The time had come for Sanaaq to give birth. Aqiarulaaq
acted as the midwife, with Qalingu's assistance... It was soon over. Aqiarulaaq had helped bring into the world her
angusiaq.
She said his name would be Qalliutuq, the name of Sanaaq's dead brother.

Aqiarulaaq called for Qumaq to come and see the baby. She said, “Qumaq! Look! You've got a little brother!”

But Qumaq still knew little about these things and did not understand very well. She said, “Let me see! Yes! That little one, give him to me!”

She grabbed the baby and smiled broadly, her face reddening and her body quivering with joy and gratitude.

“Take care not to hurt him!” she was told.

“I won't hurt him!” she replied.

Then, once again, she acted without thinking and hit the baby on the head... He began to cry, “
Ungaa!
Ungaa!
Ungaa!
”

Sanaaq
shouted straightaway, “Give him to me! The baby's very fragile because he's so little!”

Qalingu laid the baby down on the
kilu,
but Qumaq approached the child again. She not only refused to believe in his fragility, but also immediately lay down on top of him.

Arnatuinnaq said, “Qumaq! Get undressed for bed. We're both going to sleep under the same blanket.”

They undressed for bed. The night was pitch-black, but everyone had trouble sleeping, as if something were keeping them awake. This was the case with Qumaq, who was anxious about the newborn baby.

Sanaaq tried to breastfeed the child, but he could not suckle properly yet, having just been born. She changed his diaper and unwrapped his swaddling clothes... he was still quite skinny. She wrapped him up again and laid him on his side. He began to cry, “
Ungaa!
Ungaa!
”

Day had dawned and Qalingu got dressed. He went out to coat his sled's runners with wet snow. As he put the slushy snow on, he said, “
Aa!
My hands are frozen!” He was coating the
sirmit
of the runners with wet snow to keep them from getting worn. He was going to travel across the pack ice, over the frozen sea.

Arnatuinnaq in turn got dressed. She put on her newly washed dress and her furskin boots whose soles had been bleached in brine. She had made the boots herself. She now pierced eyelet holes for the laces she would thread through.

After she was dressed, she stood up on the floor of the igloo. “
Aa!
I'm sliding! My boots are really slippery!”

She slid several times, falling on her rump and hurting her behind. She then went out with the chamber pot to empty it. Once outside, she was harassed by the dogs again.

“
Uai!
Pack of bums!” Angry, she splashed some urine on one of the dogs and smiled...

Qalingu was getting ready to leave. For the trip, his provisions would be flour, tea, tobacco, and salt. He was also taking some gamy meat and blubber. His travelling companion was Ilaijja, from Ningiukuluk's family. His companion harnessed the dogs and then tied the load down, the two men helping each other from opposite sides of the sled. They then slid the loops of the dogs' tuglines onto the
nuvviti.
After completing their preparations, they entered Qalingu's igloo for their going-away meal. They ate some gamy meat and frozen meat, dipping it into an old tin full of oil thickened by the cold. They had some tea and were now ready to go. As Arnatuinnaq's family looked on, they left and called out to the dogs, “
Uit
!
Hra!
”

The dog team took off down the sloping shoreline to the pack ice. Because of the incline, the sled raced so far ahead of the dogs that one of them was dragged along after the sled's runners passed over its tugline. The runners hit and crushed another dog, causing serious injury. It began to whimper, “
Maa!
Maa!
” Because he was badly hurt, the dog was simply unharnessed. They were leaving on
Alliriirtuni,
the day when their camp mates used to greet many new arrivals, and heading inland because their families were short of food, even though a little meat remained.

At the camp, Akutsiak paid a visit to Sanaaq's home in the hope of being offered a bit of gamy meat to eat. She crawled into the igloo and drew her head down completely between her shoulders, after pulling her hood as far as it would go over her head. Qumaq was glad to see her.

“Akutsiak! Let's play together!”

“In a moment,” she replied. “My hands are very cold!”

Having not eaten, Akutsiak
had nothing to heat her body with. She was cold, all the more so because the igloo was not at all warm. There were even frost crystals falling from the ceiling. She drew her head firmly down between her hunched shoulders.

Sanaaq said, “Arnatuinnaq! Feed her some gamy meat from the meat bag in the entranceway... and get her something hot to drink.”

Arnatuinnaq obeyed and went to the entranceway with an iron hook. She pulled out the pieces of meat and put them on a plate, for they were dripping with
misiraq
.
She covered the meat bag with a piece of skin. Even in the entranceway, flecks of frost were falling from the ceiling. She said to Akutsiak, “Eat this gamy meat.”

Akutsiak slipped her arms out from under her
atigi
and slid them into her sleeves. She grabbed an ulu and began to eat some of the gamy meat. As might be expected, she devoured the food, wolfing it down. She started to cough and choke — “
U u uaq!
” — almost throwing up as she choked. When she finished eating, she said, “Hand towel!”

She wiped her hands and mouth and then began to play with Qumaq. While chattering together, they played who-can-make-the-highest-mark-possible-on-the-ice-window. Qumaq called out, “We'll make our marks while standing with arms stretched up. Then we'll make our marks standing on tiptoe. Akutsiak! Because you're much taller we'll make our marks while jumping!”

“Sure! Here I go,” answered Akutsiak, who had started jumping. “Go ahead, Qumaq! Match my record!”

“Since I can't match you,” replied Qumaq
,
“let me make a mark with a piece of wood!”

“No! Only with our hands!”

Both of them stopped playing. Akutsiak went home to her family. She crawled in and told them how happy she was to have been so well treated.

“I had tea and ate some gamy meat!”

“Good for you!” replied Ningiukuluk. “Since you got some, it's as if I got some!”

Sanaaq's baby was beginning to get plump. He started to cry, “
Ungaa!
Ungaa!
” Sanaaq wanted to change his diaper and said to her sister, “Housemate! Turn the flame up. The baby has no more dry diapers!”

She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and, because he continued to cry, she stood him up on his little feet.

“Oh! He's smiling for the first time! Qumaq, look! Your little brother is smiling!”

“Yes! Let me see!” replied her daughter, feeling very affectionate. “Let me take him and have fun with him!” Qumaq was eager to devour her brother with affection. She even ground her teeth and started to act more and more recklessly.

Sanaaq said, “Give me the baby. He could easily get hurt!”

“Not at all. He won't get hurt!”

“Give him to me. He could bump his head!”

“In a moment! I'll hold him right!”

As could have been predicted, at that very moment she bumped the baby's head against the baseboard of the sleeping platform. “
Ungaa!
Ungaa!
” he cried, apparently inconsolable because the bump had been a hard one.

Sanaaq acted as if she felt her child's pain. She seemed to lose all self-control out of affection for her baby.

Qumaq was frightened by her mother and began to ponder things a bit. She had again hurt her little brother while believing herself to be right and her mother wrong. She said to herself, “A while ago, I too bumped myself because I'd do only what I wanted to do, despite being warned by my mother to pay attention... And now here I've hurt my little brother, because once again I thought I knew better... Clearly I don't know more than my mother does. So the next time I'm told to pay attention, I will...”