“Yes, let’s pitch our tent! We’ll get some stones to anchor the bottom, then we’ll raise it!”
“Yes. We’re here to help!” exclaimed Aqiarulaaq.
Qumaq held one of the tent poles upright. They attached the guy ropes and anchored the base of the tent with stones. Scarcely had they finished raising the tent when they saw old Irsutualuk coming. He called out, “Ai! Sanaaq ai! I’ve been following you, trying to catch up. I’ll no longer take no for an answer. You’re going to be mine!”
“Suvakkualuk! But I don’t want you… You’re getting very old… You don’t even have your front teeth anymore… And we got no help from you today, when we could have used it. You also won’t be my husband because I’m afraid my daughter will be abused. As long as it’s in my power, no one but me will lay a hand on her. You’ll not be my husband because you’re very old. Old men don’t please me at all. Don’t stay here! Go away!”
“What a shame! Being old is disgusting to you! I’m ready to do anything to have you. I’m going to undress and sleep here. I have no intention at all of laying my hands on Qumaq.”
“You’re really very old! Aaq! You smell old! Get out and stay out! I don’t want an old man’s smell rubbing off on me!”
So he went off, completely disheartened, and Sanaaq made her feelings even clearer. “The man I’ll choose to be my husband isn’t an old man. He’s even a handsome man. He is Qalingu, the brother of my qatanngut.”
As planned, the marriage proposal was made while Sanaaq was being visited by her new camp mates.
Qalingu walked in.
“I wish to stay here and have you for my wife, but I’m afraid you’ll be taken by another.”
Sanaaq accepted. “Good thing I didn’t accept the proposal from that old man!”
Everyone now undressed again for bed. As usual, her daughter began to sing, “Ali ali ali taka taka a!”
The new stepfather did not intimidate her at all, for Qalingu was very likeable. They all crawled into bed and drifted off to sleep right away.
6 A QAJAQ FOR QALINGU
Qalingu, the brother of Aqiarulaaq, had no qajaq. At daybreak, the two qatannguuk, now sisters-in-law, went to prepare the amiksait. The skins had been left to soak in a stone cache. Aqiarulaaq said to her brother, “Brother, Qalingu! Get these skins ready. Take them out of the stone cache.”
“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!”