“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.
7 JIIMIALUK LOSES AN EYE
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!”
“Maa maa maa!” whimpered the pups as they scampered away.
The women had finished sewing. The entire team would now fasten the covering of skin to the frame. While the men rinsed the stitched skins in the sea, Taqriasuk daubed the qajaq frame with oil to make it slippery, using a piece of sealskin. The men then came back and the women began stretching the skin over the frame. Meanwhile, Jiimialuk was preparing boiled meat in a large pot and filling it with whatever could go in. As he cut the meat into morsels, he said, “I’ll set up a windbreak because the wind is blowing hard and the meat is really going to take too long to cook.”
He erected a windbreak using a large mangittaq of old qajaq skins. He could now go ahead with the cooking… The flames were already high. When the meat morsels began to boil, he turned them over with a long metal pick. But as he was turning them over, he splashed himself in the face with the boiling hot water. He screamed, “Aatataa! I’ve scalded myself something awful… My eye has been burned open! Aa! Aatataa! All I’ve got is my left eye now… There’s fluid spilling out of my burned eyeball. It’s stinging really bad.”
“Ii!” exclaimed Aqiarulaaq. “My son has lost an eye. His eye is wide open. It’s been burned open by boiling liquid! Who will provide for us now that our only provider has lost an eye?”
“Mother! I’m probably going to die. My eye was burned open when the boiled meat I was preparing was almost done. I’ve lost my lens… Ii! There it is, a tiny little lens! Look! That used to be my lens! But what’s to be done with it now? It may end up being eaten by the dogs…”
They knew nothing about the existence of doctors or even big ships. When the women working on the qajaq had finished their work, they got down to eating some of the boiled meat.
“Come and have some boiled meat!” shouted Sanaaq to her companions. “Have some!”
“I will!” answered Aqiarulaaq, “but my son can no longer have any. He’s burned himself very badly… Look at this. It used to be his lens!”
“Ii! Autualu!” said Sanaaq.
Qumaq was beside her. She saw the lens and, still not knowing many things about life, said, “Mother, I want to eat that eye!”
“Ii! It’s just not done. You can’t eat an eye like that. It’s a man’s eye. It was your little cousin’s. It was his eye!”
“I want it! Give it to me!”
“But I told you it was a man’s eye! It is said that the eyes of people who eat human flesh turn completely white… We’ll throw it away because your eyes would turn white.”
“Yes!” said Qumaq, who seemed to understand.
Night had fallen. They undressed for bed. Jiimialuk soaked a cloth compress in water and placed it over his eye. Unable to fall asleep, he tossed and turned because of his burn. Everyone else went to sleep, leaving him alone with his pain.
8 THE FIRST QALLUNAAT ARRIVE
While they slept, at daybreak, a very large boat arrived. Arnatuinnaq was taken aback when she left the tent that morning. It was the first time she had ever seen such a thing. She shouted to her kinfolk, “Ilakka! Wake up! What’s this thing standing still in front of us?”
Just as her last words trailed off, the ship made a loud booming sound and, coming nearer and nearer, made several more. The strange sight filled everyone with fear, and they made frenzied efforts to hide behind tent covers. Some, like Arnatuinnaq and Qumaq, even began to cry. Finally, a large outboard full of Qallunaat headed to shore. These beings were clearly human, and the camp’s inhabitants, though still surprised, were no longer afraid. The Qallunaat had come to visit.
Once they were ashore, Aqiarulaaq shouted to the Big Eyebrows, “Ai!”
They failed to understand, not making the slightest response. They began to talk among themselves. The Inuit were astonished to hear them speak and greatly appreciated the many gifts that they handed out, even the empty tin cans.
Sanaaq left to go visiting. She had heard about the Qallunaat and told everyone, “People say the Big Eyebrows are really nice! Don’t be afraid. It’s even said that they have doctors.”
Qumaq was not at all intimidated by the Qallunaat. They were soon well liked because of all the gifts they handed out.