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3 Dealing with Necessities

(Narrator)

To many of us it seems as if our best ideas come to us in our sleep, and sometimes the light of day will make clear that perhaps that idea was not the best. Be that as it is, Luki’s dreams worried at the problem of transporting two souls with a four dog team, or was that one soul with a five dog team.

(Luki)

By the time I awoke, I had what seemed a temporary solution to our problem. Would she accept what I needed to propose? The medallion would be the tool of our salvation, I could use it while she slept but that was the coward’s way. I woke her and told her we needed to talk, now.

(Arnatsiq)

Who am I? If I was the person who rode the airplane to the earth, am I now his wife? He calls me by her name, Arnatsiq, which means beautiful woman. Neither of these pasts do I remember, and after telling me how I came to be, he has asked me to trust him and this strange medallion, to change again. I understand the problem, the two of us and supplies weigh more than four dogs can pull in the time our supplies will cover. Five dogs and one man can succeed. He has convinced me with my own life, of the power of the medallion. If I let him do this to me am I less than human? On the edge of my memories are stories of the people who became animals and animals who became people, many are the tales in our folklore. I agree, this may be the only way, neither the person I was, nor the person I have become knows this land nor do I know how to handle the team. If one of use is to be changed, it would have to be me. I fear that from this change, I will never find my own soul nor will I be one of the people again.

(Narrator)

Indeed there are many legends of animal people in the Inuit. One which comes to mind is The Story of the Dog Husband


Inuit - The Dog Husband

A long time ago, in a certain village there lived a young girl who had a dog of which she was very fond. She took the dog with her wherever she went; and at night, as was a common custom at that time with young girls, the dog slept at the foot of the bed. Every night he would change into human form and lie with the girl, and in the morning, before it was light, would turn back again into his dog shape so no one knew anything about it. After a time she became pregnant; and when her parents found it out and knew that the dog was the cause they were greatly ashamed, and calling the people together they tore down the house, put out all the fires, and moved away from the place, leaving the girl to die.

But Crow had pity on her, and, taking some coals, she placed them between two clam shells, and told the girl secretly that after a time she would hear crackling, and to go to the spot and she would find fire. So the girl was left alone, for the people had all gone a long way across the water? She sat still for a long time, listening for the crackling, and when she finally heard it she went to the place and found the fire as Crow had said.

Not long after this she gave birth to five dog pups, but as her father had killed the dog, her lover, she had to look after them by herself, and the only way she could live and care for them was to gather clams and other shellfish on the beach. There were four male pups and one female, and with the care there mother gave them, they grew very fast. Soon she noticed that whenever she went out, she heard a noise of singing and dancing, which seemed to come from the house, and she wondered greatly. Four times she heard the noise and wondered, and when, on going out again, she heard it for the fifth time, she took her clam-digger and stuck it in the sand, and put her clothes on it to make it look as if she were busy gathering clams. Then she stole back by a roundabout way, and creeping close to the house peeped in through a crack to see what the noise might be. There she saw four boys dancing and singing, and a little girl watching the place where the mother was supposed to be digging clams. The mother waited a moment and watched, and then coming in she caught them in human form, and scolded them, saying that they ought to have had that form in the first place, for on their account she had been brought to shame before the people. At this the children sat down and were ashamed. And the mother tore down the dog blankets that were hanging about, and threw them into the fire.

So they remained in human form after this; and as soon as they were old enough she made little bows and arrows for the boys, and taught them how to shoot birds, beginning with the wren, and working up to the largest. Then she taught them to make large bows and arrows, and how to shoot fur animals, and then larger game, up to the elk. And she made them bathe every day to try to get tamanous for catching whales, and after that they hunted the hair seal to make floats of its skin.

And the mother made harpoons for them of Elk-bone, and lines of twisted sinews and cedar, and at the end of the line she fastened the sealskin floats. And when everything was ready, the boys went out whaling and were very successful, and brought in so many whales that the whole beach stank with them.

Now, Crow noticed one day, from far across the water, a great smoke rising from where the old village had stood, and that night she came over secretly to see what it all meant. And before she neared the beach, she smelled the dead whales, and when she came up she saw the carcasses lying all about, and there were so many that some of them had not yet been cut up. When she reached the house, she found the children grown up; and they welcomed her and gave her food, all she could eat, but gave her nothing to take back, telling her to come over again if she wanted more.

When Crow started back, the girl told her that when she reached home, she was to weep so that the people would believe they were dead. But Crow, on getting home, instead of doing as she was told, described how the beach was covered with sea gulls feeding on the whales that had been killed by the boys.

Now, Crow had brought with her secretly a piece of whale-meat for her children, and after putting out the light she fed it to them; and one of them ate so fast that she choked, and coughed a piece of the meat out on the ground. And some of the people saw it, and then believed what Crow had told them, as they had not done before. Then the people talked it all over, and decided to go back; and they loaded their canoes and moved to the old village. And the boys became the chiefs of the village, and always kept the people supplied with whales.

(Narrator)

Twelve hours, the time needed to allow the body to recover between the magical tampering engendered by the medallion, Twelve hours, and the amount of time that has passed since the metamorphism from near carrion to Inuit women. Now with the medallion around her neck she rises the harness from one dog, the harness picked at random by her among those of the deceased, after a depressed and worried look at him, clasped it tight to her bosom engaging the medallion in the process.

(Arnatsiq)

My mind recognizes the shock as I clasp the harness to myself, I have felt this before. With calm I did not expect I watch as I become shorter, hair starts to grow all over my body, my hands, feet, arms, and legs start to change shape, lengths, and position. I feel an extension of my spinal structure as my tail extends. I feel a change to the way that I see, but whatever it was it now seems normal. I smell my crew mates and the fish my master has for me. I try to ask if this is done but as I sound out, it is in the voice and words of my pack. He removes the shining harness and places the master’s harness on me, he leads me back to the pack.

(Narrator)

She could not see herself, there was no mirror. If she could she would have seen that her eyes were, small, slanted and almond shaped. Dark brown, almost amber in color and wide spaced, they gave her a wild and sly appearance, though she was neither. Her eyes could not pick out colors, just shades of black and white. If she were to describe herself she would describe a dark colored dog with white under belly and legs. She would say that her legs were straight and not unduly-long under broad shoulders and her paws were large and almost round, with thick heavily-furred pads between the toes. Furthermore she would see that her chest and neck were thickly muscled, her loins and thigh muscles strong and well-developed, and her spine prominent and easily felt even though she was properly-nourished. She bore more than a passing relationship to a wolf. She tried to talk but of course she cannot, neither can she bark, she can only howl plaintively.

Arnatsiq reformed

(Luki)

She has become one of the youngest in the sled team, the only bitch, one that not that long ago, I had selected to be mated with the team leader. This may present complications later, but for now she is just one of the dogs.
Before I place her with the rest of the team I need to test her knowledge. With the sled unloaded, I hook her to the harness. I gather my iperaataq (whip) and call out to her. I command her through these words and light touches with the tip on her flanks. She shows me that she understands my commands as she pulls the three and half meter sled on the end of six meters of traces. Some of the calls I exercise her with; Aak!Aak! (Forward!), Assult! (Fast!), Aroo!Aroo! (to the left!), Assult!Assult! (to the right). I called her to come to me Qaa!Qaa!, and to pull back, Aqi!Aqi!, rare in use but at times I need the team to drag me back from a fall, water, or danger and injury. Holetti! cautions her to look out for the harness. I cry out Qurfa and Qaqortorssuaq, warnings of bear and polar bear, both criess motivate her to pull harder. Now satisfied and with my testing done, it is time to break camp. I finish the loading of the sled, connect up the team to the traces and head home.