The Beothuk Saga Read online

  “We have found a solution,” he said. “We of the Appawet Clan will cross the river to join those of the Edruh Clan. But it will take some time. The young are good swimmers, but the older ones must cross by tapatook, or else climb up the cliff and ford the river before it descends to the shore. Since it is only a question of time, the solution is therefore a simple matter of patience.”

  When the elder had finished speaking, those of the Appawet Clan who had tapatooks began ferrying the elders and the women with young children across the river, while the younger members and older children dove from the bank and quickly swam to the other side. The members of the Bear Clan watched patiently from their tapatooks until the last Addaboutik had crossed. Then they brought their tapatooks up onto the left bank, to be greeted by the united clans. There was much laughter and back-slapping and shouts of welcome. Although Anin was without doubt the hero of the day, all were embraced and made welcome in the village.

  The whole day was given over to feasting and celebrating. In fact the celebrations lasted several days, with songs and dancing going on until the entire village was so exhausted that the people lay down where they were and went to sleep.

  A mamateek had been set up in the village for the members of the Bear Clan, and was provisioned with food as a welcoming gift. Clothing for the women, necklaces for the men, and small packets of red ochre for each person were set out around the central firepit. Swaddling clothes for the babies were arranged on two small beds, and two ornately carved carrying planks were hung near the door. The villagers had thought of everything in advance, with but one exception: on which side of the river the newcomers should disembark.

  22

  The two villages were comprised of a hundred and twenty people each, with forty to fifty mamateeks on either side of the river. The river descended through a kind of canyon, and so the villages had been built up the sides almost to the top of the cliffs. Small streams ran through the centre of each village, providing the inhabitants with drinking water, and cascaded into the canyon to join the main river a short way upstream from the point at which the voyagers had landed their tapatooks. People on either side of the river climbed the cliffs by means of steep, zigzagging paths. During the warm season the elders set up their mamateeks at the beach level, so as not to have to climb these paths too often, but when the falling-leaf season came with its high tides, they would dismantle their mamateeks and move them higher up the cliffs, to avoid being flooded out. That is why a mamateek had had to be set up at the beach level in order to welcome the members of the new Bear Clan.

  When he saw that clothes had been set out in the mamateek for them, Anin realized that his fellow clan members were going to be examined carefully by the members of the village. In other words, he knew that the two pale-skinned women were meant to take off the long robes that covered their legs all the way to the ground, and expose as much of their skin as possible to the curious eyes of the villagers. He would not have a chance to tell about his adventures and explain who these newcomers were before they were subjected to the village’s scrutiny. Della’s legs were already exposed, but Robb wore a vest and leggings that hid his sand-coloured body hair, and the two other women were also very light-skinned. The young villagers would ask Anin questions that he was not ready to answer directly.

  After bathing in the stream and cleaning himself with sap from an oily plant that frothed when rubbed against the body, Anin put on a pair of new moccasins decorated with red ochre with little tufts of caribou hair arranged to look like wildflowers. His dingiam was made of sealskin with the hair turned outside. He also wore a sleeveless vest whitened with a powder that was found on the sides of rocks at the farthest limit of the Addaboutik territory in the direction of warmth. Around his neck he placed a necklace of otter teeth that he had been given as a child, and on his head a covering made of eagle feathers and the head of an otter. He painted his face with red ochre, leaving a bare spot in the centre of his forehead, which he painted with the same powder that had whitened his vest. Then he instructed Woasut to make the same white circle on Buh-Bosha-Yesh’s forehead.

  Woasut wore a dress of caribou hide dyed blue and red at the openings. The dress was loosely tied at the side to allow her to nurse her child when he was hungry. Similar dresses had been laid out for the three other women, who were more than happy to change from their old clothes. Della executed a small dance, asking the others if she looked more feminine in a dress. Everyone began to laugh. Anin had explained that not wearing the dresses would be seen as a rejection of the friendship they represented. Robb also wore new footwear: red-coloured moccasins without the wildflowers. He also wore a new dingiam and vest, but put them on over his leggings and sleeves. The sleeves were joined together by leather thongs that crossed the opening in his vest. The women decided to paint his face red, like Woasut’s, but Anin would not let them give his forehead a white dot. Then the three pale women decided to cover their skin with red ochre, and promptly painted their legs, arms, breasts, and sides, wherever their white skin was exposed to view by the loose-fitting garments.

  Thus prepared, the members of the Bear Clan joined the festivities. It was dark, but many fires had been lit around the village. A caribou was cooking over a large, central fire, and two seals were roasting on a smaller fire nearby. Farther off, a beaver was also being cooked, its fat dripping noisily into the coals. Many kinds of shellfish were also cooking in a large, earthenware vessel, and water was boiling in a second vessel, set on a large stone in the middle of a fire. There were several other fires, and on each of them something else was being prepared: squids, lobsters, halibut, snails, rabbits, puffins, and ducks. It was to be a feast-for-everyone, and no one could leave a feast-for-everyone for fear of offending the two host clans. The first animal consumed was always the emblem animal of the host clan, and when it was eaten its bones were thrown into the fire and the ashes from that fire were spread in the animal’s natural territory. This feast-for-everyone was presented by the Seal Clan, and so the clans ate seal meat first.

  All the members of the new Bear Clan were seated together. One by one, the others came up to speak to them. Anin had visited his parents before the feast, to pay them his respects. His mother was still in good health, but his father was suffering from a strange malady and could walk only with much difficulty. His feet were so swollen they were almost completely round, his fingers and toes crossed over themselves, and his arms and legs ached constantly. It was said that he had caught this sickness when he had been lost at sea for many days several season-cycles before. He had disappeared during a heavy fog, and seven suns passed before he was found on a small island, half frozen and nearly dead. He had been in pain since that time, and each season-cycle brought him more suffering, and each sun seemed to take away more of his strength. His wife took good care of him, and never left his side. Even so, it was with some surprise that the villagers saw the old couple seated at the large central fire, beside their son Anin, chief of the new Bear Clan.

  Anin was urged to tell his first story as soon as the seal meat was completely eaten. One of the elders asked him why he had changed clans, and why he had chosen the bear as his emblem. Gashu-Uwith, said the elder, was a scavenger who would eat anything that came to hand; what was there about the bear that deserved such honour? Anin told them about the many times Gashu-Uwith had come to his aid by warning him of some imminent danger, how each time the animal had saved him from peril. When he recounted the story of the two Ashwans who had been ripped open by the bear, members of both clans cried out and beat their drums with appreciation. The Ashwans were the sworn enemies of the Addaboutik, and Gashu-Uwith had just made two hundred and forty new friends. The elder who asked Anin the question stood up and apologized for having insulted Gashu-Uwith, and begged Anin to remove the mean-spirited words of an old, ignorant man from his memory. Gashu-Uwith was obviously a spirit protector to the Addaboutik. Anin declared that the elder’s words were easily forgotten, and no one would hencefo
rth recall them to mind.

  “Anin and the other members of the Bear Clan have already forgotten your words,” he said, “except for those that were pleasing to their ears.”

  Another villager stood up and asked Anin how he had met the pale-skinned ones. It seemed to him, the villager said, that even red ochre looked less red on their skin than it did on his own. Anin patiently told the story of his first meeting with a Bouguishamesh, and showed them the scar on his thigh that proved he had been struck by the stranger’s cutting stick, which he promised he would show them on the second day of the feast-for-everyone.

  “Anin has two cutting sticks to show that he killed two more strangers to protect Woasut and Gudruide.”

  “You say that these strangers were taller than you, taller than us?”

  Anin told Gudruide and Gwenid to stand up, and he stood up beside them. Gwenid was a full head taller than he was, and Gudruide half a head.

  “You can see for yourself how tall they are, and these are females. The males are even taller.”

  The others murmured with wonder. Anin went on to explain that their language was also different. Everyone wanted to hear this language, and Anin asked Gwenid to sing one of her songs. Gwenid needed no further prompting, and sang a rousing song in praise of the war god Thor. She was avidly applauded by several young men, who asked Anin if these strange women were made the same way as Addaboutik women. Anin thought it best to move on to more serious topics, and explained that there were many different lands in the world, and that the people in one land were different from those in every other. The two tall women with hair the colour of dried grass and skin as white as caribou milk, for example, came from a land that was far north of Baétha. But Robb and Della came from a different land that was an island much like their own, and Robb had hair like red ochre whereas Della’s hair was also the colour of ochre but somewhat darker. The villagers pressed closer to Della and looked at her for a long time. Then Anin asked Robb to remove his sleeves and leggings as well as his vest.

  “These people have hair on their bodies, just as we do from time to time. But Robb also has hair on his face, and if he did not cut it, it would grow until his entire head was covered.”

  This proved to be the high point of the evening. Once again the villagers lined up to touch the man with the animal fur. Some tried to taste it, some of the women wondered aloud how such soft fur would feel against their own smooth skin. Robb was not embarrassed at all by the attention, in fact found such frank feminine curiosity enjoyable. To bring the evening to a close, Anin announced that the women were also furred over, especially in their pubic area, where there was a tuft of hair the same colour as the hair on their heads. One young man cried out that the village would love to see such a sight, and Gwenid advanced, took off her dress, and displayed her naked body, even her pubic hair. She lifted her arms to show that hair grew under them as well. The entire village came close to see, and several young men reached out to touch her, which displeased the young Viking woman not at all.

  But it was late, and even though the feast was far from over, Anin asked permission to retire with his clan members. Permission was granted, and someone took his place at the fire so that his absence would not put an end to the feast-for-everyone.

  23

  That night the whole clan slept soundly. Their sleep was filled with dreams, but they were good dreams. In the morning, Anin decided to bathe as he had during his youth, and he told the women that now that the curiosity about their bodies had been satisfied, they too could undress and bathe without causing a disturbance in the village. The clan members accordingly left their mamateek and bathed in the stream that passed through the village. All the village children crowded the stream banks to see the sun’s rays glancing off these strange creatures with light skin and hairy bodies.

  Gudruide was still shy, but Gwenid evidently took much pleasure in being watched, constantly turning this way and that to show her body to the youth of Baétha. When they were dry, they put their clothes on and returned to the feast-for-everyone. The food that was left was common to the entire village, and everyone helped themselves to large portions. Questions were flung at the new clan members from all sides at once. Had they been afraid? How cold had it been? Had they met with any other dangers? Were there monsters? How did Anin meet Woasut? Where was her people’s village? How many lived in it? How big were the Bouguishamesh boats? How many Ashwans did Anin kill? What did he eat when he was travelling? How long had he been unable to travel because of his wound? Why did the Bouguishamesh come to this land? Were they camped far from this place? What kind of animals did they keep?

  Anin spent the whole day answering these questions. In the evening, the elders asked him to recount the story of his entire voyage, from the day he first left the village until his return. They wanted to know what to expect if they left this place and paddled directly into the warm wind, as Anin had done. Anin was obliged to begin at the beginning. He had always known that his story would take several days to tell. It was the final night of the first feast, but when it was ended the elders immediately declared the beginning of a new one, Anin’s initiation feast, to celebrate the official establishment of the Bear Clan. And so the feasting continued, in the course of which the Addaboutik were better able to make the acquaintance of the new strangers, the pale northerners and the red-haired Scots. Robb was renamed Drona the Hairy One. A few of the young women asked permission to touch his hairy chest. Others stroked his arms. Some wanted to run their hands along his legs. One came up to him and said: “I would like to touch all the hair on your body. I invite you to my mamateek.”

  Robb did not know how to respond in the presence of so many others. To recover from his embarrassment, he told the woman she could touch him wherever she wanted right there in front of everyone, except in the places where he was hidden by clothing. Gwenid knew that performing the sex act before the other members of her clan was natural and strengthened the bonds of kinship among them, but not with an entire community watching. She had felt a distinct rush of excitement when she took off her clothes and allowed the villagers to touch her, but she realized that to let it go further would not be acceptable to these people. She could already imagine the remarks of the elders, who seemed to believe she could not understand their language. She knew it was going to be difficult to keep her own name; the young people were already calling her Boagadoret-Botchmouth, which meant Buttocks-and-Breasts. Della, too, had been given a new name: Red Ochre.

  While Anin was recounting his adventures, Woasut and Gudruide often returned to the mamateek to nurse and change their babies, and to rest. Like good friends they talked openly about everything and nothing, without restraint or embarrassment. Gudruide told Woasut that she had seen her and Della sleeping in each other’s embrace on their last night on the island of the fishermen, and that she had found it beautiful and very touching.

  “It is good to know that there is no jealousy among us,” she said.

  Woasut admitted that if such an incident happened spontaneously, and if no one was hurt or offended by it, then she saw no reason why she should be prevented from doing it just by tradition.

  “So far as I know, there is nothing in our customs that speaks of such relations between women,” she said. “It is said that when a man has several wives, the women must understand and agree with one another, and live together in peace so that the man will be easy in his mind when he goes to hunt and fish. But there is nothing to say that the women may not express their friendship for one another in a physical way.”

  Gudruide said she thought that since Anin’s wives were not related by blood, it was normal that they would be physically attracted to each other, especially when they were neglected by Anin or when they felt lonely. In her land, she added, it often happened: “The men would go to sea to win new lands. If a man had his own boat he would take his wife with him, but if he merely worked on a boat or was unmarried, he would be alone. They would often turn to each other,
or to slaves like Robb, when there were no women. At the same time, the women who were left behind would become lonely and desperate for companionship. If they were rich enough to have slaves, they would use them to take their husbands’ place in their bed. Those who could not afford slaves would turn to one another to satisfy their desires. But since the missionaries have come to our land, this pleasant custom has been forbidden. The god Thor, it seemed, did not approve of satisfying one’s natural needs, such as the mutual satisfaction of physical desires, unless it was between a man and a woman.”

  Woasut listened carefully to Gudruide’s words. If such things had occurred in other lands and in other times, why should they not occur now and here? Why had no one spoken of these things until now? Why was there so much talk about the duties of wives towards their husband, and none about the duties wives had towards each other? When she had taken Della in her arms it was out of sympathy for her, because no man seemed interested in her. But then it had been out of desire for her that she had responded to the Scotswoman’s ardour with her own. She did not regret it – on the contrary, she had found the experience immensely satisfying, even more than satisfying, especially when she recalled the soft attentions that Della had paid to her, how she had anticipated her needs and not stopped until Woasut had achieved her ecstasy. It was a degree of deference she had never experienced before. Except for that last time, she had always had to tell Anin to keep going until she, too, was satisfied. Usually, he withdrew from her as soon as he had had his own pleasure.

  “Woasut is not sorry about what happened. Woasut wants it to happen again and again. But she is confused. She does not know why she has never heard anyone speak of these duties of a wife before. Such talk would have made it much easier for her to understand the meaning of such words as love, tenderness, friendship, companionship, and understanding.”