The Beothuk Saga Page 18

  For five season-cycles after this battle there was peace on the island. No foreigners dared to land for fresh water. The Red Men were savages, they said, barbarians who would no longer trade for their water with any foreign nation. They guarded their coasts so fiercely one would think the very rocks contained some precious metal, perhaps the very metal that all European explorers were looking for. The rumour began to circulate on the fishing grounds that the island of the Red Men did indeed contain vast quantities of this precious metal; if not, how to explain the jealousy with which these people protected their land from foreign invaders?

  After each victory, Iwish continued her habit of rewarding one of the guardians by inviting him into her mamateek. And each time, the young warrior would leave her bed feeling frustrated and angry. He may have enjoyed a new experience, but he knew he had simply been an instrument of pleasure, at the service of a woman. Because he himself was unsatisfied by the experience, he would let it be known that the clan chief was herself insatiable. She became known as “the devourer of guardians,” and she did nothing to prevent the rumours from spreading. She gave birth to two more children, neither of whose fathers were known. If their mother knew their identities, she kept the secret to herself. She would allow no competition for her role.

  Iwish, the hard one. Iwish, the devourer of guardians. Iwish, the protector of the Beothuk nation. Iwish, the uncontested chief of the Appawet Clan, the Clan of the Seal. That is how she would live in the memories of all the Beothuk on the island of the Addaboutik, the island of the Red Men. The nation’s Living Memories would be sure to relate the story of her life for a long time to come. But Iwish was still at the head of the clan and leader of the guardians when six of her own clan members were taken prisoners by a French ship while they were crossing the northern passage to the land of the Sho-Undamung. That was the beginning of the end for the clan chief. She was reproached for allowing the six brave warriors to cross the channel without a proper escort to protect them from attacks by the foreigners. They held her responsible for not foreseeing the danger: Must not a chief be something of a sorcerer? Must she not be able to see into the future if she is to have the honour of leading her clan through it?

  Not one man who had been frustrated and humiliated by her in her bed would come forward now to defend her. Any man who did would have been ridiculed throughout the Beothuk Nation. He would have been called her love slave, and would not have been able to bear such an insult. It was therefore true that Iwish had not understood her own weakness or foreseen her downfall. She, the devourer of guardians, was devoured by her own failure to guard. This was an unpardonable crime. Her closest friends abandoned her, and the other clan chiefs, the members of the national council, did nothing to save her. Iwish’s mistake was to have been right so often and for so long. She was guilty of doing nothing to prevent the deaths of six clan members, even though she had saved hundreds from being captured and sold as slaves. She had neglected to boast of her accomplishments, to broadcast each victory and describe her own role in them. She had been totally unaware that the six warriors were planning to cross the northern channel to the land of the Innu, but she now had to expiate her guilt by removing herself from the position of clan chief, even though she would long be remembered.

  She passed into the Living Memory of the Beothuk. A leader, even a leader in bed, cannot make mistakes. As soon as she was shown to have made one, she died by her own hand. That is how Iwish died many season-cycles before her actual death. The Living Memory would remember her in the future; why, then, would people try to glorify her in their memories of the past?

  She had no choice: she was told she could no longer direct her clan because she had lost the trust of her people. She moved to a remote part of the village with her seven children, and lived in a mamateek she made herself. She was avoided by the other villagers. Her children had no friends. When one has lost one’s usefulness to the nation, one cannot hope that one’s children will be successful. Iwish could no longer find anyone to share her bed, and no one came to ask her advice, despite her great knowledge and past experience. She was not even allowed to become an elder: she had made too many enemies and her judgement was no longer valued.

  Iwish, the first woman of the Beothuk Nation to become a chief, no longer existed. Many chiefs before her had made mistakes, some of them more serious than hers, but they had been male chiefs. Iwish’s fault was that she had been an authoritarian female, determined and sure of herself. She spent the rest of her days eking out a small existence. Her children took care of her. She never lacked for food, her daily rations were always sufficient. She suffered only from loneliness, from having no friends to talk to. She suffered from the knowledge that none of her children, no matter how competent or talented, would ever be called upon to fulfill a public function in the Beothuk Nation. She suffered even more from being forgotten by those she had once favoured over others. And she suffered these things without complaint, with as much pride as any male would feel. Forgotten by her contemporaries, she was remembered by the nation’s Living Memories only as a woman who had been right too often. Even in these former times, women, important though they were, could expect justice only from those whose sole duty was to remember.

  34

  For his military successes, Camtac was named the new chief of the Appawet Clan and leader of the guardians of the Beothuk Nation. He, too, was a direct descendant of Anin, the ancient hero of the Beothuk Nation and the first of the great explorers. But Camtac had not been the only candidate. The council had thought of placing Woodamashi in the position. Woodamashi was the Messenger, the one who carried the news from village to village. He was always jovial, well liked by all and ever ready to be of service. But in the end Camtac was chosen for his exemplary courage and his cunning. A man’s value was still measured by his deeds. Twice had Camtac defeated the Portuguese, the slave-trading invaders who had come to the bay south of that patrolled by the Seal Clan village. Twice had he and his guardians exterminated the vermin that came from Europe, the continent where every nation was at war with every other nation.

  Together, Camtac and Woodamashi planned the repeopling of the island. For several season-cycles the nation had suffered severe losses. Men had been killed in battle or taken by slavers. Women once again outnumbered men in the villages. Because of its location, the Seal Clan village had suffered more losses than the others, and many men had been killed. Polygamy was once more practised in the village. Woodamashi carried this news across the island.

  As an example to his people, Camtac took three wives. For twenty-three season-cycles he reigned as chief of the Appawet Clan and leader of the guardians without once having to go into battle. He led his people in total and complete peace. A wise man has said that it is often necessary to live through war in order to understand peace, and perhaps it is for that reason that warriors are often chosen to become leaders of nations. Certainly it is true that the Beothuk’s lives had been greatly disturbed by the foreigners’ invasions of their land. They had seen the invaders take their fellows to become slaves. They had even had to establish a second corps of elite female warriors to replace the men who had been taken prisoner by the Portuguese. A female warrior did not always produce children for the nation. And a mother does not raise her children to watch them die in battle. Or, worse, to see them become slaves to foreigners.

  Camtac was a tall man and very thin. His long, gaunt face and sharp eyes gave him the appearance of a marten. His arms were long and well muscled. His legs were long, too, but powerful. His body had been hardened by his training as a guardian: for example, he could run for many suns and never tire. Throughout his life as a warrior he wore only a dingiam to cover his sex. During the cold seasons he wore a vest and sleeves made from caribou skins. His leggings were also made from caribou skins, turned fur-side in. His face and body were painted with red ochre powder, and his clothing was decorated with alternating yellow ochre and black stripes. To denote his authority he always wore
a leather belt with the short sword that Iwish had given him when she was still young and beautiful and he had shared her bed. He was a decisive leader, very slow to change his mind once he had reached a decision that he thought was right. He listened to his councillors, however, and followed the traditions of the nation rigorously. His courage was unquestioned; gladly would he have sacrificed his life to save the nation or any other Beothuk. He lived first for the good of the people, second for his family. His own wishes and desires came last, after all his other responsibilities had been met.

  He had a daughter, Ooish, so called because of her full, red lips and her independence of spirit. She was always talking, and was one of the elite female guardians of the Beothuk Nation. But there was nothing mannish about her. She was tall and thin, agile as her father, good-natured and playful, everything a man could want a woman to be. She refused, however, to settle for second or third wife, or to let a man provide for her. She preferred being a huntress and a warrior, to be free and not, as the saying was among the women of the village, married off. In age she was twenty season-cycles, and had been raised during the time when monogamy was the custom among the Beothuk. As the daughter of the clan chief, there were many youths who would marry her, but none of them would guarantee that she would be his only wife. She discouraged all suitors, and prided herself only on her skill at the hunt, her facility with weapons, and her prowess at wrestling. Her favourite weapon was a large hatchet, which she could wield more effectively than a spear in everything except fishing. She could hit a moving target with this hatchet at fifty paces.

  It was not long before she had risen in rank within the corps of elite guardians. She had fine leadership qualities. But her father, Camtac, warned her constantly of the danger of taking on the role of leader without the unanimous approval of the community. Without it, at the first sign of weakness support would be withdrawn from her, by the very people whose lives she was protecting. He pointed to old Iwish, to whom no one in the village would speak a word and who lived alone in her mamateek, an outcast. Iwish was always being cited as a bad example to young women who were strong-headed and rebellious. Do not fall into the same trap as Iwish, they were told. As a result, these young women were careful not to excite the jealousy of men. With the exceptions of Woasut and Gudruide, the first two women to change the customs of the Beothuk people, women were still considered inferior to men. Such thinking was still firm in Beothuk traditions. It was better that way. Women were represented on national council, as they had been for five hundred season-cycles, and they should be satisfied with that. They were not to irritate the men for fear of stirring up the kind of competitiveness and frustration that defeated Iwish, the devourer of guardians.

  Ooish was aware of these taboos, and observed them rigorously in all her endeavours. Although she was clearly qualified to serve as a leader of the guardians, she refused to act as their chief. She believed that an older woman would have more authority and be better able to maintain discipline and direct training. She loved to train, but she preferred to do so by herself rather than as part of a group. She wore her hair pulled up tight on her head and tied with a single cord, in the traditional Beothuk manner, so that it appeared to fall over her forehead like water bubbling up from a spring. During the warm season, her hair was the colour of dried grass, although it darkened as the seasons grew colder. Like her father, she wore only a dingiam and short leggings tied just below the knee; the rest of her body she covered with red ochre. Her leggings were the same colour as her skin, and were decorated with the outline of a seal, the emblem of her clan.

  Once, when the members of the female corps of guardians were bathing in a lake of clear, calm water, two young men from the clan passed by and were invited in by several of the bolder women to help them wash. The two men removed their dingiams and jumped in without the slightest hesitation, to cries of delight from the women. It was not long before the men were showered with offers, and one of the women even dared the men to prove their virility by servicing as many of the women as they could manage. The contest was on. One after the other, the women knelt before the men to be serviced. This was not an occasion for romance, but for competition, and when the two men left the guardians’ camp at sunset they were utterly exhausted. Ooish had observed the festivities, but had not joined in. As long as women behaved in such a manner, she told herself, men would always consider themselves to be their superiors. News of the orgy spread quickly throughout the nation, and the two men who had serviced fifteen women were acclaimed as men of great strength and fortitude, worthy to engender many new Beothuk. They were practically hailed as heroes. Ooish was disappointed in her fellow clan members, who apparently valued quantity over quality. She longed for tenderness, softness, mutual respect. Not serial servitude. She swore she would never give herself to anyone who took such pride in physical performance alone. She had often spoken of this aspect of love with her mother, one of her father’s three wives. She had learned that Camtac was gentle and thoughtful, and never boasted of his prowess at being able to satisfy many women in a single night. Her mother told her that her father was discretion itself, and each of his wives enjoyed his complete attention when he was with her. That is what Ooish wanted: a man who was content to be with no one but her.

  It was Camtac’s twenty-sixth season-cycle as chief of the Seal Clan, and also the twenty-sixth season-cycle of Ooish’s life, when three ships dropped their anchors in the cove south of their village. Ooish was at the head of a unit of fifty elite female guardians that watched as a large detachment of sailors rowed ashore to fill their barrels with fresh water. The ships were flying the flag of France, and the men were small. But there were too many; there could be no question of attacking them. The women continued to watch. One of the sailors attracted Ooish’s attention. He was at the centre of the detachment, and stood at least a head taller. His hair was the colour of dried grass.

  The sailor who seemed to be in charge of the detachment led several of his men, including the tall man, towards a wooden structure in which the Beothuk kept their cold-season stores. This was a sort of compound made of stakes driven into the ground and covered with an old sail from one of Côrte Real’s ships, taken thirty-six season-cycles ago. It was filled with sealskins. Ooish saw that the men took nothing from this structure, which made them different from all the other foreigners, who freely took what they wanted from such places. The tall man was standing at the edge of the shoreline, close to the trees from which Ooish was watching the sailors. He was carrying a weapon the Red Men of the island called a firestick. Ooish stood up and called softly: “Bouguishamesh.”

  The man turned and looked into the woods, showing no sign of being startled. He moved towards Ooish and left the beach just where she was hiding. Soon they were trying to communicate, but neither could make sense of the other’s tongue. The man was dressed in a curious fashion, a black, sleeveless vest over a red shirt. His trousers were tight to his legs and ended just below the knees, and his lower legs were covered with thin stockings, as red as his shirt. On his feet were the same sort of shoes the captured Portuguese sailor had worn: Ooish’s father had kept them to help him remember the man. The back parts of this unusual footwear were held off the ground by small blocks of wood, attached under the heels, which forced the wearer to walk either leaning forward on the balls of his feet or set back flat on his heels. Ooish thought that either way they were not meant for walking through a forest, and even less for chasing game. The wooden blocks also had the effect of making the man seem taller than he was; when he took his shoes off, Ooish saw that in reality he was no taller than she. He was, however, still taller than the rest of the ship’s company.

  When the others returned to their ship, they were short one man. His name was Jean le Guellec, a Malouin, and he stayed with Ooish, the daughter of Camtac. He kept with him nothing but a sort of firestick he called a blunderbuss, and a small pouch filled with black powder and metal pellets, which he called shot. Ooish took him to
the camp of the female guardians and invited him into her mamateek, where she gave herself to him as she had never given herself to a Beothuk man. She found the French sailor handsome and very much to her liking. Although she could not converse with him, they were in perfect harmony together.

  Jean le Guellec was kind and attentive to Ooish, everything she had dreamed of in a man, and she made every attempt to be the same to him in return. She felt herself filled with such deep joy that she could hardly wait until the morning to tell the other women about it. Her story of this night of love made more than one woman envious, and soon many tongues were passing the news throughout the island of the Red Men. For his part, Jean le Guellec had no desire to return to serve under his captain, Jacques Cartier. He did, however, go back to the Bay of Catalina and convey to a comrade that he intended to remain on the island, and that Captain Cartier need not send a shore party to search for him. Deserters were severely punished on French ships, but le Guellec returned his pay to Cartier and hoped that this would incline the captain to overlook his departure. All captains, he knew, were fond of money and other forms of wealth. After making these arrangements, le Guellec returned to the guardians’ camp and spent many happy suns with his wild woman of the New Found Land. When, ten suns later, Cartier ordered his men to weigh anchor, he had had no encounters with the Beothuk himself, but had lost to them a sailor who had decided that life among wild, Red Savages on the island was more agreeable to him than one on board a Malouin ship of exploration in the service of France.

  Le Guellec had led his captain to believe that the Savages of the island were ferocious and uncivilized, that they bound their hair at the tops of their heads and that it was not wise to get in their way. In fact, le Guellec had at that time never seen more than one or two male Beothuk, and knew nothing about them except what he had learned from the women of the elite corps of female guardians, and from Ooish, whom he had known for only ten suns. The Addaboutik had assimilated another foreigner into their clan, and the guardians undertook to teach him their language. He was given the name Wobee, which meant white: Cartier left the island without trying to recover his lost crew member.