The Beothuk Saga Read online

  Ooish hesitated for many suns before returning to the village to introduce her father to the man with whom she wanted to live. She feared the chief’s reaction, since Wobee had not made an official representation to Camtac for his daughter, as was the Beothuk custom.

  She was afraid of her father, who was a kind and sympathetic man when it came to the needs of his neighbours. The people held him in great esteem as a brave warrior who had fought many battles. And yet, despite his fine character, people were reluctant to ask favours of him. This Ooish must do, and soon, since she was certain that her father would already have heard that she had taken up with a man. News travelled quickly on the island of the Beothuk, especially when the women of the elite corps of guardians got wind of it.

  On the path to the village, the Malouin realized that his fine shoes had not been made for walking in the forest or on the rocky footpaths of the Red Men’s island. He gladly took them off and accepted a pair of moccasins from Ooish. The moccasins were finely sewn from caribou hide, and were the colour of a woman’s skin before she covered herself with red ochre. They covered the ankle as well as the foot, and were secured by two flaps below the knee.

  This former sailor from the ship of Jacques Cartier also quickly learned that no cloth as thin and fine as the cotton from which his hose were made would last long in the rough environment of the New Found Land. They were soon reduced to rags by the pointed branches that protruded from the trees along the path, by sharp rocks and evergreen shrubs. The skin under this meagre material was also soon covered in scratches, scrapes, and bruises. The abrasions on his legs were so painful, in fact, that he began to miss the smooth decks of the French ships, and the cobblestones of his native village in France. But Ooish was very beautiful, and so passionate that he decided to suffer patiently and continue on his way to the Seal Clan village.

  35

  Wobee was presented to Camtac, chief of the Seal Clan, leader of the nation’s guardians, and father of Ooish. Camtac welcomed Wobee with a smile, saying that he must now learn to live like a Beothuk. Then Camtac turned to his daughter and asked her: “Are you his wife already?”

  The young woman nodded Yes, and looked at le Guellec. The Malouin seemed taken aback by the direct question, not knowing if Ooish’s father would accept their relationship. Using the few words he knew of the Beothuk language, he asked Ooish if he would now enjoy the same benefits as one who had been born a Beothuk.

  Ooish said that he would, but added that this did not mean he was permitted to have more than one wife. She would not tolerate that. Camtac asked le Guellec if he accepted those terms.

  “I do,” said the Malouin, explaining that that was the custom in his own country, where a man never took more than one wife. Christianity forbade it, and he had been born a Christian.

  “I declare you committed the one to the other and to the perpetuation of the Addaboutik race,” said Camtac. “You must cover yourself with red ochre so that you will appear as the other members of the Beothuk Nation. Ooish will show you how. I am now old enough to withdraw from the affairs of the nation. You and the other clan members must choose my replacement from among the people of the clan.”

  That night, the clan council met and considered three candidates: Whitig the Arm and two women, Wedumite Who Embraces and Ooish the Lips. When the council was ready to discuss Ooish’s candidacy, Camtac rose to leave, explaining that it would not do for his presence to influence the other councillors. He knew his daughter too well.

  “In which case,” the clan elder said to him, “you would be abdicating your responsibility as chief, which is to designate your own successor.”

  Hearing these words, Camtac answered that he would see his duty to the end, and remained seated in the council. He was opposed to those who would have a woman as chief, saying that he had lived during the time of Iwish the Devourer of Guardians, and had in fact been one of her victims. He believed that a male chief would do a better job. However, the other council members, including the clan elder, believed that choosing a female chief was no less appropriate than choosing a male.

  “Your daughter is as knowledgeable in the bearing of arms as she is in the duties owed by a woman to a man. I do not understand your objection to her nomination! Furthermore, she is a direct descendant of Anin and Woasut, the first couple of the Bear Clan. Our tradition maintains that any descendant of our first couple is qualified to assume the leadership of the nation, and therefore is qualified to become a clan chief within the nation. My choice is therefore Ooish, leader of the guardians.”

  The other council members spoke in agreement, and Camtac had to accept their decision so that the deliberations of the council would be unanimous, as was the custom. That night there was a great feast-for-everyone on the shore of the bay at the mouth of the Exploits River. A new chief had been elected according to ancient tradition, and she was a descendant of Anin the Voyager, the hero of the Beothuk Nation. That she had chosen a Bouguishamesh for a husband was also according to the tradition started by Anin, who had had four wives, three of whom had come from other lands. Such mixing of blood strengthened the nation and improved the viability of future generations.

  The new chief of the Appawet Clan accepted her election by giving her word that she would do everything in her power to conserve the unity of the Beothuk land. She proposed that Whitig become leader of the guardians, and that Wedumite take charge of the elite corps of female guardians. She promised to raise these candidates at the next grand council meeting, scheduled to take place during the moon of the longest sun of the season-cycle, which was to be the next moon, to be held at Red Ochre Lake.

  After the feast, Ooish coupled with her new husband, Jean le Guellec, named Wobee. He was attentive during their coupling, eager to satisfy the desires of his wife. He thought it amusing to be both her husband and her subject, and teased her as she lay on their marriage bed.

  “When we are here in our mamateek,” she replied seriously, “I am your wife and simply a Beothuk woman. But when I am sitting in council, I am the chief. There is no need to confuse the two responsibilities. If I do, then it will be impossible for me to govern all members of the clan equally. You must remember that, and you must also remind me of it if I appear to forget. It is very important to me.”

  And they slept in peace, each in the arms of the other.

  The nation’s affairs proceeded as might have been expected. As a descendant of Anin and Woasut, Ooish was responsible for ensuring the repopulation of the island, and this required her to re-establish the rule of polygamy among clans in which there were more women than men. But she would not allow that rule to apply to herself. This caused her to be criticized by the other women of her own clan, as well as by the nation. When she learned of this she confided in Wobee:

  “I do not know what to do,” she told him. “It seems I have failed in my responsibility as a wife and a clan member. The need for polygamy is obvious, and yet I have made myself an exception to my own rule. This has put me in an embarrassing position with the other women. What do you think?”

  “I would not object to having a second wife,” said the Malouin, smiling, “or even a third. When you give birth to the child you are carrying, I will be required to take a replacement in any case. Otherwise we would not be contributing to the repopulation of the island, as you have ordered us all to do. If you are jealous, you could be the one to choose my other wives from among your friends. That way, you would be able to choose women you could control. In any case, you would always be my first wife.”

  Ooish thought for a long time before falling asleep in the arms of her Malouin husband who had become a Beothuk.

  When Wobee woke up, Ooish was already gone. He stepped out of the mamateek and looked about for her. A young boy stopped and said to him:

  “Ooish has gone to the female guardians’ camp. She said she would return before nightfall.”

  There was nothing for Wobee to do but wait for Ooish to return. That, he reflected,
was the chief occupation of the husband of the chief of the Seal Clan: to wait. When the sun was setting, Ooish came into their mamateek accompanied by two other women. The first was short and plump, the second tall and thin, like a rougher version of Ooish, without her attractiveness.

  “These are the women I have chosen for you,” Ooish told Wobee. “The name of the first is Obosheen, She Who Warms. The second is Badisut the Dancer. They have agreed to be your wives. Remember that you must honour them within the mamateek. If you do not, I will consider you to be unfaithful, and I will kill you with my own hands. They have been informed of these rules. I want to know what you do with them. They have accepted this condition. Do you?”

  Jean le Guellec, a Malouin formerly of the ship of Jacques Cartier, now Wobee the Beothuk, gladly accepted this condition, eager as he was to ensure the continued happiness of the household and of the clan. That night Obosheen, the fat one, asked to be served first. Their coupling had little tenderness and few caresses, but Obosheen seemed satisfied and soon went to sleep – in the arms of Badisut. The Frenchman, although he had been embarrassed to couple before two other women, also went to sleep without complaint.

  The following morning Ooish took the two women to each mamateek in the village and introduced them as Wobee’s new wives, thus putting an end to the murmurings and criticisms of the other women. She had now done her duty as a wife and a woman, like all Beothuk. At nightfall, there was singing and dancing in the clan chief’s mamateek, by Ooish and Badisut. This was followed by two sessions of coupling, one with Badisut and the other with Ooish, after which the Malouin sailor slept soundly. The first session he had performed in a half-hearted manner, but the second, with Ooish, was a revelation to the new wives, who learned for the first time why Wobee referred to coupling as “making love.” They followed the lesson closely, realizing that the act was more complex than the simple back-and-forth thrusting they had experienced before. They saw that the same kind of tenderness that existed between women could also exist between Ooish and Wobee. They had never suspected that it could be so …

  It was still dark when a young hunter came to the mamateek of the clan chief. Everyone awoke.

  “A pod of white whales has entered the bay,” he told them. “It passed close to the islands and has not taken the deep channel back out to the open sea. Now is the time to hunt them. Everyone in the village who is available must come, quickly. An opportunity like this comes only once in the life of a hunter. Quickly. Get up. We must get some long cutters. Everyone, down to the beach!”

  And he was gone as quickly as he had arrived. He could be heard rousing the other mamateeks: “White whales! White whales!” The whole village was awakened. The hunter had given Ooish a more detailed report so that she would be aware of the situation, but also as a way of telling Wobee that he too was expected to take part in the hunt. Nonetheless, it was with an ill grace that he searched in the darkness for his moccasins and dingiam. Ooish told him they were unnecessary, since he was going to get thoroughly wet in any case.

  “Whether you are in a tapatook or on the beach, you will be soaked.”

  “I don’t know anything about this hunt.”

  “Just do what the others tell you to do.”

  She left, naked except for her dingiam, ready to go to work. His two other wives, both experienced hunters and guardians, led Wobee to the beach, where fifty tapatooks were already lined up. Old Camtac explained to the paddlers that their job was to turn the whales back towards shore by forming a cordon across the mouth of the bay and beating the water with their paddles. Two paddlers per tapatook, no more. The others must stay on shore to assist in cutting up the whales and boiling the fat.

  While the paddlers sprang into their tapatooks and set off, staying close to the shore so as not to chase the whales out of the bay, the older women lit fires on the beach. Around each fire they arranged birchbark containers that could be sealed shut with pine resin. On one fire they placed a large metal cauldron, obtained by trading with the last ship that had been allowed to take on drinking water.

  The beaters had surrounded the pod of beluga whales, which had just discovered the deep channel to the north of the Island of Exploits. The tapatooks lined up across this channel, completely blocking it, then the paddlers at the bow of each tapatook began hitting the water with their paddles while the stern paddlers slowly moved the tapatooks towards the beach. The confused whales raced towards shore. The first to arrive near the beach were the juveniles.

  As soon as a whale surfaced in the shallow water, two or three hunters closed in with their spears and harpooned the animal at its main artery, on the right side just below the vent. The whale lost all its blood very rapidly, and died. Then the women and the older men waded in and began cutting up the whale with semicircular cutters attached to the end of long poles. The cut pieces were as long as a man’s thigh and the thickness of a hand. The youngsters carried the pieces to shore, where the older women attached them to tripods close to the fires, and placed birchbark containers beneath them to catch the dripping oil as the flesh baked. When the strips were partially cooked, the women removed them from the poles and placed them in the cauldron, into which they had already put equal parts of fresh water and saltwater. The whale meat was thoroughly boiled, to be eaten as soon as the hunt was over.

  In such manner, twenty-two white whales were killed and rendered. The entire bay was red with their blood. The youngsters, despite being tired from the hard work, laughed and teased one another.

  The meat from such a hunt would last the village several moons. Such an opportunity to hunt sea animals from the beach came only once every ten or fifteen season-cycles, and it was important to take advantage of it. Hunting white whales the usual way, from a tapatook, was dangerous: one tapatook in three did not return from such a hunt. The unfortunate hunters, usually the younger and least experienced ones, made the mistake of placing their tapatook behind the whale, where the animal could upset it with a single swipe of its tail. Or else, having harpooned the beluga, an inoffensive but powerful creature, they allowed it to drag them along until it decided to dive before the men could untie the cable. Many families mourned the result of such carelessness and inexperience.

  Only one death occurred during this shore hunt: a young man had been too close to a whale’s tail end when the animal tried to escape, and he had been thrown onto a rock that stuck out of the water. His skull had been fractured, he had lost consciousness and never awakened. His loss was regretted, but compared to the losses of a traditional whale hunt, the village counted itself lucky.

  Wobee was impressed by the Beothuk’s hunting methods. Nowhere in Europe had he seen whales caught in such a manner. There the animals were chased by oarsmen in swift whaling vessels. The harpooner threw his weapon and the oarsmen braced themselves against the whale’s flight and sounding. Beothuk tapatooks could never withstand such force. The Malouin had learned much. He admired the ingenuity of these people, whom his countrymen termed “primitive and barbaric Savages.”

  “We Europeans are an ignorant lot,” Jacques Cartier’s former crew member told himself: “We talk about wanting to kill these people. I will do my best to prevent that from happening.”

  He helped carry slabs of whale meat and blubber to the cauldron until the setting of the sun. The villagers had been working since before sunrise, without a single break, adults and children alike. Only the three wives of the Malouin had slept, and they, too, had worked hard.

  36

  Ooish’s child was a male. He had hair the colour of red ochre, his skin was light, and his eyes were very big. He had, however, a blue spot on his abdomen, like all the Addaboutik, indicating that he was a true member of the race of Red Men even though his father was a Malouin. He was a healthy child and the delivery was easy, and he was a strong child because he had been delivered in the traditional way. Ooish did not lie down during the birth, and she had no need of another woman to clean the child and cut the cord. For three
whole moons Ooish had drunk an infusion of white birch leaves, an oily beverage that facilitated childbirth in women having their first baby. It also worked for later children; it was a beneficial drink that prevented all complications.

  Wobee was very proud of his first-born son; he cuddled him and took him up in his arms, and talked to him as though the infant could understand every word. Sometimes he spoke to him in French, sometimes in the Breton tongue, the language of his ancestors who had been conquered by the French. The child would grow up speaking three languages, like his father. But he would be an Addaboutik, a member of the Beothuk Nation, an inhabitant of the island of Anin, the ancestor who first travelled around it, more than five hundred season-cycles before, during the time of the Vikings and the first women with pubic hair. It was now common to see women with pubic hair and with hair under their arms, but in Anin’s time, the time of the ancestor, women did not have such coverings. It was the Viking women and the Scots woman Della who introduced this feature into the Beothuk lineage. And body hair in men came from Drona, the former Scots slave whose entire body had been covered with hair, like the body of Gashu-Uwith the Bear. But Drona’s hair was red.

  Wobee’s apprenticeship was long and difficult. He was learning that it was no easy thing to become a Beothuk. First he had to learn to light a fire using two small sticks of dry wood. Before coming to the island he had known how to make fire using a small stick with a ball of sulphur at its tip – a device the French called an “allumette” – or by striking a fire-stone against metal, or even by igniting a small amount of gunpowder. But never before had he seen anyone make a fire by rubbing two sticks together using a small bow, as the Beothuk did. The men in his family had all been mariners, fathers and sons, and they knew that oak was the best wood for building ships. But they knew nothing of the many qualities of the birch tree, the Beothuk tree of life, which even provided them with nourishment. There were birches in France, to be sure, but the French were ignorant of the tree’s virtues. Birchwood was sometimes used for trim in shipbuilding, but no one had thought to make canoes from birchbark. Snowshoes were unknown in Europe, as were sleds for pulling heavy loads through snow. Ropes had been made from hemp for many years, but European women did not weave dried grasses into cords fine enough to be used as rabbit snares. Such work even among the Beothuk was a rare skill, and those who had mastered it sold their wares.