In the beginning all the Inuit lived near Ussualung, in Tiniqdjuarbing
(Cumberland Sound). The Igdlumiut, the Nugumiut, and the Talirpingmiut
in the south, the Aggomiut in the far north, and the Inuit, who tattoo
rings round their eyes, in the far west, all once lived together. There
is a tradition concerning the emigration of the Sagdlirmiut (see p. 451)
who live east of Iglulik. The Akudnirmiut say that the following events
did not happen in Tiniqdjuarbing, but in Aggo, a country where nobody
lives nowadays. Ikeraping, an Akudnirmio, heard the story related by a
Tununirmio, who had seen the place himself, but all the Oqomiut assert
that Ussualung is the place where the events in the story happened.
An old woman, the sister of Mitiq, the angakoq, told the story as
follows:
Near Ussualung there are two places, Qerniqdjuaq and Eχaluqdjuaq. In
each of these was a large house, in which many families lived together.
They used to keep company during the summer when they went deer hunting,
but returned to their separate houses in the fall.
Once upon a time it happened that the men of Qerniqdjuaq had been very
successful, while those of Eχaluqdjuaq had caught scarcely any deer.
Therefore the latter got very angry and resolved to kill the other
party, but they preferred to wait until the winter. Later in the season
many deer were caught and put up in depots. They were to be carried down
to the winter settlements by means of sledges.
One day both parties agreed upon a journey to these depots and the men
of Eχaluqdjuaq resolved to kill their enemies on this occasion. They set
out with their dogs and sledges, and when they were fairly inland they
suddenly attacked their unsuspecting companions and killed them. For
fear that the wives and children of the murdered men might be suspicious
if the dogs returned without their masters, they killed them too. After
a short time they returned and said they had lost the other party and
did not know what had happened to them.
A young man of Eχaluqdjuaq was the suitor of a girl of Qerniqdjuaq and
used to visit her every night. He did not stop his visits now. He was
kindly received by the woman and lay down to sleep with his young wife.
Under the snow bench there was a little boy who had seen the young man
of Eχaluqdjuaq coming. When everybody was sleeping he heard somebody
calling and soon recognized the spirits of the murdered men, who told
him what had happened and asked him to kill the young man in revenge.
The boy crept from his place under the bed, took a knife, and put it
into the young man’s breast. As he was a small boy and very weak, the
knife glided from the ribs and entered deep into the heart, thus killing
the young man.
Then he roused the other inhabitants of the hut and told them that the
spirits of the dead men had come to him, that they had told him of their
murder, and had ordered him to kill the young man. The women and
children got very much frightened and did not know what to do. At last
they resolved to follow the advice of an old woman and to flee from
their cruel neighbors. As their dogs were killed, the sledges were of no
use, but by chance a bitch with pups was in the hut and the old woman,
who was a great angakoq, ordered them to go and whip the young dogs,
which would thus grow up quickly. They did so and in a short time the
pups were large and strong. They harnessed them and set off as quickly
as possible. In order to deceive their neighbors they left everything
behind and did not even extinguish their lamps, that they might not
excite suspicion.
The next morning the men of Eχaluqdjuaq wondered why their companion had
not returned and went to the hut in Qernirtung. They peeped through the
spy hole in the window and saw the lamps burning, but nobody inside. At
last they discovered the body of the young man, and, finding the tracks
of the sledges, they hurriedly put their sledges in order and pursued
the fugitives.
Though the latter had journeyed rapidly their pursuers followed still
more rapidly and seemed likely to overtake them in a short time. They
therefore became very much frightened, fearing the revenge of their
pursuers.
When the sledge of the men drew near and the women saw that they were
unable to escape, a young woman asked the old angakoq: “Don’t you know
how to cut the ice?” The matron answered in the affirmative and slowly
drew a line over the ice with her first finger across the path of their
pursuers. The ice gave a loud crack. Once more she drew the line, when a
crack opened and quickly widened as she passed on. The floe began moving
and when the men arrived they could not cross over the wide space of
water. Thus the party were saved by the art of their angakoq.
For many days they drifted to and fro, but finally they landed on the
island of Sagdlirn, where they took up their abode and became the
mothers of the Sagdlirmiut.