Ilatsiak - 16

The little house was only 18 feet long by 12 feet wide, hardly large enough for five men, but in fact five scientists had managed to stuff themselves into it and call it their arctic winter quarters. The lumber to build it had had to come all the way from Alaska as none was to be found on the coast in the area of Bernard Harbour. It was rough sawn, about 1000 feet of it. There was a single window with three panes of glass facing the sunny south. In order that it might be warmer for the winter, the five scientists covered the whole house, walls and roof with square sods cut from the nearby tundra meadows during the summer and recently hauled from there to the house site by dog-sled.
The frame work went up easily enough in only three days. The turf-work to cover the sides and roof of the house had been then split among the men. At first, this proceeded rapidly, but when one section reached the eves, it suddenly collapsed under its own weight requiring the whole side to be started again, this time with a wider base. Each man began looking at how wide their base was and began to re-enforce their walls as well rather than suffer a similar structual failure!
None of the men - all scientists more used to living in southern climes - had any carpentry experience, so the house took on some peculiar twists and one wall sagged so much from the weight of the turf lying against it that any building inspector who might have passed by would have immediately required it to be demolished. Instead of taking such a dramatic step, the men simply added a few additional supports where appropriate, lightened the turf insolation here and there and considered the building job a success.
On one end of the building a large deck was built with the remaining lumber on which was piled all the supplies and equipment required for their stay. Once everything was stored and in place, the whole deck area was covered with a large canvas tarpaulin and tied down to resist the coming winter storms. The end result was a building which was to become more or less “home” to the scientists during the years 1915 and 1916. In later years, the building was taken over by the Anglican mission for several years and in fact stood for many years after that - a testiment to its builders!
Patsy wandered into this building two years after it was first built. “Anyone still having trouble finding their way out?” he called out as he walked through the door. In the early days, several Inuit, not being familar with wooden houses searched in vain for a door indicating the way out once they had entered. While it didn’t happen any longer, it had been a great source of fun in the early days when watching the poor person wander about the house would peer into this place and that searching for the exit door. What seemed to some to be so obvious wasn’t to those not familiar with doors and it had been a major source of entertainment for the white people present.
“Problem seems to be too many people finding their way in!” came back the quick reply. Patsy squeezed in past the stack of crates being used as shelving next to the door and picked his way towards another, lower crate which also doubled as a chair next to the central table. “Remember back when you first came? Not an Inuk in sight for miles no matter how we searched. Must be 30 or 40 out there now. Where’d they all come from...?”
“I hear we’ve a bunch from Bathurst Inlet. Now that’s quite a ways, especially the way they travel. Most of them have to walk. They’ve so few dogs”
“So the scientists had heard about them.” thought Patsy to himself. “And have you met the old man. Ilatsiak’s his name. The real old one, a shaman I would say. He’s kinda strange, yet interesting.”
“Diamond was over to see him this morning. I think he might perform for us. We wouldn’t mind if you were here if and when he does, to help with any translating that might need doing. You know how it gets when they get going, talking a mile a minute!”
“Sure, no problem.” Patsy was glad to be asked. Watching shamen perform was often good entertainment even if he thought them to be big phonies, and getting paid to be there, well, that made it even better. Having these scientists at the trading post was going to work out just fine!

* * *
When first approached Ilatsiak did not seem to be much interested in performing his rites for the white visitors. He answered that he might be able to come some day, but it seemed clear that day would be a long time coming. However just a few days later, while at the house to see if he could trade something for a little sugar, he became interested in the scientists’ phonograph machine which they had been recording and playing back a number of different people’s voices. On the spot, he wanted to record himself and even to summon his spirit helper Kingaudlik. As Ilatsiak was rather short, Patsy and the other men got a box for him to stand on so he could speak directly into the speaker horn to record himself. It was quite an amusing sight to see the old man, almost imp-like, an old elf incarnate, peering into the horn while he danced around on the box, kicking his feet back as if skipping a rope like a child. Suddenly, without going through any of the usual build-up and preliminary antics, he began speaking into the horn. Just as quickly it was over and he jumped down and demanded to hear his spirit talking to him. Most of what played back were the sounds made by his feet shuffling as he danced on the box. Some speech was audible, mostly something to do with wanting liver, Patsy translated to the excited scientists.
After this rather unsatisfactory beginning, Ilatsiak was unstoppable. He immediately proposed to have a proper sceance in a large snow house built for the occasion. When this was ready and everyone, including half the assembled population was present, jammed into the large dance house, Ilatsiak began. He came from out of the crowd and moved slowly about the open space in the center, his eyes slightly glassy and his face contorted. “I need a cup of water...” his voice squeaked out as if he was already possessed. Once it was produced, he stopped his pacing and stared into it for a long moment. “There is something very wrong.” he squeaked again. “There is trouble, something is wrong on the schooner. Someone will drown, soon.” Ilatsiak then slowly drank the water, then walked around looking at all the white men present, shaking their hands very solemnly. At this point, he walked up to the phonograph machine, said, “Begin!” and began to deliver a long and tangled oracle. As best as Patsy was able to make out afterwards through the mingling voices and the sounds and callings of the assembly, Ilatsiak or his spirit associate spoke mostly about some terrible occurrance from the past. “Did you do it?” he called out several times as if pleading to someone. This was followed by “The fish ate them. They say that. It was the fish that ate the people. It is terrifying! The fish ate all the people, swallowing them, those far-away people. They were all distroyed. They were on the sea when it happened and the fish came and ate them.” At this point the crowd made quite a lot of noise as they got caught up in the terrifying references being made by Ilatsiak. Later his voice again dominated the recording and Patsy was able to understand him to say, “The dogs, the dogs, everything is distroyed, easily distroyed, seized with pain..” at this point Ilatsiak grabs his stomach and writhes about as if in pain himself, finally throwing himself to the floor where he lay motionless for a few minutes and then he gradually came to and was helped to a seat on one of the benches along the side of the snow house which had been covered with caribou skins.
Many in the crowd seemed to know of this spirit visitation from previous encounters. It seemed to be a well known story, but apart from learning of it from its having been spoken of before and that it happened a long way away to the east where many unhappy souls resided, no one was willing to talk about it further with Patsy, and certainly not the scientists.
Ilatsiak was not finished however. Once recovered, he again returned to the phonograph and began another sceance with the same spirit as before. This time, the spirit spent a few moments reminding the scientists of the promise to pay Ilatsiak for his work as a shaman although the idea was never been directly mentioned to him as far as anyone could recall. It seems even the spirit world is concerned with the proper settling of accounts, financial and otherwise. Once this part was over, the spirit returned to the previous theme about being eaten. It was especially concerned that the scientists’ schooner would be eated by the giant fish much like the same fish had eaten ships in the past. Special , strong magic would have to be used to see that such a thing did not happen. Ilatsiak finally finished by reminding everyone present that the spirit spoke only the truth and this should be remembered. He then backed away from the horn, but then suddenly, as if having forgotten, moved closer and gave a series of gasps and grunts as if to signal the spirit was leaving him and returning to it’s spiritual home. He then turned and headed directly to the snowhouse door and was gone.