Ilatsiak - 54 - David's Illness

The plan had been to leave the camp at Matty Island in the morning and continue looking for Agayuq and Maneejaq to the east on Boothia Peninsula. However in the morning David was obviously not well. He had tossed and turned in the night, forcing Qayak to replace the caribou sleeping robes several times. Finally she got up and began heating up the remains of the seal soup they had been eating the day before.
David drifted in and out of sleep, sometimes yelling in his sleep. Qayaq didn’t understand what he was saying as he spoke English or Gaelic, but it was enough to worry her. When it was light enough, she went around the camp to speak with the other women to see if they had any ideas on what she should do. Finally, it was decided to ask an older man who was known to be a part-time shaman, only to discover that he was out hunting. When Qayaq returned to their dwelling, David was stark naked and washing himself with snow he had taken from the floor of the house.
“What are you doing?” Qajaq asked, surprised at his behaviour.
“Go away! Get out of here!” he yelled back. Qayaq was shocked. She had never seen him acting like this. It was very impolite in her experience for anyone to raise their voice. She turned and fled. As she exited the entrance, she could already see others coming to see what was happening. They rushed over and hustled her into another snow house close by.
“What’s happening?” they asked.
“I don’t know...” Qayaq buried her head in her hands. “He’s very strange. I don’t know.”
Over the course of the next few hours, all kinds of bizarre noises and yells came from David’s igloo. When the shaman finally arrived back from hunting, he was immediately asked for help. By this time, David had broken several windows in the walls of the snow house and was throwing all their belongings outside. The shaman instructed everyone to bring skins and to cover the igloo. He entered the snow porch and suddenly everything went quiet inside. In a few minutes he came back outside.
“We must remove the skins and get ready to leave this place. He is dead.”
Qayaq was stunned. Dead? What was happening? She burst into tears and ran towards the snowhouse, but as quickly she was grabbed and held back. “No! We must leave. Now!”
Someone held Qayaq while everyone rushed to leave and within the hour, the whole camp was deserted. Only the shambles of David’s igloo remained, but it was silent and seemed empty of life.

Once everyone was asleep in the new camp set up several miles away, Qayaq got dressed and began walking back to find David.