Ilatsiak - 79 - David's Vision

Inside the snow-house, David set about his usual routine to get in touch with the spirits. It took two days for them to come. He was beginning to worry that he had been abandoned by more than his wife and friend. The spirits seemed to have left him as well. However when they came to him, it was very vividly. He saw a little ship, frozen into the bay and several people dressed in fur clothing worked around her, coming and going. No Inuit people could be seen near her. The men worked at strange white platforms out on the ice, some of which had little doors which would swing out. The men would then take something out look at it carefully then begin to swing it at arm’s length. Finally they would replace the object, close the door to the box and return to the ship.
David wanted to see the men more closely, but had trouble. The spirits kept fading the vision he had and other than a brief glimpse of the boat, he was able to see nothing that made much sense to him. In the end, he knew that this boat would leave in the summer and never come again. He would never meet the people on it, but in some strange way these men would meet him, or at least people, he had known as children. In one of his visions, the boat was in another place, a place he had known with his father Agayuq many years ago. At first, he saw men standing on this ship speaking to Inuit people on the ice below. Then the scene abruptly changed. Everyone was out in the snow and were crowding around the white men, grabbing at them, pulling their clothing and shouting and laughing. They would called them “Kablunaq” and stare into their faces, then try to stroke their beards and feel their arms and chests as if trying to discover what they were. David woke up from these visions exhausted and confused. What was he seeing? He couldn’t be sure. It was disquieting and disturbing, yet he had the feeling that these men were not to be feared. There were not looking for him as others had seemed to be.
When Kudluk returned for his father, he found him asleep. He entered his snow-house and began to cut off slices of frozen caribou from the leg bone he had left. “This old man has forgotten to eat...” he mumbled to himself. “He’ll starve to death if I leave him alone too much.”
The sound of someone with him slowly came to David’s ears and brought him awake. He saw Kudluk and smiled, his eyes had a sparkle to them which Kudluk found almost amusing. “You have come, my son. Good. It is time to return to the camp. All is well. Uyaraluk is happy in the spirit world. Life must go on now.”