The Skeleton Women - an Inuit tale of a murder, loneliness and love

źródło: Kate Soutar (Caddick)

Up in the North, there lived a girl who had done something of which her father disapproved, although no one any longer remembered what it was. But her father had dragged her to the cliffs and thrown her over and into the sea.

There, the fish ate her flesh away and plucked out her eyes. As she lay under the sea, her skeleton turned over and over in the currents.

Since then it was thought that the bay was hunted and nobody went there. But one day a young fisherman came. His hook drifted down through the water, and caught in the bones of Skeleton Woman’s rib cage. The fisherman thought, “Oh, now I’ve really got a big one!"   In his mind he was thinking of how many people this great fish would feed.

 And as he struggled with this great weight on the end of the hook, his kayak bucked and shook, for she who was beneath struggled to free herself. And the more she struggled, the more she tangled in the line. 

When the hunter  turned to pull up his net,  he saw her bald skull with the little coral creatures glinting in the orbs and ivory teeth risen above the water. The man was horrified and his heart fell into his knees. He screamed and began paddling like a demon toward shoreline. He didn't realize she was tangled in his line and was frightened all the more for she appeared to stand upon her toes while chasing him all the way to shore. No matter which way he zigged his kayak, she stayed right behind. 

Reaching the shore he ran over the rocks, over the frozen tundra and the skeleton woman followed him. She kept right up over the meat laid out to dry. They ran together, cracking it to pieces. In fact, she grabbed some of the frozen fish. She began to eat for she had not had anything in her mouth for a long, long time. 
Finally, the man reached his igloo, scrabbled on hands and knees into the interior through the tunnel. Panting and sobbing he rested there in the dark with his heart like a drum, a mighty drum. Safe at last he thanked the Gods. 

His happiness didn't last long. As he lit the whale oil lamp, suddenly he saw there her – it – laid on the snow floor: one heel over her shoulder, one knee inside her rib cage, one foot over her elbow. 

He could not say later what it was, perhaps the firelight softened her features, or the fact that he was a lonely man… but a feeling of some kindness came into his breathing, and slowly he reached out his grimy hands and using words softly like a mother to child, began to untangle her from the fishing line. When Skeleton Woman’s bones were all in the order a human’s should be, the fisherman dressed her into a fur. After that the man felt tired and sleepy.He slid under his sleeping skins and while falling asleep, he kept gazing at the strange creature sitting opposite him. 

And she in the furs said not a word – she did not dare – scared to be taken out and thrown from the rocks again. 

Soon the man was dreaming and sometimes as humans sleep, you know, a tear escapes from the dreamer’s eye; we never know what sort of dream causes this, but we know it is either a dream of sadness or longing. And this is what happened to the man. The Skeleton Woman saw the tear glisten and she became suddenly so thirsty. She crawled over to the sleeping man and put her mouth to his tear. 

The single tear was like a river and she drank and drank and drank until her many-years-long thirst was over. While lying beside him, she reached inside the sleeping man and took out his heart, the mighty drum. She sat up and banged on both sides of it: Bom Bomm!…..Bom Bomm! As she drummed, she began to sing out “Flesh, flesh, flesh! Flesh, Flesh, Flesh!” And the more she sang, the more her body filled out with flesh. She sang for hair and good eyes and nice fat hands, legs, breasts  and all the things a woman needs. And when she was all done, she crept into the man’s bed  - skin against skin. 

She returned his heart to his body, and that is how they awakened, wrapped one around the other in a good and lasting way.

The people, who cannot remember how she came to her first misfortune, say she and the fisherman went away and were always well fed by the creatures she had known in her life under water. The people say that it is true and that is all they know.