Introduction-E

This was also an old custom?
Saullu: Yes, we used to have to whistle when we were children just after we had quickly
taken something.
Did you ever hear that if someone took a bone from a grave, the earth
would shake?
Saullu: I have not heard that. We just had to whistle.
How did you whistle, with your hands?
Saullu: Whistle with the hands that took something. Maybe it was an act of trading?
How about if you almost stepped on the grave?
Saullu: I walked on a grave once when I was ptarmigan hunting. There was a lot of
snow when I realized I was walking on the very grave that I was so scared of. Nobody
ever found out though. I only realized that I had been stepping on the grave that I was
so scared of after my footprints uncovered the grave.
Did you have to whistle on your feet?
Saullu: I didn’t whistle on them. I can’t reach them.
If you touched something with your feet, did you have to return it
with your hands, was this the custom?
Saullu: No, I don’t know about this. We were told to whistle on our hands as children,
so we used to do this.
Were you told to whistle because otherwise you might be whistled at?
Saullu: We were not told that, only to whistle on our hands. I was never told why. I was
only told to whistle and nothing else.
Pauloosie: Me too.
I’ll be asking questions now about dogteams.
You said you used to have many dogs.
Pauloosie: Yes.
Life Stories – Pauloosie Angmarlik 115