Eskimo (1933)

Mala: Mala, aka Kripik

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mala, aka Kripik : My mother looks younger and fatter every day.

• Aba, Mala's wife : Our little seal cried because he could not go with you.

  Mala, aka Kripik : A few more summers and the salmon will not mistake him for a frog.

• Mala, aka Kripik : People are glad to have a man and his wives join their village.

  Stranger with Two Wives : A poor hunter is glad to remain.

  Mala, aka Kripik : Unfold your tent. Our food is your food.

  Stranger with Two Wives : One will some day show his thanks to the great hunter.

• Mala, aka Kripik : It seems one has been to the White Men.

  Numaka : Yes. One was allowed to live on their floating house.

• Aba, Mala's wife : One could be even a greater hunter with a gun.

  Mala, aka Kripik : Gods - with white skins...

  Mala's mother : They are men with black hearts - - *I know*!

• Mala, aka Kripik : And how did one's wife meet death?

  Urajak : One met a bear with an empty belly. My arrows were late.

  Mala, aka Kripik : One has been wifeless long?

  Urajak : Perhaps twenty sleepings...

  Mala, aka Kripik : [Mala looks at Aba, his wife, and she nods her head yes]  One surely needs a woman now...

  Urajak : Yes. One desires to laugh again...

  [Mala begins to stand up to leave] 

  Urajak : One leaves a woman in his igloo?

  Mala, aka Kripik : A husband suddenly wishes to go hunting.

  [Mala leaves and returns the next morning, Aba crawls out of the igloo] 

  Mala, aka Kripik : One thinks a certain man has laughed long enough.

  [both Mala and Aba laugh] 

• Mala, aka Kripik : [after Captain tells Mala to leave his wife onboard the boat]  But he is a stranger. We just met!

  Eskimo Interpreter : White man always right.

  Mala, aka Kripik : But he didn't even ask me first!

• Mala, aka Kripik : A wife stays in my igloo?

  Aba, Mala's wife : Somebody waits only for Mala.

  [rub noses] 

• Mala, aka Kripik : Somebody is not here?

  Mala's Oldest Son : Somebody Sleeps.

  Mala, aka Kripik : How is it possible?

  Mala's Oldest Son : The White Men took her. Their gun put Sleep in her head.

• Mala, aka Kripik : A mother does not come to greet her son?

  Numaka : Before the snow left, we built her The Last Igloo.

• Mala, aka Kripik : What use is a female who cannot sew skins?

• Stranger with Two Wives : Mala, one offers a woman to sew.

  Mala, aka Kripik : One is pleased to accept.

  Stranger with Two Wives : Iva is not fat but her needle is fastest.

• Mala, aka Kripik : Ravens! A caribou herd moves with the sun!

• Wise Old One : The hunter is troubled?

  Mala, aka Kripik : A caribou became a man! Can a Wise Old One tell one what to do?

  Wise Old One : Go ask the Spirits for a new name. Then he cannot follow you.

• Mala, aka Kripik : Kripik? Kripik. Kripik!

• Iva : Why should the great Mala need help from the Spirits?

  Mala, aka Kripik : I am not Mala now. I am Kripik.

• Mala, aka Kripik : One wishes his wives in his own Kramat?

  Stranger with Two Wives : No. One decides to leave them with Mala forever.

  Mala, aka Kripik : What?

  Stranger with Two Wives : Mala is the Great Hunter, he needs women, his children need women.

  [rubs noses with both wives] 

  Stranger with Two Wives : One leaves to rejoin his tribe. One is happiest in making his friend happy...

• Iva : Always I shall work for you.

  Mala, aka Kripik : Somebody has surely made a man happy again.

• Iva : Empty bellies do not matter - now that our hearts are filled again...

  Mala, aka Kripik : One is tired from a little trip - like an old woman. But tomorrow one will become a hunter again...

• Iva : The White Men come to take Mala?

  Mala, aka Kripik : They want me to swallow Sleep...

• Mala, aka Kripik : One must leave again. One will meet Sleep only as a hunter meets it.

• Mala, aka Kripik : The ice is going out. Soon there will be walrus to feed you.

  Mala's Oldest Son : One will try to keep his harpoon swift.

• Mala, aka Kripik : But even if your bellies are torn by the Last Hunger - - never go to the White Men!

• Mala, aka Kripik : [to Iva]  Always one shall remember the warmth of your breast.

• Mala, aka Kripik : Go back. The White Man's stain is not on you.

  Iva : But Iva must follow. Even in the Long Sleep she wants Mala's arms around her.