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Auvvik (Woman Adopts a Caterpillar)

This is a story about a woman who adopted a caterpillar and did not tell anyone, not even her own husband.

A long time ago, there was a man and wife who had no children. One day, while the husband was away hunting, the woman went for a walk, and found an auvvik [caterpillar]. The woman felt that she wanted to take care of the caterpillar, so she adopted it and took it home with her. At home, she carefully placed the caterpillar in the long cuff of her husband’s mitt [airqavak].

Every morning and every night, the woman let the auvvik suck her blood. The caterpillar began to grow and grow.

The woman did not tell her husband what she was doing. She did not tell anybody. The caterpillar became her secret. Her secret, adopted, auvvik baby.

The caterpillar grew and grew. It grew until it could hardly fit inside the airqavak anymore. Now, when the auvvik fell asleep, its head stuck out of the airqavak. The woman kept feeding the auvvik some of her blood every morning and every night, and the auvvik continued to grow. But the woman still never told her husband that she had adopted the caterpillar.

The auvvik grew so well on its diet of human blood that it became as thick as a human wrist, and also very long.

The auvvik also became a very good listener. The woman used to say “aakaakaa” to the auvvik, and tried to get it to say “aakaakaa” back to her. The auvvik could not speak in words, but it learned to understand her. The auvvik could say “Tijit tijit tijit.” It understood almost everything the woman said to it.

Artist: Adamie Aupalurta Putugu Finally, one day, when the woman was out, her husband realized that his airqavak was missing.

He searched everywhere for his mitten. He looked around his bed. He looked on top of his bed. He looked around his food box. He looked on top of his food box. He looked around the tent. He looked on top of the tent. He searched everywhere. He could not find his airqavak anywhere. Finally, however, he found his airqavak hidden far from the tent. Inside, he found the big auvvik.

The husband was very angry to find an auvvik inside his airqavak. His wife was not around to stop him, so in his anger, he threw the auvvik hard against the ground. The auvvik was so big and fat that it exploded!

When the wife got home, she saw on the ground a large pool of blood. The woman burst into tears, and cried, “Aakaakaarmamannaa augingngitaraluanga!” [Could this be my Aakaakaa’s blood!?] She could not stop moaning, “Tijit tijit taangnguara” [My dear departed tijit tijit], so great was her sadness over the loss of her adopted auvvik.

Excerpt from: Unikkaangualaurtaa (Let's Tell a Story)