Noun
The distance that can be traveled in a day given the current terrain and conditions, used as a measurement by the native peoples of Greenland.
- Examples
-
From Etah to Uunartoq the three of us will be able to manage the transportation, and in two trips — well, we'll see. Four or five siniks.
More examples (3)
In North Greenland distances are measured in sinik, in 'sleeps', the number of nights that a journey requires. It's not a fixed distance. Depending on the weather and the time of year, the number of sinik can vary.
The air around me clouds up with my hurried breathing, mixed in with my dog team. But I'm also panting in relief that our journey's done for the sinik and we've found some refuge for the night.
Another example of Smilla's advantageous mindset is her remembered Inuit understanding of space as she recalls measuring journeys she took with her mother in siniks, the number of sleeps that a journey requires (278).
Noun
The spirit or magical force associated with an item in the belief system of New Guinea.
- Examples
-
More examples (4)
You've been handling the ancestral bones, so you can't touch my baby for three days — until the sinik of the bones leaves you. Otherwise, the sinik will possess my little one, who is small and weak, and its magical force will surely kill him!"
In parallel, female associated sinik, such as birth fluids, afterbirth, and menstrual blood, are always harmful to initiated men to the point of illness or death.
In so doing, the sinik was extinguished so that the victim could not even become a momoyok, the normal fate of the sinik of war victims: "he was finished with his name."
The taro side expert then addresses the sinik [spirit] of the corpse, telling it that the villagers would like it to remain with them to be an usong [ancestor spirit] and not turn into a bagel [ghost spirit] and go to Bagelam [the Land of the Dead].