Eskimo
Album - 1979 - Debaser id 38384

Since the most important person in the Eskimo community is thehunter, and since hunters are always male, female infants are ritually killed if there is no infant male who will someday need a mate to cook, sew, and chew leather for him. This social condition adds to the drama of birth.
The pains were coming in regular intervals and she knew that if she didn'tstart moving now, her legs might collapse under her before she could reach the ice cave. The ceremonial band was already playing birth music and the other women sang in an attempt to comfort her. But as her steps carried her toward the ice cave and the ceremonial band's music became lost in the wind. the true lonliness of her situation loomed even larger in her mind. The gaping mouth of the ice cave eagerly awaited. And although she felt fear, she knew the cave also offered relief from her quickening pains, for this journey had been made many times before.
Her pace remained unchanged as she entered the cave, which now enlargedbefore her and engulfed her in the sweet music of slowly moving ice vibrating within its own cristaline formations. Deeper into the cave she went. The men were playing the kooa and chanting for the birth of a male.
Finally she reached the furthest chamber where stood the Angakok. Deliverybegan immediately as the magic man filled the room with protective prayers. The child was born. The Eskimo woman reached forth with her hand, gently across the already frozen crust on the infant's belly to feel the child's sex; the other women came into the chamber singing the song of life and bore the infant away.

IF A GOOD HUNTER DIES, THE OTHER MEN CUT HIM UP AND RUB THEPIECES ON THEIR SPEARHEADS TO IMPROVE THEIR AIM.
BATHING IS DONE IN URINE.
ESKIMOS EAT ONLY MEAT, INCLUDING ROTTEN WALRUS, WHICH IS SAID TOTASTE LIKE CHEESE.

Arctic hysteria is a phenomenon that occurs in the dead of winter,primarily to women. The weeks of darkness and general sensory deprivation lead to the eventual temporary loss of a firm touch with reality.
Darkness prevailed everywhere. Beside her igloo, a woman sat in the windsinging softly to herself while beating the snow from her husband's seal fur clothing. Her voice and mind drifted with the soft tones of the nearby kooa player. Her song was about her work, but her unfocused eyes revealed a growing distance. The darkness seemed to confine her, and the singing voice seemed not to be her own.
The realization struck! "I am dead, or at least the others believe I am",she thought. Already she hears the pounding of the tribe's hands packing down the snow on her icy grave as they sing their song of farewell. The rhythm of death sounds in her ears.
She feels cold no more as her worst fears are realized. She has been sentto the "Land of the Crestfallen", where only the spirits of poor hunters and badly tatooed women spent eternity snapping at butterflies. But wait! Even worse! Instead of butterflies, the dreaded Arctic locust swarmed into the evening air devouring all in their path.
The men in the tribe had become aware of the woman's hysterical sufferingand joined in a circle to sing a chant of releasement. "Chukaroq, chukaroq, chukaroq, ei", they sang, until finally the woman once again returned to beating the snow mindlessly from her husbands clothing, virtually unaware of what had happened as her song of work faded into the wind.

WOMEN CANNOT GO OUT IN MOONLIGHT. ESKIMOS BELIEVE THE MOON ISMALE AND WILL IMPREGNATE WOMEN.
SOME NEWBORN INFANTS ARE KILLED SECRETLY, DRIED OUT, AND PLACEDIN A BAG WHICH IS WORN BY A PERSON OR STUFFED INTO A KAYAK NOSE. THIS IS SAID TO IMPROVE HUNTING.
A MENSTRUATING WOMAN IS NOT ALLOWED TO GO OUTSIDE WITHOUT FIRSTBATHING IN THE URINE OF A CHILE.

One of the many strange Eskimo phenomena is the disappearance ofchildren. In such inclumate conditions one can easily understand how this can happen. However, Eskimo mythology speaks of children being stolen by the spirit of the weeping seal, which is half seal and half woman, and who, because she can have no children, must steal any she finds unguarded.
Pop! the bladders went. Hunting season had been good and there were manybladders to burst. The band played gleefully, eager to get to the next peak in the music so all could explore the inflated bladders the creatures which had fed and clothed the Eskimos all year. Finally, the music ended and everyone immediately ran toward the sea, eager to throw the burst bladders through a hole in the ice so the souls of the animals could return to the sea and be caught again next year.
Because of the excitement, an important Eskimo rule has been broken. Achild was left unattended. Tears froze on his cheeks as he stood crying behind an igloo. Suddenly, there was another sound in the wind. A whistle, a bark,. a growling whine filled the air around the terrified child, whirling him around in a flurry of ice.
The Eskimo soon returned to discover that the child was missing, andrealized the folly of their over-excitement at the bladder festival. The Angakok started a chant to halt the fleeing spirit, but he knew the chant would only delay the spirit of the Weeping Seal's complete takeover of the child. They would have to go to "the world beneath the world" and fight.
Several dog sleds sped away across the tundra, whips cracking at the barking dogs. On the lead sled the child's father and the Angakok crouched, defending themselves against the blast of Arctic wind. The ride was long and tiring.
As they neared their destination, the men sang a chant and the Angakok spokea spell. A dog which was brought before him was decapitated, and the head, still containing the dog spirit, was quickly taken down to the neather world, while the other dogs, smelling the blood fo their own kind, howled into the cold night. The Angakok raised the god head into the air and called forth its spirit to battlethe Weeping Seal and force it to return the stolen child.
The two spirits met and intertwined in the air. With the Northern Lightsthey danced and sang, and then they disappeared slowly as the men returned to their village in hopes that the child would be there.