The Inuit (Eskimos, as we have called them), were a nomadic hunter society that developed an oral tradition of singing to explore the vagaries of life and nature. Zealous missionaries put their bloody paws all over it, but certain elements survive to this day. We, the moderns and the citified, are not the only ones to feel the futility of our time here.
The great sea has set me in motion.
Set me adrift,
And I move as a weed in the river.
The arch of sky
And mightiness of storms
Encompasses me,
And I am left
Trembling with joy
Long will be my journey
on the earth.
It seems as if
I’ll never get beyond
the footprints that I make . . .