Are you still Christmas shopping? This will help!
An excerpt from Wilson Bay, Conley Stone McAnally's new book on his experiences in Alaska. This is such a good read. I treasure books like this because they remind me of an epigram in one of my books: "Sometimes we forget that everyone else is living their moments while we're busy living ours." The world is a big place. Don't miss a bit of it!
Wilson Bay
...The meat is divided
among the hunters in proportion to the help each provided during the hunt. It
is cheaper than buying beef at the village store.
The intestines will be
sold to a craftsman that will produce a water proof rain coat to sell to the
tourists that want to show people after they return home how ingenious Eskimos
can be.
The skin is used for
ceremonial clothing and repairing of artifacts that the Eskimos keep around
more to impress the tourists than anything else. The best part of the
skin, however is taken to the eldest of the Elders. He or she makes the
selection as to who will be given the task, and then the village waits.
A three foot diameter
circle is made by the selected craftsman by carving, bending, heating, and
pressing driftwood together. It is held in place by a stone vice while a
handle made from ivory or still more driftwood is attached by sinew. The
length of the handle depends on the size of the beater.
The skin, after
being cured, cleaned, and scraped to a shinny surface is stretched tightly
across the circular frame. The instrument is left to dry and harden in
the sun, thus further stretching the skin tighter, thereby giving it it’s
haunting melodious sound.
The eldest of the Elders
directs how the product is to be decorated. A different craftsman
provides the ceremonial decorations. The item is then presented to the
eldest of the Elders for approval.
After an ancient
blessing, that no one now alive knows how long it has been chanted, a crafted
willow stick strikes the middle of the drum and it resonates though out the
tundra as all previous drums on the tundra have done for ten thousand years...
Note: Conley's first book is Tales From Homer.
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