In the first chapter of Linda Hogan's People of the Whale entitled "Octopus", readers are told of an unfamiliar moment--the silence and stillness before bringing home a whale.....
....When they hunted, the women would be quiet the whole time the men were out. Everyone has to be pure in heart and mind. By then the whale would be coming gladly toward the village.
"Oh brother, sister whale," he sang. "Grandmother whale, Grandfather whale. If you come here to land we have beautiful leaves and trees. We have warm places. We have babies to feed and we'll let your eyes gaze upon them. We will let your soul become a child again. We will pray it back into a body. It will enter our bodies. You will be part human. We'll be part whale. Within our bodies, you will dance in warm rooms, create light, make love. We will be strong in thought for you. We will welcome you. We will treat you well. Then one day I will join you." His wife sang with him.
When Witka truly died, his wife, best girlfriend, and daughter held on to his body longer than they should. They couldn't be sure he was dead just because he wasn't breathing. (22-23).
As a modern reader, it is a breathtaking passage in which life has been delineated into an endless cycle of enrichment. Whales and human beings will share this mingling process of myth-making. The praying of the female whale singer and the sonable agreement of the whales....
Is it the music of cannibalistic ecstasy?
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