Sedna … the sinister sea goddess … glares out from her watery
domain. Once again … man has been overly prolific. She cannot abide
his ever expanding population. He has been hiding in his igloos and
playing till exhaustion before going outside and lighting lamps in
order to see who has slept with whom. The frozen land will not
support them all. One by one … she drowns them till she is
satisfied she has thinned the population out to the degree she deems
adequate.
Sedna … unruly child who began one day to eat the flesh of her
mother and father. So they took her to sea and threw her overboard.
Tenacious Sedna hung on to the side of the boat … not yet ready to
make the sea her domain. In order to break her grip … her father
chopped her fingers off to the first knuckle. These bits became
seals. He chopped off to the second knuckle … and these bits became
walruses. From the remaining bits of fingers the whales were born.
And Sedna grew to be the despicable creature she is.
She is a force to be reckoned with. She lies under the sea …
fingerless … unable to comb her once beautiful but now matted
hair. She hates man. She raises storms in order to make their
efforts at fishing futile. Only the Shamans who visit her and comb
her hair for her have the power to appease her temper … and
request she abate the storms and release sea creatures in order that
man may once again fish for food and furs.
The Inuit rush to escape her fearful wrath. They harness their dogs
to their sledges and ride off into the white expanse of the northern
regions to hunt for polar bear and caribou.
Oh Benjamin … do digress for a moment would you please … and
tell us who do not know … what pray tell is a sledge? Ahhh … a
sledge dear souls … is a heavy sled. Who knew that … hmmm? I did
not. I saw sledge … I thought hammer.
I have this image old friends … of a golden Inuit and his sledge.
It is an 18 karat gold gem-set Eskimo and Sledge Brooch designed by
Lacloche Fr=E8res, circa 1950. It’s worth about 4000 Swiss Francs. Do
not know American equivalent. Too lazy to search it out. Enjoy it.
Tell me if you like it.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
Tidbits Graphics … and then click on the link that says: Sledge
… where you’ll see an image of an 18 karat yellow gold gem-set
Eskimo with dogs and sledge.
And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark