The Scoop (second of a series of 4 portraits)
part of private collection.
Not so long ago the Eskimos had a thanksgiving rite for spirits who helped them in hunting. When the exhausted hunters returned with their prey, their women were waiting for them with scoops full of water. A woman was supposed first to give a drink to a prey by wetting its muzzle, and then give a scoop to a man. This rite was also performed when hunters returned without any prey.
If by misfortune a hunter never returned, the scoop was not more used. It was kept as a family relic, a remembrance of the days full of joys and sorrows, connecting every wrinkle on the woman’s face with her memories.
