He also encountered in shamans a shrewd understanding of the condition of the Eskimo. How many songs I own, I cannot say. I have not kept count of them. I merely know I have many, and that everything in me is song. Willow Twig, Alaskan Eskimo 2 Songs Are Thoughts Songs are thoughts, sung out with the breath when people are moved by great forces and ordinary speech no longer suffices.
Man is moved just like the ice floe sailing here and there out in the current.
His thoughts are driven by a flowing force when he feels joy, when he feels fear, when he feels sorrow. Thoughts can wash over him like a flood, making his breath come in gasps and his heart throb. Something, like an abatement in the weather, will keep him thawed up. And then it will happen that we, who always think we are small, will feel still smaller. And we will fear to use words.