Pushkins

The wild pushkin (front cover) has many legs yet seems to move through snow blizzards without leg movement, making a sensitive drum-beat sound. Inuit folklore handed down thru time from Shaanan to Shaaan has shown great respect for this animal of the cold north, and stories are told of it saving many dying and freezing people by giving them warmth from tiny hands. Other tales are told of how the wild pushkin, while never being seen, has led many to water and shelter by beckoning the lost with strange noises.

Only a few men have ever seen the wild pushkin and it only seems to appear to people during blinding snow storms and moments of life and death. One man recounted from his experience of being lost in a storm: “I felt a presence near me that screeched a quiet high-pitched sound like dolphin chatter...it told me in my mind that a village was not far, not to be afraid, and that it would lead me there.” I thought I was going to die, being near frozen, but I got up and followed the small beast that could talk to me in my mind.” (Yukon, 1913)