"In Grara, sometimes the cold of winter kills people. Here we say that they become the prey of Haira's children. To keep them away we sing a song when the autumn turns. Children believe it and the adults sing too for the children. Well, that's what they would tell you. When it gets really cold you will see, they do at least to a certain degree believe it."— Tasiir of the People of the Horse
The Children's Hunger
As the story goes, it is very cold in Haira's tent where she lives with her children so they leave the tent at the end of autumn and come to
Breharan to seek out people and consume the heat from their bodies. To prevent these children from coming to their communities the
Orth sing a song as the season begins to change to winter.
The song is sung around a large bonfire and serves to placate the children with songs and heat. It is part of a larger celebration performed before the community packs up and moves to their winter home.
History
Everywhere in my travels I have encountered many beliefs about a great many things. Believe it or not the Orth belief that some children come to steal the heat, the life, from people is not among the most disturbing.— Takalia, A Life of Wind and Song
As with most traditional
Orth stories and traditions, the wintersong is inherited from ancestors in time immemorial.
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