Thomas Doty – Storyteller

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Singing for My Shadow

In many native cultures, people sing for their shadows. All night your shadow wanders around. To sing for it in the morning brings it home.

In Jaime de Angulo's mythic novel Indian Tales, Bear loses his shadow when he laughs at a whirligig beetle. But with the help of Loon Woman, and an appropriate song, he gets it back. That's good. You can't live without your shadow.

My shadow song goes like this:

shadow come home
the sun is nearly here
come over the mountains
come home through the valleys
come home through the morning mist
cross over the rivers and creeks
come spend the day with me
I want to live a long time
shadow come home

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