"No woman would kill a whale. Whales give birth to livin' young, they
don't lay eggs like fish. They feed their babies with milk from their
breasts, like women, and we never killed them. The man who killed the
whale never tasted whale meat from the time of his first kill until
after he'd retired as a whaler. And neither did his wife, because he had
to be purified and linked to the whale and the link was through his
wife, by way of the woman's blood and woman's milk, and this was a
promise made by Copper Woman, through the magic women, to the whales. No
one linked to them will eat of them. It is a promise."
Anne Cameron, Daughters of Copper Woman.
