The Asan call the melody the “Lullaby of the Lost,” and it is a song that is often sung during times of stress and hardship among their people.

According to an oral tradition, long passed down, an Asan mother once lost her child in a forest and was able to make herself known to them by singing the song. The child emerged from hiding, knowing from the song that they were not being punished. When the child, now an adult, predeceased their mother, the Asan said that she sang the lullaby again, and received a peaceful vision from her child’s departed spirit in return.

Many Asan therefore believe that the Lullaby of the Lost is not simply for those who are lost or who are looking for someone who has been lost, but to those who feel lost, alone, or abandoned in any way. In the words of an Asan holy one whose name is lost to history, “all are lost in one way or another.”

Those who spent time among the Asan would often sing the lullaby themselves when they returned to their people, and in that way it spread somewhat beyond its origin, though few other peoples used it as anything other than a lullaby for children, or a dirge.

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