Question: Lost meaning of "Rika Jika Jack"

[Cousin Hepcat]

We all know how the uninitiated who watch 30s-40s movies / listen to song lyrics for the first time / etc may completely "miss the meaning" because the culture, language & slang of the era gets lost over time.

Washing / digitizing another batch of 78s, ran across a probably mid-40s Stan Kenton tune with June Christy vocal, "Rika Jika Jack". LOVE her voice, and the tune is really cool and swingin'... but when I play it, friends'll ask me "what the heck is that lyric about?" All I can say is "I have no idea what it means or even what it stands for, it just sounds cool..." and I _hate_ it when people say that! so I'd rather not put it in circulation in the car MP3s less I can get some clue...

So, folks, asking your help to figure the lost meaning of "Rika Jika Jack": What the Heck is it? A hepster's love song? Ode to a food processor? A plea for mercy to invading Martians?

Here's the MP3 of the lyric: (sounds rough since it hasnt been filtered / de-clicked / EQ'd): (0.5 meg)
(Note: if it stutters playing over the web, you may need to Right-Click and "save as" to your local drive then double-click the file to play it from your PC)
http://www.eternalgoods.com/temp_kenton.mp3

Here's the only line I can get from the lyric:
The eskimos had so much fun, Making love in the midnight sun

already did websearches: Yes, Google claims there are sites with the lyric, but none of them actually have it. Its a popular song but can't find any help online

Maybe "Rika Jika Jack" was a slang term that had some meaning? ideas?

 

[Fu Manchu]

Next Line

The next line is "They chew fat instead of gum. You should hear them (yum?)"

My only guess is that the lyric is a corruption of Reykjavik...

Fu Manchu

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

Thanks, here's what I got from that:

Like you mentioned, the capitol of Iceland is Reykjavik, pronounced "Rika-Vik", possibly jived to "Rika-Jika".

Greenland is right next to Iceland.

The Inuit (Eskimos) live in several far-north regions including Greenland. The region is often called the Land of the "Midnight Sun" because at a certain point of the year the sun can be seen for twenty-four hours. Iceland & Reykjavik also experience the "Midnight Sun".

The native Eskimo language, Inuktitut, generally has a "Rika-Jika" sound: (heres a short phrase)
http://www.schoolnet.ca/aboriginal/audiosam/inuktit/wav/inuk11.wav

Still don't "get it"... guess it'll just be one of those dumb little things that bugs me now and then