and the
"karookto" is becoming a thing of the past.

VII

THE "ONGOOTKOOT"

The "Ongootkoot" is the sorcerer, prophet and historian. He claims to
have the power of expelling "Toongna" by his enchantments, and can do
such marvelous things as change the wind, drive off eclipses, avert or
drive off misfortunes and expel the evil one from the sick. There are
two ways of becoming an "Ongootkoot"--one is by inheritance, the other
by claiming to have performed some marvelous act. The Polar inhabitants
are a primitive, confiding people, so when one claims to have performed
an act contrary to the laws of nature, there are no questions asked or
inquiry made; the statement is simply accepted as a truth.

At one time long ago there lived a villager who had lost both his feet.
He, being an invalid, remained in his iglo, simply existing as an
object of charity to the neighbors, who were in the habit of supplying
him with food. During the fall of the year, when the weather was
growing cold, there occurred an eclipse of the sun, at the same time a
severe earthquake gave the inhabitants great alarm. The ground moved
and rolled like the ocean waves, while large crevices opened in many
places allowing smoke and sulphurous vapors to escape.

The people in their fright rushed out from their homes; the invalid,
forgetting his crippled condition, also sought the open air and began
jumping down the beach on his stumps, or as the people said, "He jumped
big." No doubt the alarm added to his alacrity in his effort to escape,
thus gaining for him the reputation of being an excellent jumper. The
eclipse passed off, so also did the earthquake, but the villagers all
declared that it was the jumping of the invalid that caused the
phenomena of nature to cease, and after that, instead of being an
obscure cripple, an object of charity to his neighbors, he arose to the
dignity of being one of the greatest of "Ongootkoots." If any of the
inhabitants were taken ill, the cripple's aid was solicited, and he
would jump around the sick one a few times, exorcising the evil spirit
and commanding it to depart. If hunting parties were about to start on
expeditions, they could not expect to meet with success unless the
cripple had jumped around them and their sled a number of times. His
fame extended throughout the surrounding country, his services being
solicited from far and near, and he soon became quite prosperous, the
rule among "Ongootkoots" be