eing men with charmed lives who could
not be killed.

"Kownalia" was such an one. His descendants will often relate how, when
just born, he began talking with the people, conversing like an adult.
At one time while visiting further North, he and a number of men
ventured on thin ice; the ice broke and all were precipitated into the
water. "Kownalia," stepping on the backs of the struggling men, walked
to the shore uninjured, while all the others perished.

The claims for "Ungmana," another "Ongootkoot" of the first grade, were
that he could lay his abdomen open, then, placing fuel inside, set the
mass on fire, the people being allowed to witness the blaze and smoke.
He would then remove the charred mass, and on closing the wound there
would be no sign left of an injury having been inflicted.

These "Ongootkoots" have undoubtedly rendered a service to their people
in the past by acting as their historians in preserving their
traditions; they have also done good in the class of cases where
nothing more than a faith cure is needed for the sick. Concerning the
latter, the Polarites are not to be too much condemned when we consider
the large amount of superstition exhibited by some of the more
civilized inhabitants of the States, who have unbounded confidence in
their "Faith Healers." The marvelous claims that are made for these
"Ongootkoots" are undoubtedly due to the zeal of their descendants, who
are naturally anxious to place their ancestors in as favorable a light
as possible, especially if they themselves aspire to become
"Ongootkoots" by inheritance. It is also doubtful if the marvelous
deeds were ever known until the man had been dead fifty years or more.

The "Ongootkoot," however, has had his day and is now on the decline.
One often hears the older people say, as they shake their heads, that
he is not the wonderful man he was in the days of old. The young
people, through their growing enlightenment, are also losing confidence
in the man and his claims. Of those who were confirmed by the Bishop of
Alaska at Point Hope in the summer of 1903, four were directly
descended from spirits entering the world as human beings; but they
discarded their supposed birthrights and have become zealous church
workers. Others have been baptized and married to their wives, and are
making good citizens as well as earnest Christian workers.

Should one take a trip through the Arctic portion of Inupash land, it
is doubtful if he woul