d meet with very many really non-Christians, for
the people are now accepting the Nazarene as their great good spirit.
The workers in the field truly taking an interest in the people and
trying to benefit their condition have been few, but the people
themselves have spread the teachings they have received, and the seed
has fallen on fertile ground. It is true there is yet much of the old
superstition of the past, but it has had its day and is gradually
lessening its hold on the people.

VIII

WEBUKSIDE

There is a firm belief among the Polarites that a time is to arrive
when the world will come to an end, it being known as "Webukside" or
the Judgment Day. "Tooloogigra," the great and good spirit who was once
on earth as a mortal, will be present to judge the quick and the dead.
All are to be examined. The wicked, who through the sinful lives they
led while on earth have not merited eternal happiness, are to be
rejected and consumed in the great fire which will finally destroy the
world. Those whose good lives have earned for them eternal joy are to
be saved; they are to pass with "Tooloogigra" into their future home,
where they will live forever, free from all cares, or sorrows, or
suffering of any kind.

When a man dies, it is believed that after the third night some member
of the tribe, who has made the journey before, visits the grave to
conduct the new one to his home where he is to remain while awaiting
the coming of "Webukside." On the fourth day after a death, some member
of the family strikes four blows with a hammer, at the recent home of
the deceased, which is a sign of farewell and means that the spirit is
not to return to that iglo again. With a woman, it takes one day longer
to pass to the place of waiting, so not until after the fourth night
are the knocks made. The dead have deer-skin masks over their faces and
their hands are encased in mittens.

Like the Jews who have so long been awaiting the coming of their
Messiah, so the Inupash have been waiting and looking for the return of
"Tooloogigra" for ages past. Besides liberating day and night from
their confinement (during his childhood), "Tooloogigra" has been
credited with one miracle. When grown to manhood, he was once making a
long ocean voyage with some companions in their kyaks, and being
thirsty, he longed to reach some land where fresh water could be
procured. His thirst becoming urgent, he cast his spear, and the
western portion of