Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-06-13
SAID TO RAISE THE DEAD.
Supernatural Powers Claimed fO
Kings Island Medicine Men.

| supernatural Powers Claimed for
Kings Island Medicine Men.
| From the San Francisco Call.
| THE strangest island in the world said
Capt. NJ. J. Healy of the United States
steamer Bear last night at the Occidental
Hotel, sis Kings Island, $500 miles north
west of here and 10 miles off the coast of
| Siberia.
1T lies almost in the middle of Bering
| straits. almost equidistant from the As:atic
| and American shores. 1t is inhabited by
| 1856 of the queerest people / ever set eyes
| upon. The inhabitants comprise men,
women and children Of all ages, and be-
sides these there are numerous dogs of all
| degrees except high.
THE island is little more than rock
| rising out of the storm tossed waters or
the ever-turbulent straits. Ii Is about
mile long and half a mile wide, and it's
| sides are so precipitous thai they are like
| cliffs.
| Almost in the middle of the island and
| at the south side is an indentation made
| by the rushing waters. This is expanded
| into funnel-like hole, reaching into the
island and out at the top at an angle APP
proximating fifty degrees. The hole is 1870
| feet deep, and during stormy weather the
| natives let down rope and drag up the
seals. walruses and other sea animals
| which they have taken.
| 1T is on these animals that the natives
| subsst. They are very expert in taking
| them, as well as great whales, which they
| do not fear to attack. and in fact. secure
| as trophies of their prowess. They hunt
| all these animals in their kyaks-boats so
| stout and skillfully made that, though they
| are often tossed over and over by the surf,
| they are never wrecked and are speedily
| righted. The boatmen sit with their feet
| in holes in the boats, clad in water-tight
walrus skins. These boats will put of sue
cessfully where the ordinary boat would
not live minute.
| Ruf n he Of hess
and other animals and the strange island
The natives have scooped out queer recep-
| tacles on both sides of the entrance on the
| ledge. These are so cool that they are
natural refrigerators, and in these they
| store the bodies of the animals for future
| use. There are about twenty of these re-
ceptacies or natural refrigerators, and there
! is nearly always supply of meat in them,
50 that the chances OF starving at any time
are comparatively scarce.
ION the right side Of the island above is
the village of the Indians. 1t is a queer
| town, whose miniature houses are made of
| alrus skins stretched light frames.
The ground is so rough that the little skin
| abodes ranged one ABOVE the other ike
| houses in a mining camp a mountain
| side. In the distance they look small and
fra gile, but they are full of people and active
| as beehives.
| From the tossing waves where the Bear
| lay the catacomb-like refrigerators and
| the village presented a novel appearance
The island. although a sort of republic
! in its government is ruled by few medi-
cine men, each of different degrees of i'm
pCrtance. The medicine men hold their no.
| s4tons by their remarkable feats of leger-
cemain Many people have gone to see
Hermann, and Blitz also in his lifetime
! and have wondered at the feats they have
seen them perform. But l undertake to
say that none of these professors of the
black art have performed more marvellous
| things than L have seen these barbarian
medicine men do there.
For instance. / have seen one of these
medicine men take a man and lay him on
| table and take a big knife and stick it
rleht into him TO the handle The man
would writhe. turn pale, gasp and die Then
| the medicine man would withdraw The knife
20 through few lamentations, tumble over
the victim, and In a moment he would gel
| up and go about, sound as ever
Il have also seen them pluck out rabbits
hlrds ana other forms of animal life from
impossible places. They would do things
before your eyes that were marvellous fo
US ard TO all the natives for of course the
natives believe implicitly in the SUPER
natural powers of their medicine men
But the stransest thing i saw happened
on board my ship one day. There were
about 100 of these natives aboard. One of
the natives, a girl, fell down with hemor-
rhage ana vomited blood all around The
was lying there on the deck as pale as death.
ard / thought to myself that She would die
there, so rushed man off to get DR.. Yea
mans. the Bears surgeon
Before the doctor could get thara tho
CHEF medicine man rushed out and going
to the girl he blew first into one ear and
then into the other. and then tapped her on
the chin. and she got up and was all right
again, and she began dancing around on
the ship as healthy and active as though
there never had been the least thing the
| matter with her. And, mark YOU this
wasn't two minutes from the time she had
the hemori hayes. / never saw anything so
marvellous in my life. There was all the
blood before me on the ship too
Talk about queer things. where is Herr
mann and civilization alongside of that?'
The tribe of Indians have lived there
from time immemoriaL They have been
born there, ana on the island they bury
their dead. The Indians are nomads and
leave the Island every summer with tho
exception of a few hcusekeepers and don't
come back till September. They go to the
mainland on both sides, wandering about
like our American Indians used TO do on the
prairies, only that these live largely in their
kyaks, while they hunt for seals walruses
and whales.
THE strange rock in the sea which is the
abode Of these natives is about thirty miles
from Port Clarence. ] relieved them twice
when they had through infortuitous cir
cumstances been reduced to a point border
Ing on starvation.
Il cannot see but that these natives on
that rude rock in bleak and distant Rerinp
straits are as happy any people / have
ever known. Their children are as jovful
apparently, as ours. and in all RESPECTS the
people seem to enjoy life as well as We do
here. Did you ever hear of another people
like them? If l had not seen them | would
find it hard to believe that they actually
existed