The San Francisco call., 1896-05-31
Savage Chiefs Who Cure the
Dying and Resurrect the
Dead.
They Live on a Barren Rock That
Rises Seven Hundred Feet Out
of Turbulent Waters.

dental Hotel, ais Kings Island, $500 miles
northwest of here and 120 miles off the
coast of Siberia.
"It lies almost in the middle of Bering
Straits, almost equidistant from the Ash
attic and Am erican shores. 1t is inhabited
by 1856 of the oueerest people 1 ever set
eyes upon. The inhabitants comprise
men, women and children of all ages, and
besides these there are numerous dogs Of
all degrees except high.
1.-THE island is little more than a rock
rising out of the storm. tossed waters of
the ever-turbulent straits. 1t is about
mile long and half mile wide and its
sides are so precipitous that 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 ap-
proximating fifty degrees. The hole is 18O
| 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.
cit is on these animals that the natives
subsist. They are very expert in taking
them, as we'll 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 skillfulIy 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 off
cr10N cfTTllr fhn Ar1Tr LooN
would not live minute.
"But about the catch of these walruses
and other animals and the strange island.
The natives have scooped out queer re-
ceptaoles 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-
ceptacles or natural refrigerators, and
there is nearly always a supply of meat in
them, so 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. It is a queer
town, whose miniature houses are made of
walrus skins stretched on light frames. The
ground is so rough that the little skin
abodes are ranged one above the other, like
houses in a mining camp on mountain
side. In the distance they look small and
fragile, 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 novel appearance.
'The island, although sort of repub-
lie in its government, is ruled by few
medicine men, each of different degrees of
Importance. The medicine men hold their
positions by their remarkable feats of leger-
demain. 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 1 undertake to
say that none of these professors of the
black art have performed more marvellous
things than have seen these barbarian
medicine men do there.
''For instance 1 have seen one of these
medicine men take man and lay him on
a table and take big knife and stick it
right into him to the handle. The man
would writhe, turn pale, gasp and die.
Then the medicine man would withdraw
the knife, go through a few incan tations,
tumble over the victim, and in a moment
he would get up and go about, sound as
ever.
81 have also seen them pluck out rab-
bits, birds and other forms of animal life.
from impossible places. They would do
things before your eyes, that were marvel
GUS to us, and to all the natives, for of
course the natives believe implicitly in the
supernatural powers of their medicine
man.
"But the strangest thing saw happened
on board my ship one day. There were
about 100 OF these natives aboard. One of
the natives, agirl, fell down with a hem
orrhage and vomited blood all arounds
The blood came from her lungs in streams.
She was lying there on the deck as pale
as death, and thought to myself that she
would die there, so rushed g. man off to
get DR.. Yeamans, the Bears sEfgeon.
Before the doctor could get there the
chief 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 andGwas all
right again, and she began dancing around
on the ship as healthy and active as
though there had never been the least
thing the matter with her. And mark
YOU. this wasn't two minutes from the
time she had the hemorrhages. l 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 that2
ssThe tribe of Indians have lived there :,
from time 1mmemorial. They have been
born there, and on the island they bury
their dead. The Indians are nomads and
leave the island every summer, with the
except ion of a few housekeepers, 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, wal.
ruses and whales.
1.-THE strange rock in the sea which Ia
the abode of these natives is about thirty
miles from Port Clarence. / relieved them
twice when they had through infortuitous
circumstances been reduced to q point
bordering on starvation.
81 cannot see but that these nat ives on
that rude rock in bleak and distant Bering
Strait are as happy as any people l have
Thafv axsl