with crayon. All the natives many were stripped to the On that day the services and celebrations in Neakoteah's "temple " would surpass all others. Excitement in Kevetuk was at fever pitch when Christmas morning broke. In their igloos the Eskimos all blackened their faces with soot from the sealoil lamps. The women attired themselves in their best furs and beaded finery; even the children wore some touch of "trade" colour. In the red storehouse a big fire had been built in the stove, and several seal-oil lamps were burning. Kidlappik stood by dourly. The whole village had gone mad. Never before had such a spectacle been seen in Kevetuk. There was Kidlappik's friend, Takoshaga, leaping up and down like a madman, crying, "How joyful! How joyful!" He approached Takoshaga, and drew him aside. 'Why do you act so? he said. "Because I am frightened of Neakoteah," panted Takoshaga. "If we do not dance he will kill us." And he resumed his frenzied caperings. Neakoteah took his place in the centre of the shack, mounted his empty biscuit box, and yelled, "Listen! The beating of the drum ceased, the dance stopped, and the people congregated about him. "I will speak of Jesuee," he cried. The festivities started with dancing, participated in by every one but Neakoteah, who later walked in clothed in his green gown and paper crown. He was in a sullen mood, and strode about muttering to himself, his Bible in his hand. When the dance was at its height he left the "temple," and returned with a large basin filled with gifts. These he threw on the floor, and as the people scrambled for them he shouted"I am throwing pearls to he returned with a quantity swine." Then the dancing was resumed more furiously than ever. Sweat rolled from the blackened faces of the celebrants, and they began to throw off their clothing. Soon "Jesuee! Jesuee!" howled the natives, pressing towards him with shouts of adoration and worship. From among them he singled out Yaksan. "There will be a feast," he announced, and left the temple " with Yaksan. Soon 66 of flour, beans, dried caribou meat, and blubber. Yaksan took the food, and in a large iron boiler prepared the soup ordered by Neakoteah. While the soup was cooking, Neakoteah read to the Eskimos Then from from his Bible. the folds of his green gown he took a paper cross and nailed it to the wall. Then he stood up so that his body covered the cross, and extended his arms in the manner of crucifixion. "Like this Jesuee was nailed to a cross," he cried. At that the natives set up a loud wailing and lamentation. They clustered about him, and knelt down and kissed the hem of his robe. "Kowtuk and Kedluk shall henceforward be my disciples," Neakoteah proclaimed, and the two Eskimos thus honoured shouted for joy. He summoned them before him. "You must do everything I ask," he said, and they fervently promised to obey. He then singled out Takoshaga, Nohoyaveeng, and Seeming as his messengers to carry his commands to the people. He ordered them to drop their own names, and gave them biblical characters. They accepted their new names without question. Then came the feast. The Eskimos gathered about the steaming pot and ate their fill. Then there was more dancing, more hymn - singing, and then, babbling, halfhysterical, the natives crept back through the darkness to their own igloos. The orgy was over. All next day Neakoteah spent alone in his igloo studying his Bible. There were things he could not understand, especially the references to universal love. He held council with his disciples, Kowtuk and Kedluk, and they gave the word its literal translation. Then Neakoteah issued an edict, carried from igloo to igloo, that there would henceforth be no more husbands and wives in Kevetuk. "You are all to love one another," he told them, "for so it is written." And the trembling natives, with the exception of Kidlappik and Okee, obeyed the order. What followed, as related afterwards to men of the Mounted Police, cannot be described. The time was now ripe for the performance of a miracle, Neakoteah decided. He told his followers of how Jesus healed the blind, and announced that he, the new Jesuee, would do likewise. After the sermon that day he ordered old Mongeuk, blind for many years, to step forward. The aged Eskimo obeyed, and Neakoteah started to massage his eyelids. will be spared," the fanatic asked. "Do not lie to me, for told him. I will know." There was a pause, and finally Mongeuk answered "Yes." A roar went up from the people, but Neakoteah was not content. He held up his Bible and asked Mongeuk what he held in his hand. The blind man was unable to tell him. "You have been thinking bad thoughts, or you have a demon inside," Neakoteah told him wrathfully. "That is why you cannot see. You shall be killed." A loud wailing rose from the assembled Eskimos, but Neakoteah silenced it with a menacing wave of his rifle. He summoned Kowtuk and Kedluk. They were friends of the old man, and pleaded for his life, but Neakoteah would not listen. He thrust the blind man off the sled and swung the dogs back for Kevetuk. In a few minutes the blizzard had hidden the pitiful figure of the aged Eskimo groping his way blindly through the storm. A depression fell over the village when the party returned without Mongeuk. Fear took the place of religious ecstasy. Trading on it, Neakoteah called the Eskimos to his temple, and told them- "I am Jesuee. Soon the end of the world will come. We must prepare for it, and fast." Armed with rifles, Neakoteah, Kowtuk, and and Kedluk patrolled the village to to see that the master's edict was obeyed. Food became scarce, and sickness became an ally of the fanatic. Only Kidlappik dared defy Neakoteah, and he sat at the door of his igloo with his rifle in his hand, guarding Okee and their children. Kidlappik's defiance angered Neakoteah, and he decided to test the fidelity of his flock. He summoned them one by one to his igloo. What happened is told in the words of Yaksan, one of the Eskimos who after wards made a deposition regarding the whole affair to a patrol of the Canadian Mounted Police. had a "He (Neakoteah) sharp knife in his hand," Yaksan told the interpreter. "He went up to each Eskimo and put the point of the knife to his breast. To each Eskimo he said, 'Shall I kill you?' Each one in turn answered, 'Yes, Yes, kill me.' "Then Neakoteah would say, 'No, you are a true believer. You believe in God.' Then he would pass to the next one. When this was over he took a rifle and asked each if he should kill him. Each replied, 'Yes, kill me,' and then he would say, 'No; you believe in God,' and pass on to the next. Neakoteah wore a terrible face, and looked as if he were very angry. "Kidlappik, Okee, and their children were not present. "That night none of the people could sleep, because they were afraid the end of the world was coming, and because they had not eaten in a long time." Bad as it was, the people did not grow desperate until Neakoteah ordered them to kill the dogs as a sacrifice. The killing is described by Takoshaga in his statement to the Mounted Police. Kowtuk shot them. Later I saw the bodies of three that had been shot lying out on the ice. "One dog belonged to Neakoteah. He was lying in the snow in front of Neakoteah's igloo, and one of Kedluk's dogs was lying in front of Kedluk's igloo. All day there were shots, and many dogs were killed. Some were stabbed with knives. with knives. The people were afraid they would all be killed, and stayed in their igloos. I "I was in Neakoteah's igloo. He took up his rifle, and I thought he was going to shoot me, but he fired a shot through the igloo. 'I am God,' he said. I am making thunder.' ran out, and saw Kidlappik. He was very angry, and he was firing his rifle into the air. I asked him why he was doing it. 'I'm killing the angels,' he said. I was afraid Neakoteah would hear him and kill us both. I ran away." Nobody knew whose turn might come next. The mounting hysteria of the people grew almost into insanity. The famished Eskimos hid in their igloos. Many were too weak to attend when Neakoteah called a meeting in the red storehouse. But Neakoteah was now convinced that his own end was near. He became obsessed with the idea that he must baptise his people in blood before he died. "I was in Neakoteah's igloo and heard him tell Kowtuk and Kedluk to shoot the dogs," Yaksan in his deposition related Takoshaga. "Kedluk described what happened at was to hold the dogs while the "baptismal " ceremony. VOL. CCXX.-NO. MCCCXXXI. 02 66 The next day Neakoteah to me, 'Yaksan, what do you entered my igloo very quickly," The cut was then washed by Nohoyaveeng. Neakoteah told Nohoyaveeng to dip his finger in the bloody water, and make a sign on each person. 'You are being baptised in my blood,' he said. After this was over he told us we could go." Kowtuk and Kedluk were summoned before Neakoteah. They came trembling. "You are no longer disciples," Neakoteah told them. You are now angels. Henceforward you will live with me in my igloo. There is an enemy of God in the village." The news spread that there was to be a human sacrifice. Yaksan heard that he was singled out as the victim. He waited fearfully in his igloo. Seeming came and told him he was wanted. Yaksan thought his end had come. He had no thought of resisting. His wife and their two children accompanied him to Neakoteah's igloo. He himself tells what happened there : "Neakoteah was in bed. He raised his face from the pillow and made an awful grimace, opening his mouth widely, sticking out his tongue. He said 'My heart was beating violently. Neakoteah called Kowtuk and Kedluk, and told them to chase me to my igloo and beat me. They followed me to my igloo, and there Kowtuk struck me three times on my back with the flat of his knife. I thanked him for not killing me." Yaksan's lying had saved him, but Neakoteah was not satisfied. He must have a sacrifice. Seeming was the one who had carried the message to Yaksan. Seeming must die. Peneloo described the death of Seeming in his account of that day of horror, recorded by the police patrol to Kevetuk two years later. "Kowtuk and Kedluk took Seeming out on the ice. Kedluk held him up while Kowtuk killed him by driving his big hunting knife into his body three times. They did not like to kill Seeming, and each executioner closed his eyes as if asleep. He died slowly. When Kowtuk and Kedluk returned to the village, Neakoteah asked to see the knife. When he saw it covered with blood he was satisfied. "Seeming's body remained on the ice. Neakoteah said it was accursed, and the people dared not bury it. |