the huge insects have decided to turn their predatory attentions towards us, the human race. The possibility that Them! may one day become reality—rather than the stuff of sci-fi—is as chilling as it is disturbing.
INDIAN DEVIL
In 1899, a decidedly curious creature was encountered in Alaska by a man named Alfred L. Dominy and a colleague named Weyhrich. It was a terrifying, shape-shifting nightmare that became known as the Indian Devil. Dominy, a resident of Los Angeles, California, told his story to the press, which was all too keen to publish his saga of the sinister kind. It went like this:
“In the spring of 1899 myself and partner were going up the Francis River when we came across an animal which apparently had been drowned and left by high water on a gravel bar. It was about the size and shape of a small bear, would weigh about 300 pounds, snow white, hair about the same length and thickness as a bear’s, short stub tail, heavy neck, head, teeth and ears like a wolf, legs short, not over a foot in length, and feet and claws like a large dog or wolf. Mr. Weyhrich and I examined it thoroughly, but were unable to determine what it was. I am satisfied there are still living specimens of the same animal further to the north.
“The following winter while hunting near the lower end of McPherson Lake I came upon queer fresh track which crossed the trail where I had been not an hour previous. The snow was pretty deep, and owing to the animal’s short legs it was dragging its body through the snow. Satisfying myself it was the same kind of animal I had found dead farther south, and being on a good pair of snow shoes, and this animal plowing through the snow, I thought it an easy task to overtake and capture the snow plow, as I called it.
“I found it could plow snow and then beat me. After following it the entire length of Lake McPherson, about seven miles, and two or three miles up a small stream that flows into the north end of McPherson, darkness overtook me and I had to camp for the long night. I saw tracks afterwards but never gave chase again.”
The strangest, and most monstrous, part of the story was still yet to come, as Dominy noted:
“When I saw Indians the following spring near Deace Post, I described the animal to them, but could get no satisfaction out of them. They declared it was an Indian devil, said it had no heart and could not be killed by shooting: had the power of changing into the form of any other animal it chose. They told wonderful tales of its ferocity, and endurance. The Indians are very superstitious about it and seldom if ever visit this particular locality. It is carnivorous and not hibernating, as I saw signs of it during the entire winter, while the bear were taking their long sleep under the snow. What was it?”
They declared it was an Indian devil, said it had no heart and could not be killed by shooting: had the power of changing into the form of any other animal it chose.
What, indeed!
KINIK (KOKOGIAK)
“Nathaniel Neakok, the mighty hunter of polar bears, has quit scoffing at reports about the great Kinik being seen in this northernmost region of North America,” reported the Idaho Falls, Idaho Post-Register, on May 15, 1958. The story continued:
“A Kinik is the name Eskimos give to a bear they say is too big to come out of the water. Its size varies with the individual story. But all agree he is a monster of great size and strength and appetite. Several weeks ago, Neakok laughed so loudly when told Raymond Lalayauk had reported seeing a 30-foot bear that his hearty guffaws echoed and re-echoed across the great, frozen polar wastes. But Neakok isn’t laughing anymore. He has seen a Kinik with his very own eyes.
“This Kinik, Neakok says, was grayish white and only its head was visible as it swam through the water. It was so large he did not attempt to shoot it. Neakok said its head alone must have been five or more feet long—and almost as wide. This was not the first time a monster was reported by respected men of the village. Floyd Ahvakana and Roxy Ekownna, elders in the Presbyterian Church and men of undoubted veracity, tell of seeing a tremendous sea monster in 1932 while hunting with a third Eskimo, now deceased. All three thought it was a Kokogiak [another Eskimo word for Kinik] or 10-legged bear which occupies a prominent role in Eskimo legend.
Kiniks are bears that are so large that they stay in the water all the time, presumably so that buoyancy of the water will allow them to move their huge bulk.
“Until now there have been many scoffers in the village, especially about Kokogiak. And that white men have been known to make reference to the ‘coming tourist season’ or ‘another abominable snowman.’ But since the respected Neakok added his testimony, the scoffers are strangely quiet. Even fearful. You don’t even hear much about how the Arctic’s strange mists distort distances or size, creating weird optical illusions. But you do hear told and retold stories about Kokogiak, the 10-legged bear of Eskimo legend.
The man ran and ran, dodging among the humps of ice but he could not shake his pursuer.
“The stories could go something like this:
“Once upon a time there was a lazy Eskimo. He was the laziest man in the village. One evening after he had heard the village hunters tell of their experiences, the lazy one went out on the ice. He came to a large hole where some seal lungs were floating, showing that a large bear had eaten seal, leaving only the lungs. The man watched and waited by this hole and, sure enough, a monstrous bear came up. As he started out onto the ice, the man rammed his spear in first one eye and then the other, blinding the bear.
“However, the bear came right on out of the water and following this scent gave chase after the fleeing hunter. The man ran and ran, dodging among the humps of ice but he could not shake his pursuer. Finally, he saw ahead two towering walls of ice, with only a narrow corridor between.
“Through this pass he ran but the bear, following close upon his heels, was too big and he stuck fast, unable to back out. The hunter ran around and succeeded in killing the giant, 10-legged bear.
“Many Eskimos—possibly even some white men—still believe there are Kokogiak out there somewhere in the Arctic vastness. And, says wide-eyed Nathaniel Neakok, a 30-foot polar bear too big to shoot.”
LONDON’S BEAR-MONSTER
Elliot O’Donnell, a renowned collector and investigator of ghost stories, told a fascinating story of a strange, ghostly, bear-like monster seen in none other than London, England’s Tower of London. O’Donnell said:
“Edmund Lenthal Swifte, appointed in 1814 Keeper of the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, refers in an article in Notes and Queries, 1860, to various unaccountable phenomena happening in the Tower during his residence there. He says that one night
