St Johns Ravenscourt School - Eagle Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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THERE mt TWO WSTtNCT TYPES OF INTELLECTS — E IB.ST , . . . p-SR 67

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This year was the fourth year that Judo has been offered as an option in Cadets. It was first organ¬ ized in the Upper School in 1961-62 and was last year instituted in the Lower School. The Ladies’ Guild has since then been kind enough to order proper rice mats to replace the gym mats which are in present use. Most of the present group has been doing Judo for the past three years, under the auspices of Tug Wilson of the Winnipeg Judo Club, and Pete Hammond and Bill Ramsay have attained orange belts. However, this year a limited number of cadet periods necessitated a limited number of Judo classes. Perhaps future plans will include a combined Upper and Lower School class where the juniors would have the benefit of the seniors’ experience. In closing, I would like to thank Mr. Wilson for his time and effort and wish him the best of luck both now and after his graduation from University. Back: Boult, Matthews, Roper, Fahlgren. Front Hammond, Todd, Nanson. Missing: Ramsay. Touche. Peasants ' Revolt. Onward Christian Soldiers Stand The Flag-PARTY. Sgt. Snatch at work mmk ' JH % 1 9 w r

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■ C77,e JZeg end of tie WJeltigo Another wave smashed down upon the deck accompanied by the splintering of timbers as the mast crashed to the deck. The ship rolled heavily under the weight of the seas toppling on her deck, and at times she soared up swiftly as if to leave the sea completely. Then, during interminable moments with every heart on board of her stand¬ ing still, awaiting the frightful shock, she fell. The sea swept over the bridge, driven on by the gale which howled and scuffled about in the darkness, looting the deck with a destructive fury. The bridge had been swept clean of everything on it; rails were twisted; light screens smashed and two of the boats had gone already. A faint burst of lightning quivered all around, unveiling for a moment the long dark outlines of the ship, the destruction on it, and the dark figures of men clinging to the fallen mast, which covered the ship with a network of riggings and canvas. The ship had ceased to struggle intelligently and now began to flounder, being unable to shake herself clear of the water. Breaker after breaker fl ,- ..ig itself out of the night, thundering down on the ship with an outburst of unchained frenzy, followed by seething mad-scurry of the water returning to the sea. Had it been possible to get the remaining lifeboats into the water they would have capsized anyway, so everyone hung on where he was, in the hope that by some miracle the ship would survive the battering. The flashes of lightning had become less frequent and except for a faint glimmer which shone from the wheelhouse windows, the ship was in total dark¬ ness. Suddenly out of nowhere, rocks appeared and with a deafening roar the ship lurched onto them. Water poured into the hofd through the gaping slash in the side of the ship, and she began to go down quickly. Darkness closed in on one of the wheelhouse windows, then the other. The clouds hung low in the dull December sky. There was no appearance of life anywhere as Gilbert ran along behind his dogteam. Even the usually cheery snowbirds were silent and seemed to have completely vanished. No breeze stirred the tops of the tall dark Jack-pines. In a small clearing Gilbert brought his team to a halt for lunch, and removing a canvas bag from the sled, threw half a frozen fish to each of his five lean malmutes. Then he set about to gather up an armful of dead twigs to light his fire. Having got the fire going he took his long since blackened lard pail from the sled, packed it with snow and placed it on the fire to boil water for tea. The snow melted and he dumped a few tea leaves into the lard pail. A few minutes later the tea was ready and he poured it into his tin cup, then broke off a piece of bannock and sat down on a log by the fire. He would be at his cabin by about 5 o’clock he figured, as he sat there washing down mouthfuls of bannock with the rapidly cooling tea. It was only a one room trappers shack, but at least it was warm and he could prepare himself a decent meal. Finishing his meal he dumped the tea leaves out of the lard pail, dropped his cup into it and put them back on the sled, then kicked some snow on the fire and was once again on his way. By late afternoon he had checked most of his traps, finding none of them empty. It had been a good winter for trapping as far as he was con¬ cerned. Darkness was coming on quickly, he thought, as he removed a now frozen mink from the trap and threw it on the sled. Having reset the trap, he yelled at his team who obviously frightened by something, bolted at the sound of voice. Immediately Gilbert stepped heavily on the brake, reaching for his 30-30 and pumping a shell into the chamber in the same move. There by a thick stand of spruce was what seemed to him like a large bear walking upright and coming straight toward him. The distance between them was about ten yards when Gilbert raised his SO¬ SO, fired and missed. He, who could hit a squirrel with the same rifle at thirty yards, miss a bear at ten? Pumping another shell into the 30-30, he fired again, and as the beast fell at his feet he began to tremble and he now knew why his first shot had missed. At his feet lay not the bear he had expected, but a Wehtigo. He staggered to his sled, and headed for home, not bothering to go back to camp for the necessary supplies for the three day trip. In order to find out more about the Wehtigo and how it came to be, I wrote to the Indian Affairs Branch in Ottawa and got the following reply. “The term Wehtigo referred originally to an evil spirit of which the Indians stood very much in dread. The name came to be applied to an Indian into whom the evil spirit had entered, and who was affected thereby with the craving to eat some human being, usually a child.” “The Wehtigo was supposed to have super¬ human strength and cunning. All that saved those he wished to kill, according to tradition, was the warning that preceded his coming. Large foot¬ prints in the snow were among the signs by which Indians thought they could detect the presence of the evil spirits.” “When an Indian showed signs of having be¬ come a Wehigo, songs and incantations were used by the medicine men to effect a cure. When these did not appear to have the desired result, the Indians felt justified, in view of self preservation, in taking the life of the Wehtigo.” “The Chippewa and Ottawa Indians believed that a tribe of cannibals inhabited an island in Hudson Bay. This mythical tribe was called Wehtigo, and the term came to be used to des¬ cribe an insane person with a tendency to commit murder and to devour the flesh of his victims.” 68