Jenness, Diamond "Stray Notes on the Eskimo of Arctic Alaska," Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, Vol. 1, No. 2 (May 1953)

From Wales to beyond Point Barrow the Eskimo have many tales of two monsters, a ten-legged white bear, qoqogaq or qoqogiaq, and a walrus dog.

A Wales native living near Point Barrow, who claimed to have seen the bear, said that the distance between its ears is the full stretch of a man's two arms. It is so big and heavy that it can break through ice as thick as a man is tall. Sometimes it lies on its back and waves its ten legs in the air so that from a distance they appear like men in motion; hence hunters are warned to be careful if they see anything that looks like a man on the ice. In the spring and summer it lies in wait to drag the hunter's kayak under the water. Whether there is only one of these animals, or more than one, the Eskimo cannot agree. A party travelling eastward from Point Barrow in the autumn of 1913 heard one swimming beneath their sleds, and when they coughed loudly and moved away from the trail, the monster poked its head through the ice, which was too thin to endure its weight. Afraid lest it should follow their footsteps and devour them, they hurried home by a long and circuitous route.

The monstrous dog that watches over some of the walrus herds is said to be larger than the largest bull walrus. When the animals are alone on the ice-floes they raise their heads every few minutes to guard against danger; but when their watchdog is near they sleep unconcernedly. It has a three-edged tail bristling with spikes with which it lashes the water if enemies are near, emitting at the same time a peculiar whistling noise. It never strikes a walrus unless one is refractory and will not obey its warning; for it feeds on seals and fish ... A Point Barrow native who was hunting once saw this dog lash up the water and cause a herd of walrus to disappear in the foam. Another native who was going out on the ice to hunt seals heard it whistle, and, knowing it was dangerous turned back home.

A few years ago a Point Barrow native who was sitting behind his wind-break on the ice, watching for seals, saw a mysterious monster raise its head out of the water in front of him. Its hair was black and closely cropped like a man's, and all that was visible of its face, from the nose upward, resembled a human being. The Eskimo ran away; but afterwards some old hunters in the village told him that if he had shot the creature he would have been able to kill any animal he wished.