p. 123 | THE JAPANESE AINU by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 25, 1893

THE JAPANESE AINU.

By Editor

Two weeks ago we gave a brief account of the religion of the Japanese Ainu, or Ainus, as written by some. The New York Times gives the following account of a visit to the Sabbalien Ainu by B. Douglass Howard. It is interesting as giving an account of this strange people:—

"His reception by an old patriarch was a singularly courteous one. The chief shook hands. Being under Russian protection the traveler was an important personage. The place was known as Korsakoff, and the host was the great chief of the 'Aiona rak garu,' which meant 'people who smell of their ancestors.' This lofty title was literally true, for the Ainus may dust themselves, but never wash.

"In time Mr. Howard became intimate with the Ainus and never got into trouble with them but once, and that was when he attempted to photograph them. It might have gone badly with him if he had not sacrificed his entire apparatus. A big fire was kindled and the camera was reduced to ashes. Then there was peace.

"The author writes that he saw one native whose body was covered with black hairs 'one to three inches in length, the upper parts of the face alone excepted. This peculiarity distinguishes the Ainu from every other known savage race.' The Ainu women he found 'an uninviting looking females' as he ever saw. They were nearly as hairy as the men, had blue blackened lips, with a tattooed, fierce mustache. As they never washed, or combed their hair, they were, undoubtedly, ladies of rank, 'people who smell of their ancestors.'

"These Ainu women occupied a social condition somewhat higher than the native dogs, for the male Ainu thought it a degradation to touch any sort of work under any circumstances, except such as pertained strictly to hunting and fishing. The women observed a rule of life, which was to 'speak only when spoken to.' Their best quality was that they never screamed or cackled, and Mr. Howard never once heard them quarrel. They never, however, smiled or laughed. When one of them brought a man a pipe or tobacco, she always retired by walking backward with a punctiliousness resembling Buckingham Palace. On presenting the pipe to her master she went on her knees. With ethnological interest the author examined their clothing, and found a resemblance between the embroidery and that of the North American Indian."