STOREHOUSES AT PIRATORI.
CHAPTER III.
Up the Saru River—Piratori and its chief.
A large number of Ainu have taken up their abode on the banks of the River Saru, or Sharu, as it is called by them, and Piratori, nearly fifteen miles from the coast, is the largest village of the whole series.
The scenery from the coast to this village is not grand, but pretty, through a thickly-wooded country and along grassy plains. The Ainu give to the plain itself the name of Sharu-Ru, which corresponds in English to a "track in a grassy plain." Along this water-way, or not far from it, one meets with numerous small Ainu villages and scattered huts until Piratori is reached.
Piratori is a string or succession of many villages on undulating ground, the last of them being situated on a high cliff overlooking the river. In the Ainu language Pira means "a cliff," and Tori "a residence." As in all Ainu villages, the huts are in one line, some few yards one from the other. Each has a separate structure—a small storehouse built on piles—generally at the west end of the hut.
On my arrival at Piratori, I was welcomed by Benry, the Ottena (chief) of the village, who invited me to his hut and salaamed me in the most solemn manner, not forgetting to mention incidentally that "his throat was very dry," and that sake (Japanese wine) could be obtained from a Japanese who lives opposite to his hut.
"He is a bad man," said Benry confidentially; "but he sells very good sake."