WOMEN POUNDING MILLET.
Left to themselves, the Ainu would prefer to remain hunters and fishermen. Their mountains abounded in deer and bears and the waters of Yezo swarmed with salmon and other fish. The Ainu had devised a series of ingenious traps and weapons. To-day they have guns, but bows are also somewhat used, though poisoned arrows are a thing of the past—thanks to Japanese laws. The Ainu bow is a single, simple, stick of yew; the bowstring is a cord of bark fibre. The poisoned arrow was an ingenious affair. The foundation of the poison was aconite secured from the corm of the plant; to this various other ingredients were added. Not everyone knew how to compound the poison and to-day the knowledge is possessed by few. The point of the arrow was rather large and broad and was hollowed out on one side; a wad of the poison was pressed into this hollow and then set in place with gum. The Ainu hunter, besides his bows and arrows, spears and clubs, had his hunting knife and knew well how to use it in close encounters with bears. He still uses it and always carries it, sheathed in an elaborately carved wooden case, upon his person.
At Upper Piratori is the “shrine of Yoshitsune.” This famous Japanese hero of the 12th century, according to a doubtful tradition, escaped his pursuing enemies and sought refuge in Yezo, where he was greatly respected by the Ainu, among whom he lived the remainder of his life. Upon the height behind the upper end of the village, there is a little shrine, which contains an ugly figure of a Japanese warrior, said to be Yoshitsune. Miss Bird describes the “worship” of this figure by the Ainu. The shrine and the figure are both purely Japanese. Who put them where they are, or when, or why, we cannot say. If the figure is respected by the Ainu of the village, it has had but little influence on their religious thought. It is aught except “the great god of the mountain Ainu.” If we had had more time or if it had been summer, we would have visited it. As it was we cared more to look at Ainu inao and nusa.
Miss Bryant, an Australian lady, lives at Upper Piratori as the local missionary of the C. M. S. She speaks Ainu and has a household of Ainu girls. She was good enough to invite us in the evening to take coffee and delicious cakes. She showed us some embroideries her girls had made in colored silks on cottons. The materials are Japanese and she supplies these to the girls. The designs are left to them. The stitching is well done and is as neat and even as machine work; it is hard to think that the better pieces were done by hand. Mrs. Batchelor, at Sapporo, also allows the Ainu girls in her house to do such needlework. From the sale of such pieces to travelers the girls gain a little money for themselves.
ON THE MARCH, CROSSING THE SARU.
We had thought to pursue our further journey with sleds, but these failed to appear and we started off on foot. As carriers of our luggage we hired a married couple, of whom the woman appeared to be far the better man. At all events, she took the heavier kore (basket-trunk) and started off the more gaily. Both used the tara, or carry-strap passing across the forehead, in carrying their loads. We at once crossed the Saru River on the ice. It is here a broad stream, flowing between low terraces, back of which rise fine hills. We tramped steadily through a forest, over a somewhat rolling country, and at the end of an hour found ourselves at Neptani. Here we saw our first evidence of a bear-feast. To the east of one house was a nusa, upon the middle inao of which was fastened a bear’s head with the ears and skin yet on. Between the house and the nusa was a post, with a tuft of green at the top, to which the bear had been tied, and we could see, below the east window, the newly repaired wall, showing where the old one had been broken down at the time of the celebration. We saw plenty of similar trophy nusas and other evidences of bear feasts later, but nowhere were we so fortunate as to find the feast in progress—nor did we anywhere see living bears in the villages. There were cages everywhere but all the bears had been killed.
As the bear feast is the most important Ainu ceremonial and one of the strangest customs of this strange people, we will describe it from the observations of others.
