262 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



together with the implements, especially the copper and stone, 

 which have been found with these relics, and also with the 

 fossil remains, sharks' teeth, shells of the ocean, etc. In going 

 through that building one got wonderfully interested, but I 

 haven't the time at present to describe it in detail as I would 

 wish. One could not help, however, in becoming wonderfully 

 interested regarding our own country, and in asking the ques- 

 tion: "Are we new or are we old?" One tires, however, 

 with looking at mollusks and fossils and stone, timber, copper, 

 and other metal. One wants to see something that is newer 

 and full of life. So by stepping out of this building, of Wash- 

 ington University, and within a very short distance, we see a 

 group called the Ainu Family. They are representatives of 

 the aborigines of Japan, and were brought from their native 

 island by Prof. Frederick Starr. They are very celebrated 

 for their handsome tattooing, especially on the ladies. They 

 are rather light skinned, and they are celebrated for their re- 

 markable ceremonial habits, " social and religious." It is a 

 subject of intense interest to study and understand from whence 

 spring their life-habits and all these intense ceremonial habits, 

 " social and religious." There they were, living just as they 

 live on the island of Japan. They brought their equipment, 

 their utensils, their songs, their sports, and their serious life, 

 and they ate and slept, and had their recreations and their 

 visits just as they did in their native land. 



Just beyond them you passed to the Patagonian Giants 

 from southern Argentina, remarkable for their strength and for 

 their magnificent feats of horsemanship, and for their courage. 



You passed then to the tent of the Batwa pygmies. These 

 little people came from the upper Kasai valley of Central 

 Africa. They are representatives of the aborigines of Africa, a 

 race which is being rapidly displaced by men of larger mould. 

 They are the smallest known variety of the human species, and 

 are remarkable for their great subserviency, and for their 

 imperfect development of language. The representatives of 

 these races of people were the only ones that had ever before 

 visited the shores of the United States. They left their native 

 haunts and have all been returned. An interesting scene took 

 place with President Francis of the Louisiana Purchase Expo- 

 sition Company when the pygmies came to bid him good-by, 

 preparatory to their long journey back to Africa. He gave 



