TRACES OF AN EARLY RACE IN JAPAN. 



265 



impossible to separate them by a single character ! — even to the de- 

 pression on top and in front, as shown in Fig. 13. 



A curious stone ornament, having the general shape of a comma, 

 with the big end perforated, is known as the magatama. These pe- 

 culiar-shaped objects are looked upon as ornaments belonging to the 

 primitive inhabitants of Japan, Mr. Borlase * says the traditions about 

 them have been handed down from mythological times. 



Siebold says : " To this day they are in use among the Ainos of 

 Yesso and in the Kuriles, as precious ornaments, under the name of 

 sitogi. The inhabitants, too, of Liukiu wear a stone resembling the 

 magatama ,' so that this little jewel helps us to a noteworthy historic 

 fact, namely, to the connection which in remote times existed between 

 the inhabitants of the whole chain of islands from Taiwan to Kam- 

 tchatka." 



An exhaustive examination of the Omori deposits did not reveal 

 anything like a magatama. 



Were the Ainos cannibals ? 



Repeated inquiries among eminent Japanese scholars and archaeol- 

 ogists, like Mr. Kanda, Mr. NinagaAva, and others, as to this question, 

 are always answered in the same way. Not only were they not canni- 

 bals, but they are reported as being so mild and gentle that murder was 

 never known to have occurred. So monstrous a habit would certainly 

 have been known and recorded, particularly in the painstaking annals 

 of early historians. 



In conclusion, then, the Omori shell-heap presents all the leading 

 characteristics of the typical Kjoekkenmoedding. And the evidences 



Fig. 30. 



which Prof. Wyman cites as evidence of cannibalism, in the shell-heaps 

 of Florida and Massachusetts, are likewise present in the Omori de- 

 posit. The recent occupation of America by the white race renders it 

 difficult to determine how recent the shell-heaps along the coast may 

 be, since the savages when first encountered were living in much the 

 same condition as their ancestors had lived, just as to-day there still 

 exist in some parts of the world veritable Stone-age savages. In Japan, 

 however, where historians have chronicled with remarkable fidelity the 

 minute details of their history, we get, as it were, some standard for 



' " Niphon and its Antiquities." 



