204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



characterized by the wholesale bntchery and merciless slaughter 

 of women and children that is usually so marked a feature of 

 savage warfare. In a foreign war — e. g., against the Japanese — 

 the chief of Sara, who was the recognized head of the nation, 

 assumed command of all the combined forces, the village chiefs 

 acting as colonels. But the utter want of discipline militated 

 heavily against the Ainu, and this undoubtedly was one of the 

 leading causes of their defeat, numbers being a secondary con- 

 sideration. With the greater strength and superior power of 

 endurance of the Ainu, had they been drilled in concerted action 

 by skillful officers, such as the Japanese generals have been 

 since the time of authentic history, and taught to make the most 

 of their numbers, it can hardly be doubted that they would have 

 made a much better showing than they did. 



The language of the Ainu is entirely different from the Japan- 

 ese. Many " click " sounds are heard, and it is much more con- 

 sonantal, and there seems to be much less objection to the con- 

 sonant ending of a word, which is so cordially hated by the 

 Japanese. In the use of pronouns the Ainu language would be 

 considered as philologically in advance of the Japanese, as they 

 are used to indicate the antecedent or person in many instances 

 where Japanese would leave the determination of the person 

 speaking, spoken to, or spoken of, to the context and to the form 

 of the verb. Honorific and humble forms of the verb are not 

 used. The emphasis is similar to that of Japanese ; intonation 

 does not always convey the same shade of meaning — that is, in- 

 terrogation, exclamation, etc. — as in English, although stress is 

 often indicated by an explosive sound. 



The tone of voice is always lower and more musical than that 

 of the Japanese, and in the case of younger women is really quite 

 pleasing. One peculiarity of the speech of women is a drawing 

 out of the final vowel of words ending in a or e. At times this 

 approaches the long a-a-li or e-e-h of a contented little baby. 



The Ainu have been called the hairy people, and, contrasted 

 with the Japanese, the name is well given ; still, I could not find 

 any of the animal-like pelts I had been led by some authors to 

 expect to see. The men have heavy, coarse shocks of black hair 

 on the head, cut off short behind across the nape of the neck, 

 and allowed to grow nearly to the shoulders on the sides, being 

 roughly brushed to either side from the forehead. Their beards 

 are very strong and quite long, being allowed to grow without 

 restraint. Most of them have " mossy breasts," and a few have a 

 furry growth on the shoulders and down the back, but not more 

 than I have seen on the shoulders of coolies in the south of 

 China ; while for hairy growth on legs and arms, I have seen 

 Caucasians as well covered as any Ainu that I saw. 



