A STUDY OF THE AINU OF YEZO. 201 



better for me to leave Mr. Batchelor to tell Ms own story about 

 the Ainu, but a missionary who is working single-handed (prac- 

 tically) over the extent of territory which he is trying to cover, 

 can have but little time for ethnological work, and one wonders 

 how Mr. Batchelor has managed to put together even the few 

 stray bits that have come from his pen. 



In the villages of the southern and eastern coasts of Yezo, 

 nearly all the men (and many of the women and children) speak 

 Japanese well. Hence it is always easy to get information from 

 them ; but, though deserving in a large measure their character 

 for honesty and truthfulness, the Ainu have become sufficiently 

 civilized to thoroughly love " taking a rise " out of a stranger — 

 and if a bit of a lie will make the inquisitive one's eyes pop open 

 and his pencil and note-book spring into unusual activity, the 

 " gentle, truthful savage " is not going to spoil a good story by 

 sticking to dry facts. 



In the extreme northern and northeastern coasts of the island, 

 and in the mountain fastnesses of the interior, there are still some 

 villages of Ainu (not great numerically, but preserving their in- 

 tegrity) in which the people have quietly but firmly resisted Jap- 

 anese advances and civilization. In those places many of the 

 inhabitants can not speak Japanese. They use a few household 

 utensils of Japanese rnanufacture, but, with this exception, con- 

 tinue to live as much as possible as they did before they came 

 into contact with the Japanese. This seclusion can not last long 

 now, however, for the Japanese are pushing their way slowly but 

 surely (and of late it may be said kindly) into every nook and 

 corner ; establishing police stations and customs barriers, and 

 fast breaking down the last trace of distinctive lines between 

 the two races. There is a marked difference between — what I 

 may call — the civilized and savage Ainu, and therefore he who 

 would see something of them in anything like their natural con- 

 dition must come quickly. 



It is not my present purpose to discuss this people exhaustive- 

 ly, but merely to present a brief ethnological sketch of them in 

 such a form as may be found interesting to the general reader, 

 which may serve as a skeleton for me or some one who may have 

 time and opportunity to deal with the subject thoroughly, to 

 fill out in the near future. 



There are very few tribes remaining on the earth who are as 

 interesting in themselves as the Ainu ; and none, perhaps, about 

 whom so little can ever be known. Without a literature, without 

 any monuments or reliable records, dreading to speak of the dead 

 or the acts and deeds of their ancestors, they must be taken as 

 they are, and speculation as to what they have been will always 

 be more or less unsatisfactory. 



