AINU HOUSES AND THEIR FURNISHING. 507 



instrument. Of course I said that I did, when, to my great aston- 

 ishment, he produced an iron Jew's-harp of orthodox pattern, and 

 to my utter astonishment told me that it was an original Ainu 

 invention ! Aside from the fact that it evinced a degree of skill in 

 metal-working to which the Ainu have never attained, its whole 

 appearance betrayed it at once. It is true that they have a musi- 

 cal instrument, of which Miss Bird writes : " They have another 

 which is believed to be peculiar to themselves, consisting of a 

 thin piece of wood, about five inches long and two and a half 

 inches broad, with a pointed wooden tongue, about two lines in 

 breadth and sixteen in length, fixed in the middle, and grooved on 

 three sides. The wood is held before the mouth, and the tongue 

 is set in motion by the vibration of the breath in singing. Its 

 sound, though less penetrating, is as discordant as that of a Jew's- 

 harp, which it somewhat resembles." I did not see one of these 

 wooden instruments, but that which they showed me was so un- 

 mistakably of foreign manufacture that I could not suppress a 

 smile when the extraordinary claim was made, and thereby hurt 

 the feelings of the sensitive Ainu. This claiming priority in in- 

 venting the Jew's-harp quite jumps with their assertion that their 

 progenitors used tobacco (though the dates of the introduction of 

 tobacco to China and thence to Japan are quite well known, and 

 it is beyond question that the Ainu learned of tobacco and how 

 to use it from the Japajiese) ; that they used to have a written 

 literature, all traces of which were stolen by Yoshitsune ; and 

 other minor but equally untenable claims. 



The only Ainu weapons which show any individuality are the 

 bows and arrows. Their knives, swords, spears, and matchlocks 

 are clearly of Japanese make. They have discarded flint and 

 stone arrow-heads and spear-points, but only a comparatively 

 short time ago ; specimens in obsidian, etc., can be dug up in the 

 vicinity of most of their villages. 



The Ainu bow is made of a light, rather coarse-grained wood, 

 resembling red cedar in appearance. This wood is called on-ko ; 

 in Japanese, probably, araragi, {Taxiis cuspidata) ; the Chinese 

 character which the Japanese employ for this wood seems to refer 

 to the Ailanthus glandulosa by the synonyms, but may also de- 

 note a kind of Rhus {Rhus cotinus). Batchelor says that the on- 

 ko is the yew-tree. It is very inelastic, and, unless a singularly 

 good piece can be obtained, the bow is wrapped with thin strips of 

 wild cherry to increase its elasticity — just as the Esquimaux seize 

 their bows and brace them with intestines. I examined a great 

 many bows, but did not see any " stout saplings with the bark 

 on," as mentioned by Miss Bird, and I am inclined to think that 

 she may have mistaken the cherry-seizing for bark. The bows 

 are short, the longest I saw being only fifty -three inches, the 



