Bickmure.] 332 [December i, 



manner. In front of this house, that is, on the side toward the shore, 

 there was a kind of rack filled with sticks, each haA'ing on its top the 

 skull of a bear. In this single place I counted twenty-nine skulls, a 

 number that must make our old friend and his son rank high in the 

 estimation of his Aino companions. In another house we entered, we 

 found a man and his wife seated by the fire. The woman was sewing, 

 but the man was doing nothing, and yet the bay was swarming with fish. 

 He showed us the bow he used in hunting the bear, but would only 

 sell a model of it, declaring that in their estimation it was most dis- 

 graceful for an Aino to ])art with the bow he was accustomed to use. 

 However I secured a real arrow. The after part of the shaft was of 

 reed, the fore part of solid wood to make it fly point foremost, and 

 the barbed part of bamboo. They carry short knives, but they ap- 

 pear to rely on their bows and arro^vs when they attack a bear or kill 

 a deer. I saw no lances, nor any imjjlements of stone or bronze. I 

 also purchased of this man a pair of snow shoes, each made of two 

 strips of wood bent like an ox bow, with the straight jiart fastened to- 

 gether with deer skin. The woman sold me a short knife, with a 

 scabbard of wood and ivory, rudely chased. It was the only piece of 

 ornamented work I saw. As I was anxious to ascertain the height, 

 the distance round the chest, and the length of the ai'ra, hand, and 

 foot of an Aino woman, my interpreter bribed the husband with a 

 small piece of silver to make the desired measurements, but the paper 

 was unfortunatel}' lost, and now I can only state fi'om memory, that 

 the peculiarity which struck me most was, that the regions of the 

 waist and chest did not appear as separate as in most women ; but it 

 remains to be seen whether this is a permanent character. The mammae 

 were very largely developed, and gourd-shaped. 



When a woman marries they tattoo her upper liji and sometimes the 

 mider one also. A favorite pattern has the ends curved up, in just 

 the way exquisites sometimes curl up the ends of their moustaches. 

 Several times I inquired what was the cause or origin of tliis strange 

 custom, but invariably received the unsatisfactory answer — "because 

 it is the Aino fashion" — which, is perhaps, as good a reason as could 

 be assigned for a thousand foolish customs in the most civilized lands. 

 At all events It gives these Aino women the appearance of trying to 

 add to their charms by artificially making up for what they seem to 

 consider a defect in nature's handiwork. The women also tattoo 

 the backs of their hands in narrow transverse bands, but no other 

 parts of the body. They never blacken their teeth or compress the 

 feet. In each Aino village, the oldest man, or a very old man, Is the 

 chief, and he In turn is responsible to a Japanese official styled "the 

 Aino Interpreter." As the chief was away fishing, we called on the 



