INMABlTANTS OF THE KURILS. l5 



apparently unreasonable fear is the result of cruelty and oppression 

 in the past. The Japanese Government has of late years clone 

 considerable to help the Ainu, but unfortunately there is too little 

 inclination on their part to help themselves. 



With no written language, the Ainu have but little history 

 of their own. With practically an absence of stirring traditions 

 of their people to put and keep heart in them, with few or no 

 doughty deeds of their forefathers to emulate, they have literally 

 nothing to make them proud of their race. In other words, they 

 have no patriotic spirit, and consequently nothing to encourage 

 them to make an effort to continue to exist as a nation. Like the 

 Blacks of Australia, their extinction is all but assured. It is a pity 

 that such a sturdy and comely people, so much superior in physique 

 to their Japanese riders, should be effaced, but it cannot be avoided. 



The Ainu are apparently a strong and healthy people, and one 

 would think their numbers ought to increase ; but the opposite is 

 the case. The reasons for this are several. Epidemic diseases, 

 like smallpox for instance, when it once gets amongst them, plays 

 sad havoc. Syphilis, introduced amongst them by the Japanese, 

 and drink, play a not unimportant part in reducing their numbers. 

 One other cause which tends largely to prevent the increase of this 

 people is, in my opinion, the fact that, wherever the Ainu live in 

 contact with Japanese, nearly all the young girls with any 

 pretensions to good looks become the mistresses of Japanese. As 

 such they often change their masters, and are not encouraged to 

 bear children. After they have lost their freshness and are no 

 longer attractive, they marry an Ainu husband, and the children 

 of such marriages, as ma}' be supposed, are limited in number. So 

 far as my observation extends, an Ainu girl prefers to become the 

 mistress of a Japanese rather than the wife of one of her own 

 people. A Japanese, as a rule, can house, feed, and clothe her 

 better, besides providing her with many little luxuries which with 

 an Ainu husband it would be impossible for her to obtain. 



Large families are very rare amongst the Ainu. Inter- 

 marriage between Japanese men and Ainu women is common, 

 but I have never known of a Jajjanese woman marrying an 

 Ainu man. 



The offspring of Japanese and Ainu marriages are not long- 

 lived. It is said they usually die out in the second generation. 



