24 NOTES ON TEE KURIL ISLANDS. 



races inhabiting a rigorous climate; as, for instance, a fondness 

 for raw food, oil and blubber, the use of dog-sledges, snow-shoes,* 

 boats and canoes made of skins, ornaments and weapons made of 

 walrus ivory, the almost universal use of skins and furs for cloth- 

 ing, and houses constructed to keep out cold. 



The Ainu always cooks his food. Although a great flesh-eater, 

 he is not fond of oil or blubber. Although he has dogs, and Yezo 

 and Yetorup during the winter are suitable, he does not make use 

 of dog-sleighs. He uses, or used, bamboo to tip his weapons, and 

 he does not possess ornaments or weapons or charms made of 

 walrus or mammoth ivory, some few of which would surely have 

 been preserved and handed down had his race originally come 

 from the north. His clothing is chiefly made of a coarse cloth 

 woven from the bark of a tree. His house is such as would 

 naturally be used in a warm or mild climate ; it is not even adapted 

 to the climate of Yezo, to say nothing of regions further north. 



The Ainu say that Yezo was formerly inhabited by a people 

 whom they call Koro-pok-guru ^ (dwellers in holes), and whom 

 they say they destroyed. They also speak of these ancient in- 

 habitants as Koshito (small people), because, they say, they were a 

 very diminutive race. 



It is possible that the Ainu belief, that the Koro-pok-guru were 

 a diminutive people, is a comparatively modern one. 



The inside of the dwellings of the Koro-pok-guru are very low, 

 and the entrance door and lobby passage still lower, being only 

 about 4^ feet high, so that an ordinary man has to stoop con- 

 siderably on entering. It is quite conceivable that the Ainu 



* The Ainu of Yetorup do use snow-shoes, but they are unlike anything to be 

 found in the north, and of very little use. They are oval in shape, and both shoes 

 are alike. They are from 24 to 30 inches long and about 8 inches wide, made of 

 two pieces of wood about an inch wide, bent round into the form of a long (J- 

 The open ends are overlapped and lashed together. The shoe is fastened to the 

 foot by a thong of sea-lion skin, which is passed two or three times across the shoe at 

 a distance of about one-third of its length from the fore end, which has a slight 

 upward bend. The ball of the foot rests on tlie crossed thong, the ends of which are 

 brought over the instep and passed in opposite directions around the heel and beneath 

 the ankle-bones to the front, where they are fastened off. The shoe is not netted, iind 

 the only bearing surface is the foot and the narrow rim of the shoe. 



t Prof. John Milne, f.r.s., has published some " Notes on the Koro-pok-guru, or Pit- 

 dwellers of Yezo and the Kuriles," in vol. x. of the Trans, of the Asiatic Society of 

 Japan. 



