154 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



the nose from the left to the right. This is their salutation to the stranger, and, odd as it 

 is, it is not ungraceful. 



Men and women wear large earrings or pieces of red or black cloth, which add to their 

 picturesque ness, but the women are nearly all disfigured by a long moustache tattooed across 

 the face from ear to ear. Rough drawings adorn the arms and hands of the women, who on 

 the whole possess comely features, though they look, notwithstanding the gentleness of their 

 manner, as if they could be very passionate. A traveller says of a little girl, about ten years 

 old, whom he saw in one of the seaside villages, that her large eyes, tanned complexion, 

 white teeth, the tiny bluish-black tattoo on her upper lip, her uncombed long black hair 

 flying around her, and her red cloth earrings, made her as quaint a study of colour and 

 vitality as an artist could desire. 



A large number of the Ainu have settled in a line of little villages on the banks of the 

 Saru River, and of these villages Piratori, situated about fifteen miles from the sea, is 

 the largest. Near the huts in which the people live may be seen a number of tent-like 

 constructions of bamboo and matting, which are built on the top of posts or piles, and are 

 raised 6 or 8 feet above the ground. These stilted houses are the store-rooms, and are raised 

 so high to protect their contents from the ravages of wild animals and the destruction that 

 would be caused by the floods that frequently cover the land. The chief's house is larger 

 than the other huts. On state occasions he wears a crown made of shavings and seaweed, 

 having in front a small bear's head roughly carved in wood. This he solemnly places on his 

 head, after which his better-half assists him to put on his -imi, or regal garments, and then 

 hands him a large sword, which also is part of his regalia. The garments are made of strips 

 of red, white, and blue cloth sewn together. The materials are Japanese, but there is nothing 

 Japanese in the shape of the garments which have been cut, arranged, and sewn by the Ainu, 

 and are thoroughly Ainu in fashion, and therefore in ordinary English absolutely indescribable. 

 Even when royally arrayed the chief's person will be found much in need of an application of 

 soap and water a fact which, an enthusiastic artist might say, adds to rather than detracts 

 from the picturesqueness of his appearance.* 



The Ainu have very few public festivals, and none that depend upon the seasons, but it is 

 on such occasions that the girls (manokoft) may be seen at their best. They nearly all dress 



in long yellowish gowns, descending 

 nearly to the feet, with rough white 

 and red ornamentations on a patch 

 of blue cloth on their backs. In a 

 kind of savage dance called the 

 lapkara they arrange themselves in 

 a circle, and sometimes a child or 

 two children are placed in the centre. 

 The dance or game consists in hopping 

 round and round in a ring, while 

 calling out either the name or making 

 some sound characteristic of their 

 usual occupation, and clapping the 

 hands so as to keep time. The dance 

 is in some parts somewhat like our 

 Sir Roger de Coverley, and though 

 in a barbarous form is hardly less 

 pretty. 



t,,j .!/,*,*. A'niima ,t- SUM. Tne wa l iri which the Ainu fish 



A JAPANESE DOCTOR AND PATIENT. for salmon in the Otsu River is 



* The writer is indebted to Messrs. Kajima & Suwo, of London and Japan, for the valuable photographs of Ainu, 

 taken by them, which illustrate pages 156-160. 



