26 



NA TURE 



[May 12, 1887 



the absence of morality in them, account for it by saying 

 that their countrymen needed no moral teaching, because 

 they were perfect already, and not depraved like the 

 Chinese and foreign nations generally. The tales of the 

 Ainos, on the other hand, generally point a moral or 

 account for some natural fact. Birds and beasts are the 

 characters ; those of the Japanese are generally men, or 

 gods who are the counterparts of men. 



The third line of investigation adopted by Mr. Cham- 

 berlain is that of place-names in Yezo and in Japan. His 

 first process was to make a catalogue of the names of the 

 principal places in Yezo, with their Japanese corruptions, 

 and the Chinese characters used by the Japanese in 

 writing them. From this he compiles a kind of key, 

 composed of Aino words contained in the names of places 

 in the previous list, and common Aino designations for 

 features of the landscape, such as are likely to occur in 

 the names of places, their meanings, and the Japanese 

 pronunciation. This he applies to the place-names of 

 Japan proper in order to test whether they are of Aino 

 origin. By this ingenious, elaborate, and toilsome method, 

 Prof. Chamberlain examines numbers of Japanese geo- 

 graphical names in various parts of the country, with an 

 amazing profusion of learning. We can do no more here 

 than give the broad results, which are sufficiently clear 

 and striking. He can say with certainty that names, as 

 to the Aino origin of which there can scarcely be a ques- 

 tion, may be traced right through the main island of 

 Japan into the two great southern islands. They are 

 fairly abundant even in the extreme southern province. 

 The inference to be drawn from this is that the Ainos 

 were the true predecessors of the Japanese all over the 

 archipelago. " The dawn of history shows them to us living 

 far to the south and west of their present haunts ; and 

 ever since then, century by century, we see them retreat- 

 ing eastwards and northwards, as steadily as the American 

 Indian has retreated westwards under the pressure of the 

 colonists from Europe." 



It will be observed that Prof. Chamberlain comes to 

 this conclusion, after a comparison of the languages, 

 mythologies, and place-names of the Japanese and the 

 Ainos ; it is likewise the conclusion at which Prof Milne 

 arrived a few years ago along a different line of investiga- 

 tion. The latter gentleman compared the kitchen-middens, 

 stone implements, and other prehistoric remains found 

 in numerous parts of Japan with those of undoubted 

 Aino origin — some of the middens being even now in 

 course of construction in Yezo. Prof. Milne's papers on 

 the subject will be found in the Proceedings of the 

 Anthropological Society for 1881, and of the Asiatic 

 Society of Japan (vol. viii. Part i, and vol. x. Part 2). 

 Hence it may be taken as established sufficiently for all 

 practical purposes that the pre-Japanese inhabitants of 

 the Japanese islands were the Ainos. Beyond this con- 

 clusion we are not taken either by Prof. Milne or by 

 Prof Chamberlain, and with it we must be content until 

 scholars have carried out that series of linguistic com- 

 parisons which is "the surest key for unlocking the 

 mysteries of racial affinity and race migrations in this 

 portion of Asia," of which Prof. Chamberlain's work is 

 the beginning. 



The last word is very far indeed from being yet said about 

 the Ainos. Meanwhile their numbers are growing smaller 



decade by decade, their industries are passing into Japan- 

 ese hands ; the animals which were their principal sus- 

 tenance are rapidly becoming extinct ; the survivors of this 

 people almost all speak Japanese as well as their own 

 tongue, and are losing their special characteristics. Hence 

 they " must without delay be subjected to all the necessary 

 scientific tests : their language must be analysed, their 

 folk-lore registered ; for soon there will be nothing left." 

 Prof. Chamberlain does not share the regrets of those 

 who mourn over ihe/apom'sa(wn and approaching extinc- 

 tion of the Ainos. They have had abundant opportunities 

 of improvement, but they have not profited by them. The 

 son of the greatest living Aino chief is glad to brush the 

 boots of an American family in Sapporo. This is how 

 their latest investigator concludes his interesting and 

 instructive monograph : — " The Aino race is now no more 

 than a ' curio ' to the philologist and to the ethnologist. 

 It has no future, because it has no root in the past. The 

 impression left on the mind after a sojourn among the 

 Ainos is that of a profound melancholy. The existence 

 of this race has been as aimless, as fruitless, as is the per- 

 petual dashing of the breakers on the shore of Horobetsu. 

 It leaves behind it nothing save a few names." The 

 whither of the race is unhappily only too certain ; its 

 whence still remains a question to perplex the ethnologist, 

 and, if present indications are to be trusted, it will con- 

 tinue an unsolved problem for many years to come. 

 Prof Chamberlain's monograph carries us just one step 

 back in the life-history of the race ; behind that, all is still 

 darkness and doubt. 



THE ZOOLOGICAL RESULTS OF THE 

 ''CHALLENGER" EXPEDITION. 

 Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H. M.S. 

 " Challenger" during the Years 1873-76 under the Com- 

 mand of Capt. G. S. Nares, R.N., F.R.S., and of the 

 late Capt. F. T. Thomson, R.N. Prepared under the 

 Superintendence of the late Sir C. Wyville Thomson, 

 F.R.S., &c., and now of John Murray, one of the 

 Naturalists of the Expedition. Zoology —-Vol. XVII. 

 (Published by Order of Her Majesty's Govermnent, 

 1886.) 



VOLUME XVII. of the Zoological Reports of the 

 voyage of the Challenger contains three memoirs. 

 The first is the second and concluding Part of the Report 

 on the Isopoda collected during the Expedition, by Mr. 

 Frank Evers Beddard, of which the first Part was pub- 

 lished in 1884, and dealt exclusively with the family of 

 the Serolidae. The collection of Isopoda made during 

 the voyage was very rich in new species and genera, 

 more particularly in the deep-water forms, of which no 

 less than thirty-eight are described as new. Among the 

 shallow-water species the greater number of novelties were 

 dredged off Kerguelen and the adjacent islands, adding no 

 less than fifteen new species to the previously short list 

 known. In other parts of the world, with the exception 

 of Australia, dredging in shallow water did not yield any 

 considerable number of species of the group. Many ot 

 the species described as new were previously briefly dia- 

 gnosed by the author, in the Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society of London. Passing from the description of the 

 species of this exceedingly interesting group of Crustacea 



