Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



677 



THE HAIRIEST RACE ON EARTH. citizens. During the war with Russia the Ainu 



The Ainu is said to be to Japan what the 

 North-American Indian is to the United States. 

 In the Japan Magazine these reHcs of a fierce 

 and savage past are the subject of an illustrated 

 article. 



The author says that the Ainu of Yezo still 

 preserves his swarthy hirsute appearance and 

 his vigorous sinewy physique. The hair among 

 both men and women hangs down about the 

 shoulders, and the beards of the men, patri- 

 archal-like, sweep the breast. The Ainu are 

 regarded as the most hairy mortals on earth. 

 As among most semi-civilised people, the women 

 do a great part of the labour. An Ainu woman 

 regards it as a supreme honour if she is able to 

 support her husband. Many of the Ainu are 

 polygamists, some having even ten wives. The 

 original wife is regarded as the real wife. She 

 lives with the husband, the others being more In 

 the position of servants, and usually occupying 

 separate houses. On certain auspicious occa- 

 sions, such as a big bear feast, all a man's 

 wives come together and work in perfect har- 

 mony for the happiness of the family. When 

 two of a man's wives meet by the way they show 

 affection by grasping hands warmly and by pat- 

 ting each other on the shoulder. The reason for 

 polygamy among the Ainu is not sexual or for 

 the sake of children, but chiefly to make a home 

 for woman, who otherwise would be without 

 shelter. One man had a wife at various places 

 across a wide stretch of country, else on his 

 numerous travels he would have no one to take 

 him in and put him up for the night. Some 

 women when left orphans, or fatherless, with a 

 poor mother or relative to support, have men 

 marry them as protectors. In fact, the more 

 wives a man has the more rich and powerful he 

 becomes in the community. 



The Ainu has been long noted for his wine- 

 bibbing proclivities. His favourite drink is 

 sake, and the Ainu tribes have been more deci- 

 mated by drunkenness than disease. In their 

 cold climate and uncomfortable houses there is 

 much temptation to warm up on strong drink. 

 The Japanese Government is exerting all its 

 influence in the direction of making the tribes 

 temperate, and increasing their birth-rate; but 

 habits of intemperance are very difficult to break. 

 Like the aborigines of other lands, the Ainu are 

 gradually decreasing. If they keep on dwind- 

 ling as at present, in time they will become 

 extinct. The present population is about 15,000. 

 Everything possible is being done for them by 

 way of education, and some of them have done 

 well at school, just as well as the Japanese. 

 There are Ainu school teachers, Ainu soldiers, 

 as well as many intelligent and educated Ainu 



recruits and officers did as faithful and efficient 

 service for the Empire as those from any other 

 section of the country. They are a unique race, 

 quite different from the Japanese, and the 

 Government is doing all it can to protect them, 

 even from themselves, and to prevent them from 

 deterioration and extinction. 



THE RULE OF THE DEAD IN 



JAPAN. 



In the Japan Magazine for November Dr. 

 J. Ingram Bryan describes the most unique fea- 

 ture of Japanese life, its unchanging faith in 

 the spirits of the dead, and its absolute submis- 

 sion to their rule : — 



The happiness of the dead depends on the respectful 

 and loving service of the living; and the happiness of 

 the living depends on the due fulfilment of pious duty to 

 the dead. That the dead need affection, and that to 

 neglect them is cruelty, are among the most sacred in- 

 stincts of Japanese life. Accordingly, each home has its 

 family altar, its god-shelf where are enshrined the 

 ancestral tablets, before which, every morning and even- 

 ing the sacred lamp is lighted, the family prayers said, 

 and food offered to the spirits of the departed ones. The 

 ancestral ghosts are made happy by these amenities and 

 bless those who render them. Hovering unseen in the 

 glow of the shrine-lamp, the stirring of whose flame is but 

 the motion of them, they guard the home and watch over 

 the welfare of the old domestic circle. Their chief dwell- 

 ing place, however, is in the lettered tablets which at 

 times they can animate as a human body in order to 

 succour and console. From their shrines they hear and 

 observe all that happens in the house, share the family 

 joys and sorrows, and delight in the familiar voices and 

 in the geniality of life about them. They chiefly delight 

 in the daily greetings of the family, and for nourishment 

 vapour of food contents them. To forget them, or in any 

 way to treat them with rud6 indifference is the most un- 

 doubted proof of an evil heart. They stand for the moral 

 experience of the family and nation, and to deny them is 

 to deny that, and to violate that is to offend them, and to 

 offend them is the supreme crime. 



Each Japanese believes himself to be under the 

 constant supervision of the ancestral ghosts. 

 Spirit eyes are watching his every act ; spirit 

 ears are listening to every word, to approve or 

 blame. The whole of life, its thoughts, words, 

 deeds, must be under constant control, as in the 

 presence of the unseen : — 



If while in the flesh a Japanese fails, be can succeed 

 by joining the ranks of the gods. Thus voluntary death 

 for some great principle meets the approval of Japanese 

 ethics, and the spirit of the person so offering himself 

 attains to godhood, becomes the object of veneration, and 

 is not only made eternally happy by the perpetual homage 

 of all future generations, but is enabled to bless posterity 

 by answering the petitions of those engaged in the cause 

 for which he died. Even a person of no importance may, 

 through death, come into the possession of superhuman 

 power, and become capable of conferring benefit or in- 

 flicting injury by supernatural means. Thousands of 

 prayers go up daily in Japan to the spirits of those who 

 have thus offered themselves in sacrifite to the gods. 

 Since the death of General and Countess Nogi thousands 

 have likewise flocked to worship at their tombs, and the 

 crowds still continue. 



