50 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



dressed (as usual with her countrywomen) a la Chinoise ; 

 it was not so thick as to conceal her forehead. 



"The nose, densely covered with hair, as no animal's 

 is, that I know of, and with long locks curving out, and 

 pendant like the wisps of a fine Skye-terrier's coat, had 

 a most strange appearance. The beard was pale in 

 colour, and about four inches in length, seemingly very 

 soft and silky." 



Maphoon, when Captain Youle saw her, had two 

 children, one, the eldest, perfectly normal, the other, who 

 was very young, was evidently taking after its mother. 



The Ainos, an aboriginal tribe in the north of Japan, 

 who are looked down upon by the Japanese as dogs, 

 have always been reputed as being covered with hair. 

 Mr. W. Martin Wood read a paper before the Ethnological 

 Society of London l respecting them, and he said, " Esau 

 himself could not have been a more hairy man than are 

 these A'inos. The hair forms an enormous bush, and it 

 is thick and matted. Their beards are very thick and 

 long, and the greater part of their face is covered with 

 hair which is generally dark in colour ; they have pro- 

 minent foreheads, and mild, dark eyes, which somewhat 

 relieve the savage aspect of their visage. Their hands 

 and arms, and, indeed, the greater part of their bodies, 

 are covered with an abnormal profusion of hair." 



This, however, has been questioned, notably by Mr. 

 Barnard Davis, whose paper may be read in the 3rd 

 vol. of the " Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of 

 London " and he quotes from several travellers, to prove 

 that the hairyness of the A'inos had been exaggerated. 

 However, Miss Bird in her " Unbeaten Tracks in Japan " 

 may fairly be said to have put the subject at rest, for 



1 Transactions of the Ethnological Society, 1866, vol. iv., p. 34. 



