IN HOKKAIDO (YEZO) 285 



bear is put into a bamboo cage constructed outside the house 

 and kept until the autumn of the following year, when, being 

 strong and full-grown, the " Festival of the Bear " takes place. 

 He is then let loose and killed with arrow and spear, his head is 

 cut off and put upon a pole, where it receives libations of sake, 

 and everybody gets drunk. " The more sake" an Ainu drinks the 

 more devout he is and the better pleased are the gods " (Miss 

 Bird's " Unbeaten Tracks in Japan"). Drunkenness is supreme 

 happiness, for which man is made. " For why," the Ainu says, 

 " did God make sake", if not to be drunk? " These people are 

 bear worshippers, they admire his strength and courage. During 

 the killing they shout, " We kill you, oh bear, come back soon 

 into an Ainu." 



In search of scenery and ducks combined, we went to the 

 lakes near Hakodate the best time being the middle of 

 October, when the many maples, mountain-ash, and large-leaved 

 vines in the dense forests encircling those beautiful sheets of 

 water have changed to a gorgeous, deep rich claret and scarlet, 

 set off as this is by the golden yellow of birch, beech, and ash, 

 against the dark green of pines and needlewood generally. At 

 this season, ducks in large numbers come here to feed and to 

 rest on their way to warmer climes in the south. 



If you go as we went, in a " basha," the trip will give a 

 severe lesson to your liver, and that distinguished organ, upon 

 the trim of which all in life depends, will not dare to misbehave 

 for a long time to come, in dread that such an experience might 

 be repeated. The lakes lie about seventeen miles in a northerly 

 direction from Hakodate ; there are two of them Komuna and 

 Omuna with a very fair Japanese inn at the former, close to the 

 water and beautiful view of the lovely scenery. Now a basha is 

 a kind of omnibus stunted in its growth, drawn by two horses, 

 or, as such things go in Yezo, very lean ponies. Murray's Guide 

 in its advice to travellers in Japan, says : " Avoid the basha if 

 you have either nerves to shatter or bones to shake," and the 

 advice is good. Having no springs the vehicle moves solidly, 

 plumping and crashing into every hole and against every stone, 

 there is no give and take in its anatomy ; when the horses have, 

 by voice and a judicious application of whip, been persuaded into 

 a trot or a canter the concussion is truly terrible. The basha is 



