486 Canadian Record of Science. 



too, as an Ainu would be to hold libations in honour of 

 Yoshitsune; for after all, the said libations are neither more 

 nor less than a drinking of sake. The real god worshipped 

 is the person's own stomach. 



"Such then are my reasons for dissenting from the gener- 

 ally received opinion on this subject. On the contrary, I 

 believe that Yoshitsune is merely honoured by the people. 

 And this opinion rests, not upon the argument of question 

 and answer, but upon that together with actual observation 

 and spontaneously given information. It is, indeed, a won- 

 der that the Ainu do not worship him as a god, and perhaps 

 a few of the rising generation may yet do so ; but I hope not." 



A second point of interest, is that relative to the bringing 

 up of 3 r oung bears by the Ainos. The bear, which in Yezo 

 closely resembles the cinnamon boar of the Western States, 

 if, indeed, he is not the same species, is an object of worship 

 among these people. Whenever the young can be captured, 

 they are kept in close cages until of a certain age, when 

 they are sacrificed with great ceremony. Every .Aino vil- 

 lage and hamlet has at least one such cage, and a traveller 

 usually finds them occupied. The belief is common among 

 the Japanese — and it has also been freely accepted by 

 foreigners — that when these bears are captured very young 

 they are nursed by the Aino women as they would their 

 own babes. That such could be the case, has always 

 appeared to the writer as highly improbable, but in view 

 of the difficulty of gaining trustworthy testimony, it has 

 heretofore been impossible to satisfactorily deny the truth 

 of the common assertion. , Mr. Batchelor has now brought 

 forward the result of evidence obtained during his residence 

 among these people, and his statements are sufficiently 

 conclusive to justify us in asserting our original opinion. 

 His communication to me is as follows : — 



The Bearing op Bears by the Ainu. 



" It appears to be thought by many people, both English 

 and American, that the Ainu women are in the habit of 

 bringing up bear cubs at the breast as they do their own 

 children. This opinion has received so much credence be- 



