The Ainos of Japan. 48 1 



cause many persons who have written anything about the 

 Ainu race have, for some reason or other, either passed the 

 subject over without even venturing a word of denial or 

 explanation, thereby appearing, at all events, to give assent 

 thereto, or else they have stated it to be fact. But no one 

 —that I am aware of — has ever told us that he has actually 

 seen an Ainu woman nursing a bear's cub, and I for one, 

 shall be very much surprised if ever I hear it has been seen 

 by any foreigner. It is not intended to deny absolutely 

 that bear's cubs have, in a sense, been brought up at the 

 breast, or that they may again be so brought up. But 

 allow me to remark, in behalf of the Ainu, that during five 

 year's sojourn amongst, and almost daily intercourse with 

 them — living with them in their own huts —I have never 

 once witnessed anything of the sort, nor can I find a single 

 Ainu man or woman who has seen the cubs of bears reared 

 by women in the same way as a mother rears her child. 

 The facts appear to have been somewhat over-stated, and it 

 is hoped the following remarks may be received in extenu- 

 ation of the charge. 



" My experience of the rearing of young bears is as fol- 

 lows : — Bears' cubs are very seldom taken so young that 

 they cannot lap water, and when a dish of millet and fish, 

 boiled into a soft pap, is placed before a cub it soon learns 

 to feed itself. They never care to starve for more than a 

 day or two. With those, therefore, that can lap (which is 

 by far the greater proportion), no difficulty is experienced. 

 The only inconvenience with them arises from the great 

 noise they make in crying for their mother. This nuisance 

 is soon cured, for the owner of the cub takes it to his bosom 

 and allows it to sleep with him for a few nights, thus dis- 

 pelling its fears and loneliness. 



" When a cub is taken so young that it cannot even lap its 

 food, it is fed from the hand and mouth, not from the 

 human breast. Sometimes small portions offish or a little 

 millet (often both mixed) are chewed by a person and 

 thrust little by little into the animal's mouth, and it is thus 

 made to swallow. At other times millet is made into a kind 

 of batter or very thin paste, a mouthful of which is taken 



