A, S. Bickmore on the Ainos of Yesso. 355 
his wife. She was demurely at work in one corner, making a 
straw mat after the Japanese style. The other young woman 
was weaving a piece of cloth about ten inches wide, from strings 
made of bark as already described. These strings, which rep- 
resented the warp, were fastened at one end to a post and at 
the other end to a board which she kept leaning against while 
she changed them and pushed through the filling and pressed 
it down with a sharp edged board, This kind of cloth seems 
to be the only one they have, and it is all made in this slow 
and laborious manner. In front of this house, that is, on 
the side toward the shore, there was a kind of rack filled with 
sticks, each haying on its top the skull of a bear. In this 
single place I counted twenty-nine skulls of this animal, a 
umber that must make our old friend and his son rank high 
Fs the estimation of his Aino companions. In another house 
we entered, we found a man and his wife seated by the fire. 
The woman was sewing, but the man was doing nothing, and 
yet the bay was swarming with e showed us the bow 
he used in hunting the bear, but would >a sell a model of it, 
declaring that in their estimation it was most disgraceful for an 
Aino to part with the bow he was accustomed to use. How- 
ever I secured a real arrow. The after part of the shaft was of 
reed, the fore part of solid wood to make it fly point foremost, 
and the barbed part of bamboo. They carry short knives, but 
they appear to rely on their bows and arrows when they east 
a bear or kill a deer. I saw no lances, nor any implements of 
8 or bronze. I also purchased of this man a pair of snow 
ivory, rudely chased. It was the only piece of ornamented work 
Isaw. As I was anxious to ascertain as height, the distance 
round the chest, and the length of the “ei hand, and foot of 
an Aino woman, my interpreter bri bribed the husband with a small 
piece of silver to make the desired measurements, but om 
