432 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



hear of tbe Yezo Ainos, the Tsuishikari Amos, and even of the Kurile 

 Ainos. In this communication the name Aino is applied only to those 

 people who are natives of Yezo. The Tsuishikari Ainos who recently 

 came from Saghalien, and who are undoubtedly the same people but 

 with slight differences in language and custom, will be invariably dis- 

 tinguished by the full name. The so-called Kurile Ainos are wrongly 

 named. This name is given to the pit-dwellers of Shikotan, who are 

 quite distinct from the Ainos. Mr. John Batchelor, of the Church 

 Missionary Society, who has lived among the Ainos of southern Yezo 

 for a number of years, and who has recently published a grammar of 

 the Aino language and is about to publish a dictionary also, contends 

 that the proper name for the people is Ainu. The best account of the 

 Ainos of Saghalien is to be found in the very valuable work of Dr. L. 

 Schrenck, "Iieiseu und Forscbungen in Ainurlande," vol. in. It has 

 been said that the word was derived from the Japanese inu, meaning 

 dog. This is what the Japanese assert, and they say that the Ainos 

 are such an inferior race of people that they were called dogs. But 

 Mr. Batchelor points out that the Japanese* more frequently derive 

 the word from ai-no-lco, children of the middle. According to this 

 author the word is not of Japanese origin, but, in the language of the 

 people, means " men," descendants of Aioina. Aioina is tbe name of 

 the first ancestor of the Ainos, who is worshiped as such by the peo- 

 ple, but in English and also in German writings they have long been 

 known as Ainos, and it seems unnecessary to make a change at this 

 late day. 



Formerly, it is said, the Ainos were subject to a powerful and 

 wealthy chief, who lived at Piratori and received tribute from all the 

 Ainos in the land. This is related by the Ainos themselves. However 

 this may have been in the past, no traces of allegiance to a single ruler 

 now remain. Each village has its own chief and a number of officers 

 who assist him in preserving order and punishing wrong-doers. The 

 chieftainship is hereditary in the family. It has recently been shown 

 by the researches of Milne, Morse, Chamberlain, and others that Japan 

 proper was once inhabited by a race of people different from the pres- 

 ent Japanese, and from a comparison of the remains found in shell- 

 heaps and kitchen-middens in many parts of Japan, even as far south 

 as Kiushiu, with similar remains found in Yezo, it is thought that the 

 Ainos once inhabited Japan. The evidence upon this subject seems at 

 first sight rather conflicting, but on the whole it is tolerably conclusive. 

 It is convincing if we consider only the probable, indeed the almost posi- 

 tive, Aino origin of g-eographical place-names in every part of the 

 archipelago.t It is apparently weak if we consider only the very re- 

 mote relations to be observed between the languages, mythologies, and 



* Transasiatic Society Japan, xvi, 18. 



t The Language, Mythology, and Geographical nomenclature of Japan viewed in the 

 light of Aino Studies. Prof. B. H. Chamberlain, 



