THE ATNOS OF YEZO, JAPAN. 453 



floor for his accommodation. The fireplace, situated about iu the 

 middle of the room, is a rectangular depression about 5 feet by 3, filled 

 with ashes, on which a smoky fire of green wood fitfully lights the 

 gloomy interior. An iron pot, of Japanese manufacture, is suspended 

 above the fire, iu which food is almost constantly cooking. One or 

 more inao, or goil-sticks, usually stand upright in the ashes. There is 

 usually a sort of latticed shelf suspended at some distance from the fire, 

 on which fish are dried and smoked and strings of roots or other vege- 

 table products hang in festoons preserved for winter food. A rectan- 

 gular window at the back of the house admits all the light, except such 

 as makes its way in through the chimney. The interior is therefore 

 always gloomy. The beams and rafters are covered with a thick coat- 

 ing of shiny, black soot, which slowly accumulates upon them from the 

 fire. Even in summer the atmosphere within these houses is often so 

 full of smoke as to make one's eyes water. At night a large, flat mussel- 

 shell, Pecten Japouicus, supported on a three forked stick standing up- 

 right in the ashes, with a wick and fish oil, gives a faint light, and it is 

 a weird sight indeed to see these dark-visaged, kindly savages grouped 

 around the smouldering embers. 



At this village, Bekkai, or as the name was also pronounced, Bitskai. 

 about 12 miles from Nemuro, there are six houses of this character. 

 The Aiuo population is given as 56 persons, living in 14 houses, 

 but many of the other houses are built more like Japanese houses of 

 a very inferior kind. From my observations I should say that there 

 can not be so many Ainos in the village. Many of the Japanese have 

 Aino wives. It is possible that there are one or two pure Aino families 

 there, but I doubt it. 



All the houses at Bekkai front toward the east, or easterly. The back 

 window, therefore, faces the west. This is a fact worthy of particular 

 notice, as it has been repeatedly asserted that all the Aino houses face 

 the south. The houses at Piratori are mostly built east and west, with- 

 out any door at the end. There is an entrance to the main room on 

 the south side, and also an entrance to the hall or entrance passage on 

 the south side. In the houses at Piratori there is a window on the 

 east side. Numerous inao are hung on strings along the wall near one 

 corner. One might readily suppose, from the writings of different 

 authors, that there is some great significance iu the fact that the houses 

 in southern Yezo are built with their lengths east and west, and in the 

 position of the east window. But I doubt if there is any more mean. 

 iug in it than that a southern exposure is desirable in a cold northern 

 land, and that the morning sun streams in through the east window. 

 It is, indeed, possible that the latter is a place of worship; but I have 

 not found that the huts are built in this direction throughout Yezo. 

 They do not always have east windows. The house shown in Plate 0, 

 for example, has only a west window. The same may be said of the 

 custom of placing the treasures iu the northeast corner, mentioned by 



