454 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



Scheube, Batchelor, aud others. I am inclined to regard this as purely 

 a matter of convenience or habit. Mr. Batchelor should be able to 

 tell us whether the Ainos consider the points of the compass in these 

 matters. I would only point out that what he and others have told us 

 concerning the dwellings of the Ainos in the south, does not hold for 

 those living on the northeast coast. 



The houses represented in Plates xcvm to cm are typical Aino 

 houses. This statement is made with entire confidence, as the result of 

 extended travel through the country. On some parts of the island the 

 thatch is put on with more care, as at Uragawa, for example, where the 

 reeds are in overlapping layers, or, as Dr. Scheube says of the houses 

 near Horobetsu, the only region of importance for Aino studies that I 

 did not visit, of reeds laid on in a terrace-like manner. 



The house figured by Dr. Scheube is by no means a usual form, al- 

 though probably it does prevail in that part of the island where he 

 visited the Ainos, around Volcano Bay, for he says : " The houses only 

 differ one from another in size." Of these houses Dr. Scheube says 

 that their length runs east and west. With exception of the west side, 

 there is a window on each side, which may be closed with a reed mat. 

 I am not prepared to maintain that the Ainos have no regard to the 

 points of the compass in setting up the sacred relics, symbols, inao, 

 etc., in particular parts of their houses, but I doubt very much if they 

 do have. As already stated, Dr. Scheube and other writers tell us 

 that the household treasures are kept in the northeast corner. But so 

 iar as I have been able to discover, no writer has given a reason for 

 these customs, although they all leave one to infer that they are gen- 

 eral and invariable. 



STOREHOUSES. 



The Aino storehouses are very much alike throughout the island. 

 They are shown in Plates xcvm, 01 aud en and require no particular 

 description. They are raised on posts about C feet above the ground to 

 be secure from the attacks of wild animals. They are filled with dried 

 fish, vegetables, and other articles of food. 



HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS AND FOOD. 



Doubtless there was a time, not very long ago, when the Ainos ate 

 with their fingers and had no better dishes for their food than such as 

 they still make of bark. Fig. 72 represents a large dish made of bark, 

 such as are in common use. The one numbered 150673 is 14 inches in 

 length by 13 inches wide, and is used for fish. But precisely the same 

 kind of dishes are made much smaller — not more than 4 inches long. 

 The common water-bucket and dipper are also made of bark, as shown 

 in Fig. 73 [150668]. They have since learned to use Japanese knives, 

 however, and they make a variety of wooden plates, which they deco- 

 rate with characteristic carved patterns (Fig. 74). Wooden spoons 



