268 



EEY. J. T. GULICK 01^^ DIVEEGENT EYOLUTION 



AA^ith what logic, it may be urged, do you invite us to accept 

 a great extension of the Aino race in early Japan, when it is 

 a physiological fact, vouched for by so high an authority as 

 Dr. Baelz, that there is little or no trace of Aino blood in 

 the Japanese peoj^le? In reply to this some would perhaps 

 quote such examples as New England, whence the Indians have 

 vanished, leaving nought behind them but their place-names. In 

 Japan, however, the circumstances are different from those of 

 New England. There has undoubtedly been constant inter- 

 marriage between the conquerors and the native race upon the 

 Aino border. "We can infer this from history. Those who have 

 travelled in Yezo know it by personal experience to-day. Never- 

 theless, these intermarriages may w^ell consist with the absence 

 of any trace of Aino blood in the population. As a matter of 

 fact, the Northern Japanese, in whose veins there should be most 

 Aino blood, are no whit hairier than their compatriots in Central 

 and Southern Japan. Anyone may convince himself of this by 

 looking at the coolies (almost all Nambu or Tsugaru men) 

 working in the Hakodate streets during the summer months, 

 when little clothing is worn. But the paradox is only on the 

 surface. The fact is that the half-castes die out — a fate which 

 seems, in many quarters of the world, to follow the miscegenation 

 of races of widely divergent physique. That this is the true 

 explanation of the phenomenon was suggested to the present 

 writer's mind by a consideration of the general absence of 

 children in the half-breed Aino families of his acquaintance. 

 Thus, of four brothers in a certain village where he staid, three 

 have died leaving widows without male children, and with only 

 one or two little girls between the three. The fourth has 

 children of both sexes ; but they suffer from affections of the 

 chest and from rheumatism. Mr. Batchelor, whose opportunities 

 for observation have been unsually great, concurs in considering 

 this explanation as sufficient as it is simple. There are scores of 

 mixed marriages every year. There are numerous half-breeds 

 born of these marriages. But the second generation is almost 

 barren ; and such children as are born — whether it be from two 

 half-breed parents, or from one half-breed parent and a member 

 of either pure race, are generally weakly. In the third or 

 fciurth generation the family dies out. It may be added that 

 the half-breeds have a marked tendency to baldness, and that 

 their bodies are much less hairy than those of the genuine 



