Among the Ainos. 



8233 



propensities, and giving evidence of the debt these poor people owe 

 to the sea. The one idea of their existence seems to be the capture 

 of salmon. These noble fish they sell to the Japanese, " reserving," 

 says La Perouse, " for themselves only the stench, which adheres to 

 their houses, furniture, clothes, and even the very grass surrounding 

 their villages." 



As they come striding through the tall grass, with their bows and 

 spears, and their long hair streaming in the wind, they give one the 

 idea of being formidable savages, but this ferocious exterior resembles 

 the ass in the lion's skin, and only serves as a cloak to hide a harmless 

 timid nature. On suddenly meeting a party in the woods the men 

 crouch down and the women and children " hide their diminished 

 heads." Their hirsute limbs, long tangled hair and bushy beards have 

 earned for them the soubriquet of " Hairy Kuriles," but on close 

 inspection the general expression of their faces is good nature and 

 stupidity, which is fully borne out by their large heads and clumsy 

 figures. 



The Ainos are certainly not the original stock from which the 

 Japanese have sprung, as they have little in common either physically 

 or morally. Their language even is "different, being similar to that 

 spoken by the Kuriles. This is the opinion of M. de Rosney, who 

 observes, in his c Introduction to the Study of the Japanese Language,' 

 " it was considered very probable that the natives of the islands situated 

 in the seas to the north of Japan might speak an idiom approaching 

 to that of the Japanese, and consequently might belong to the same 

 linguistic family. The study of the Aino language and of the different 

 dialects used in the island of Yesso and the Kuriles, oblige us to con- 

 sider this opinion as completely inadmissible." 



In two respects 1 observe these Aino tribes resemble the aborigines 

 of Formosa, who are called by the Chinese u Tai-lo-kok." Mr. Svvin- 

 hoe, who saw a few of them, observes that " their hair was short and 

 fringed on the forehead, behind it hung loose." The second peculi- 

 arity is the circumstance of their arrows having no feathered shaft, 

 which appears very strange, as birds are abundant and feathered shafts 

 would seem to be in vogue among all who habitually use the bow. I 

 do not know if there is any linguistic affinity between these two tribes 

 of wild men. M. de Rosney says, "The Formosan language, or that 

 of Formosa or Tai-wan, appears itself to be a branch of the Oceanic 

 family." 



Arthur Adams. 



vol. xx. 



