AINO LANGUAGE. 
239 
Their hirsute limbs, long tangled hair, and bushy 
beards have earned for them the sobriquet of “hairy 
Kuriles,” but on dose inspection the general ex- 
pression of their faces is that of good nature 
combined with stupidity, a view of their character 
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 the two 
races have little in common, cither 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 
“ Introduction to the Study of the Japanese 
Language,” “ It Avas considered very probable that 
the natives of the islands situated in the seas to 
the north of Japan might speak an idiom approach- 
ing to that of the Japanese, and consequently might 
belong to the same linguistic fomily. The study of 
the Aino language and of the different dialects used 
in th^ island of Yesso and the Kmdles, obliges us to 
consider this opinion as completely inadmissible.” 
