THE KURILSKY AINU 
25 
of Shana was captured and burnt, and the stores and 
treasures carried away, together with some prisoners. 
The two Russian ships were under the command of 
Lieutenant Chivostoff. The Japanese garrison made 
little or no resistance, and fled into the hills, where 
the officer in command committed hara-kiri to wipe 
out his disgrace. 
The islands to the north-east of Yetorup, when 
under Russian rule, were more or less peopled with 
Ainu tribes, with whom were mixed a few Aleuts 
and natives of Southern Kamchatka. In 1878, when 
I first visited these northern members of the Kuril 
Chain, I found natives living on Urup, Ushishir, 
Rashau, and Shumshir. Previous to that time 
several more of the islands were inhabited. There 
are old villages containing from ten to thirty dwellings 
on Simushir, Matau, Kharimokotan, Shiashikotan, 
Onekotan, and Paramushir. Besides these, there 
are the remains of a few pit-dwellings, or yurts , on 
Ketoi, Ekarma, and Alaid. These, however, were 
probably only used by hunting-parties from the 
larger settlements, and were not permanently occu¬ 
pied. When the exchange of these islands for 
Southern Saghalin took place, those natives who 
wished to remain Russian subjects were removed to 
Russian territory; those who elected to remain on the 
islands in their old homes became subject to Japan. 
All these northern natives, besides their own 
language—an Ainu dialect said to be similar to that 
of the Saghalin Ainu—spoke Russian more or less 
fluently, and were professedly Christians belonging 
to the Greek Church. Russian priests now and then 
visited them, and on Shumshir, at the village of 
Mairuppo, stood a church built of pine boards 
