FIRST EXPERIENCES 69 
had, and the most comfortable places to sleep in. 
No Japanese lived in these villages. 
It was on this trip I witnessed an instance of what 
has often been denied, and that is an Ainu woman 
suckling a young bear. The name of the village I 
did not take down, but it was to the eastward of 
Muroran, and was inhabited by Ainu only. They 
had some big bears in cages, but this little fellow was 
allowed to run about the village quite free. The 
woman came out of her house, and called to the cub, 
which ran to her ; she squatted down on her heels, 
bared her breasts, and, holding one between the 
palms of both hands, allowed the young bear to suck 
for some minutes. I had often heard of this being 
done, but this was the only time I ever saw it. 
The Ainu of the present day, I am told, deny that 
this was ever customary with them, but there is no 
doubt about it. The reason they now deny it is, in 
my opinion, because they have been taught that it is 
an unnatural thing to do, and are ashamed to own 
that they ever practised it. 
Sometimes on the journey we had to put up at 
places where food was very scarce, especially when 
I had not been able to shoot anything for the “ pot.” 
An evening meal of salt salmon roe and plain boiled 
rice, washed down with weak Japanese tea, with the 
prospect of a similar meal for breakfast, was not all 
that could be desired after a hard day’s journey. 
Fortunately, this only happened two or three times. 
On other occasions we fared sumptuously on game, 
fish, soup, and other luxuries, washed down with 
good Japanese sake; and the sake was good in those 
days, unlike the vile stuff manufactured now, chiefly 
with imported alcohol. 
