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I
have reserved all I have to say about the Ainos till I had been
actually
among them, and I hope you will have patience to read to
the
end. Ito is very greedy and self-indulgent, and whimpered very
much
about coming to Biratori at all,--one would have thought he
was
going to the stake. He actually borrowed for himself a
sleeping
mat and futons, and has brought a chicken, onions,
potatoes,
French beans, Japanese sauce, tea, rice, a kettle, a
stew-pan,
and a rice-pan, while I contented myself with a cold fowl
and
potatoes.
We
took three horses and a mounted Aino guide, and found a beaten
track
the whole way. It turns into the forest at once on leaving
Sarufuto,
and goes through forest the entire distance, with an
abundance
of reedy grass higher than my hat on horseback along it,
and,
as it is only twelve inches broad and much overgrown, the
horses
were constantly pushing through leafage soaking from a
night's
rain, and I was soon wet up to my shoulders. The forest
trees
are almost solely the Ailanthus glandulosus and the Zelkowa
keaki,
often matted together with a white-flowered trailer of the
Hydrangea
genus. The undergrowth is simply hideous, consisting
mainly
of coarse reedy grass, monstrous docks, the large-leaved
Polygonum
cuspidatum, several umbelliferous plants, and a "ragweed"
which,
like most of its gawky fellows, grows from five to six feet
high.
The forest is dark and very silent, threaded by this narrow
path,
and by others as narrow, made by the hunters in search of
game.
The "main road" sometimes plunges into deep bogs, at others
is
roughly corduroyed by the roots of trees, and frequently hangs
over
the edge of abrupt and much-worn declivities, in going up one
of
which the baggage-horse rolled down a bank fully thirty feet
high,
and nearly all the tea was lost. At another the guide's
pack-saddle
lost its balance, and man, horse, and saddle went over
the
slope, pots, pans, and packages flying after them. At another
time
my horse sank up to his chest in a very bad bog, and, as he
was
totally unable to extricate himself, I was obliged to scramble
upon
his neck and jump to terra firma over his ears.
There
is something very gloomy in the solitude of this silent land,
with
its beast-haunted forests, its great patches of pasture, the
resort
of wild animals which haunt the lower regions in search of
food
when the snow drives them down from the mountains, and its
narrow
track, indicating the single file in which the savages of
the
interior walk with their bare, noiseless feet. Reaching the
Sarufutogawa,
a river with a treacherous bottom, in which Mr. Von
Siebold
and his horse came to grief, I hailed an Aino boy, who took
me
up the stream in a "dug-out," and after that we passed through
Biroka,
Saruba, and Mina, all purely Aino villages, situated among
small
patches of millet, tobacco, and pumpkins, so choked with
weeds
that it was doubtful whether they were crops. I was much
surprised
with the extreme neatness and cleanliness outside the
houses;
"model villages" they are in these respects, with no litter
lying
in sight anywhere, nothing indeed but dog troughs, hollowed
out
of logs, like "dug-outs," for the numerous yellow dogs, which
are
a feature of Aino life. There are neither puddles nor heaps,
but
the houses, all trim and in good repair, rise clean out of the
sandy
soil.
Biratori,
the largest of the Aino settlements in this region, is
very
prettily situated among forests and mountains, on rising
ground,
with a very sinuous river winding at its feet and a wooded
height
above. A lonelier place could scarcely be found. As we
passed
among the houses the yellow dogs barked, the women looked
shy
and smiled, and the men made their graceful salutation. We
stopped
at the chief's house, where, of course, we were unexpected
guests;
but Shinondi, his nephew, and two other men came out,
saluted
us, and with most hospitable intent helped Ito to unload
the
horses. Indeed their eager hospitality created quite a
commotion,
one running hither and the other thither in their
anxiety
to welcome a stranger. It is a large house, the room being
35
by 25, and the roof 20 feet high; but you enter by an ante-
chamber,
in which are kept the millet-mill and other articles.
There
is a doorway in this, but the inside is pretty dark, and
Shinondi,
taking my hand, raised the reed curtain bound with hide,
which
concealed the entrance into the actual house, and, leading me
into
it, retired a footstep, extended his arms, waved his arms
inwards
three times, and then stroked his beard several times,
after
which he indicated by a sweep of his hand and a beautiful
smile
that the house and all it contained were mine. An aged
woman,
the chief's mother, who was splitting bark by the fire,
waved
her hands also. She is the queen-regnant of the house.
Again
taking my hand, Shinondi led me to the place of honour at the
head
of the fire--a rude, movable platform six feet long by four
broad,
and a foot high, on which he laid an ornamental mat,
apologising
for not having at that moment a bearskin wherewith to
cover
it. The baggage was speedily brought in by several willing
pairs
of hands; some reed mats fifteen feet long were laid down
upon
the very coarse ones which covered the whole floor, and when
they
saw Ito putting up my stretcher they hung a fine mat along the
rough
wall to conceal it, and suspended another on the beams of the
roof
for a canopy. The alacrity and instinctive hospitality with
which
these men rushed about to make things comfortable were very
fascinating,
though comfort is a word misapplied in an Aino hut.
The
women only did what the men told them.
They
offered food at once, but I told them that I had brought my
own,
and would only ask leave to cook it on their fire. I need not
have
brought any cups, for they have many lacquer bowls, and
Shinondi
brought me on a lacquer tray a bowl full of water from one
of
their four wells. They said that Benri, the chief, would wish
me
to make his house my own for as long as I cared to stay, and I
must
excuse them in all things in which their ways were different
from
my own. Shinondi and four others in the village speak
tolerable
Japanese, and this of course is the medium of
communication.
Ito has exerted himself nobly as an interpreter,
and
has entered into my wishes with a cordiality and intelligence
which
have been perfectly invaluable; and, though he did growl at
Mr.
Von Siebold's injunctions regarding politeness, he has carried
them
out to my satisfaction, and even admits that the mountain
Ainos
are better than he expected; "but," he added "they have
learned
their politeness from the Japanese!" They have never seen
a
foreign woman, and only three foreign men, but there is neither
crowding
nor staring as among the Japanese, possibly in part from
apathy
and want of intelligence. For three days they have kept up
their
graceful and kindly hospitality, going on with their ordinary
life
and occupations, and, though I have lived among them in this
room
by day and night, there has been nothing which in any way
could
offend the most fastidious sense of delicacy.
They
said they would leave me to eat and rest, and all retired but
the
chief's mother, a weird, witch-like woman of eighty, with
shocks
of yellow-white hair, and a stern suspiciousness in her
wrinkled
face. I have come to feel as if she had the evil eye, as
she
sits there watching, watching always, and for ever knotting the
bark
thread like one of the Fates, keeping a jealous watch on her
son's
two wives, and on other young women who come in to weave--
neither
the dulness nor the repose of old age about her; and her
eyes
gleam with a greedy light when she sees sake, of which she
drains
a bowl without taking breath. She alone is suspicious of
strangers,
and she thinks that my visit bodes no good to her tribe.
I
see her eyes fixed upon me now, and they make me shudder.
I
had a good meal seated in my chair on the top of the guest-seat
to
avoid the fleas, which are truly legion. At dusk Shinondi
returned,
and soon people began to drop in, till eighteen were
assembled,
including the sub-chief and several very grand-looking
old
men, with full, grey, wavy beards. Age is held in much
reverence,
and it is etiquette for these old men to do honour to a
guest
in the chief's absence. As each entered he saluted me
several
times, and after sitting down turned towards me and saluted
again,
going through the same ceremony with every other person.
They
said they had come "to bid me welcome." They took their
places
in rigid order at each side of the fireplace, which is six
feet
long, Benri's mother in the place of honour at the right, then
Shinondi,
then the sub-chief, and on the other side the old men.
Besides
these, seven women sat in a row in the background splitting
bark.
A large iron pan hung over the fire from a blackened
arrangement
above, and Benri's principal wife cut wild roots, green
beans,
and seaweed, and shred dried fish and venison among them,
adding
millet, water, and some strong-smelling fish-oil, and set
the
whole on to stew for three hours, stirring the "mess" now and
then
with a wooden spoon.
Several
of the older people smoke, and I handed round some mild
tobacco,
which they received with waving hands. I told them that I
came
from a land in the sea, very far away, where they saw the sun
go
down--so very far away that a horse would have to gallop day and
night
for five weeks to reach it--and that I had come a long
journey
to see them, and that I wanted to ask them many questions,
so
that when I went home I might tell my own people something about
them.
Shinondi and another man, who understood Japanese, bowed,
and
(as on every occasion) translated what I said into Aino for the
venerable
group opposite. Shinondi then said "that he and
Shinrichi,
the other Japanese speaker, would tell me all they knew,
but
they were but young men, and only knew what was told to them.
They
would speak what they believed to be true, but the chief knew
more
than they, and when he came back he might tell me differently,
and
then I should think that they had spoken lies." I said that no
one
who looked into their faces could think that they ever told
lies.
They were very much pleased, and waved their hands and
stroked
their beards repeatedly. Before they told me anything they
begged
and prayed that I would not inform the Japanese Government
that
they had told me of their customs, or harm might come to them!
For
the next two hours, and for two more after supper, I asked them
questions
concerning their religion and customs, and again
yesterday
for a considerable time, and this morning, after Benri's
return,
I went over the same subjects with him, and have also
employed
a considerable time in getting about 300 words from them,
which
I have spelt phonetically of course, and intend to go over
again
when I visit the coast Ainos. {19}
The
process was slow, as both question and answer had to pass
through
three languages. There was a very manifest desire to tell
the
truth, and I think that their statements concerning their few
and
simple customs may be relied upon. I shall give what they told
me
separately when I have time to write out my notes in an orderly
manner.
I can only say that I have seldom spent a more interesting
evening.
About
nine the stew was ready, and the women ladled it into lacquer
bowls
with wooden spoons. The men were served first, but all ate
together.
Afterwards sake, their curse, was poured into lacquer
bowls,
and across each bowl a finely-carved "sake-stick" was laid.
These
sticks are very highly prized. The bowls were waved several
times
with an inward motion, then each man took his stick and,
dipping
it into the sake, made six libations to the fire and
several
to the "god"--a wooden post, with a quantity of
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