Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-15
a STRANGE JAPAN RACE.

In her recent work, 90 Unbeaten Tracks
in Japan, Miss Isabella L. Bird gives
some graphic pictures of the Amos, or
aborigines of tie island Of Yezo, Japan.
'tAfter the yellow skins, the stiff horse
hair the feeble eyelids, the elongated eyes,
/ the fiat noses, the sunken cheeks, the Mon
golian features, the puny physique, the
shaky walk of the men, the restricted tot
ter of the women, and the general I'M
preston of degeneracy conveyed by the ap-
! pearance of the japanese, the Amos, she
says. "makes very singular impression.
| All but two or three that / have seen are
/ the most ferocious- looking of savages, with
physique vigorous enough for carrying
out the most ferocious intentions, but as
soon as they speak the countenance
brightens into smile as gentle as that of
a woman, something which can never be
| forgotten. The men are about the middle
hight, broad. chested, broad-shouldered,
thick set, very strongly built. the
arms and legs short, thick, and muscular,
the hands and feet large. The bodies, and
especially the limbs, of many are covered
with short bristly hair. [ have seen two
bows whose backs are covered with fur as
fine and soft as that of a cat. The heads
and faces are very striking. The foreheads
are very high, broad, and prominent, and
at first sight give one the impression of an
unusual capacity for intellectual develop
ment the ears are small and set low the
noses are straight, but short, and broad at
the nostrils the mouths are wide but well
formed, and the lips rarely show tendency
to fullness. The neck is short the Uranium
rounded, the cheekbones low, and the
lower part of the face is small as compared
with the upper, the popularity called a
fowl being unknown. The eyebrows are
full, and form a straight line nearly across
the face The eyes are large, tolerably
deeply set, and very beautiful, the color a
rich LIQUID brown, the expression singularly
abundant. The skin has the Indian olive
tint. but in most cases is thin, and light
enough to show the changes of color in the
cheek. The teeth are small, regular, and
very white the incisors and eye-teeth
are not disproportionately large, as is usu-
ally the case among the japanese there is
no tendency towards prognathism, and the
fold of integument which conceals the
upper eyelids of the japanese is never to
be met with. The features, expression and
aspect are European rather than Asiatic.
The ferocious savagery of the appearance
of the men is produced by profusion of
thick, soft black hair, divided in the
middle and falling in heavy masses nearly
to the shoulders. Out OF doors it is kept
from falling over the face by a fillet round
the brow. The boards are equally profuse,
quite magnificent and generally wavy,
and in the case of the old men they give
a truly patriarchal and venerable aspect,
in spite of the yellow tinge produced by
smoke and want of cleanliness. The saw
age look produced by the masses of hair
and beard, and the thick eyebrows, is miti
gated by the softnes in the dreamy brown
ewes, and is altogether obliterated by the
exceeding sweetness of the smile, which
belongs in greater or less degree to all the
rougher sex. l have measured the hight Of
thirty of the adult men of this village, and
| it ranges from five feet four inches to five
feet six and half inches. The circumfer.
ence of the heads averages % inches, and
the arc, from ear to ear, Is inches. The
average weight of the Aino adult mascu-
line brain, ascertained by measurement of
Aino skulls, is 45. so ounces avoirdupois, a
brain weight said to excel that of all the
races. Hindoo and Mussulman, on the In
dian plains, and that OF the aboriginal
! races of India and Ceylon, and is only par
alleled by that of the races of the Hima-
layas. the Siamese and the Chinese Bur-
mege.