The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1897-06-11
CURIOUS BEAR FEASTs.
Queer Ways of Some Interesting Saw
ages in Northern Japan.

ages in Northern Japan.
The queerest festival ever heard of is
celebrated annually By ce.tain saw
ages who live on the island of Yezo, in
the japanese archipelago. They are
the hairiest peopletn the world, some of
the men being so covered with long fur
that their bodies can hardly be seen.
The bear is worshfped by them as god,
and it is the ceremonial pertaining TO
this cult that is described as so re-
markable.
They have good reason to respect
the bear of Yezo, which is huge and
ferocious animal, closely resembling
the American grizzly. 1t does not hest
tate to attack man, and when hungry
it sometimes enters dwellings in search
of food. On the other hand, the hairy
people are brave hunters, and, though
possessing no better weapons than
bows and arrows, they do not hesitate
to assail the brute. The arrows are
poisoned, and mere puncture of the
skin is so fatal that bruin will surely
fall dead before he can run 200 yards.
This poison is prepared from young
roots of the aconite plant. Ordinarily
the hairy people use it for set bows in
the woods. When a bear comes along
and steps on cord, an arrow is re-
leased and enters the flesh of the ami
NAL. In parts of Yezo the forests are
dangerous to travellers by reason of
these set bows. Bears are eXtraordi-
narily numerous onthe island, and they
furnish clothing as well as food to the
Inhabitants. Bear gall, too, is greatly
priced as medicine.
Thus the hairy people regard bruin
with the highest respect, giving him
place of honor in their pantheon. To
prOpitiate him and to atone for having
put his brothers and sisters to death,
they hold periodical feasts, the most
important feature of which, oddly
enough, is the sacrifice of a young bear.
There is eating and drinking and dane
ing for several days, at the end of which
the bear is crushed to death under big
log, upon which the merrymakers
mount. Finally, the animal is cut up
and eaten, and it's skull is placed on the
sacred hedge which is found on the east
side of every house.
It is great honor to be the giver Of
a bear feast. Only comparatively rich
man can afford it, because the host must
pay for everything, and immense guam
titles of rice brandy, or sake, are con-
sumed. At the end of winter baby
bear is caught and placed in cage of
logs. At first it is sucked by some
woman, usually the wife of the captor,
and later on it is fed with fish. The
festiv al takes place in September or
October, by which time the captive ami
NAL has grown SO big and strong as to
! threaten to break out of it's prison.
The ceremonies are elaborate, but con-
sist most Importantly of drinking and
dancing For awhile the woman who
served as wet nurse for the bear sits
aside, sorrowful, having quasi-pa-
rental feeling toward the victim.
At length young bruin is taken out of
the cage by three or four strong young
men, who lead him around for time
Then he is made target for arrows
which, instead of pointed heads, have
blunt wooden ends decorated with bits
of red cloth. Next, the animal is taken
before the sacred hedge, log is laid
upon hiIn, and the men mount upon the
log, crushing the poor beast to death.
Meanwhile the women dance around,
with lam entations, striking the men, to
manifest their indignation at such
cruelty. Finally the body of the vic
tim is laid on mat near the hedge, and
the men proceed to get helplessly
drunk.
On the following day the bear IS cut
up, it's blood being caught in cups and
greedily dunk. The liver is taken out
chopped in to small pieces, and eaten
raw, with salt. The flesh and entrails
are put in the house, to be divided
among the participants in the feast next
day. An opening is made in the skull
through which the brains are removed
and the latter are passed around in cups
mixed with sake. Finally, the empty
skull rs filed with shavings and raised
on pole above the sacred hedge.
The men OF this hairy race have such
enormous mi staches that they are
obliged to hold them up, when eating
or drinking, by means of fiat wooden
implements shaped like paper cutters
Their hair AMI bushy boards are never
combed or cut. These people are OF
small stature! though rather bigger
than the Japanese. They are brown,
but their eNadt shade is impossible to
tell, inasmuchl as they never battle OF
wash. The cir S are good looking, save
for tattooing about the mouth. 1t be-
gins when they are six years old, and as
they grovs Older it is gradually extended
until it forms d broad band all around
the mouth. The tattooing is done by
scarifying with knives and rubbing SCOT
into the cuts.
The hairy people weave coarse kind
of cloth from the fiber of the bark of the
mountain elm, and their principal gar
n,ent is a long COAT of this material In
winter their clothing is of skins, for the
climate is cold, and they have water