The sun., 1909-02-28
WAYS or TIE ANUS or JAPAN,
Misunderstood Peeplc-G0ed Looking
Men, Some Beautiful Girls.

Dwarfed creatures, covered with hair
half monkeys, half men. covering for shell
ter beneath the burdock leaves in unap
proachable foreets-such were the Ainu'
Of which learned at school. Ardent be
levers In Darwin's views Of our ancestry
quoted this race as affording a striking
illustration Of the truth OF bis theories. and
some rumors reached our class that the
hairy human creatures had tails.
Alas that the truth must deal a blow Ia
these pretty fancies! I have lately seen
the Anus, writes NJ. c. Slopes in the
AthenGun. have spoken with them and
walked with them in the virgin forests ol
the land they now inhsbit, and my pulses
are stilled. can testify that the portrait
imagination had painted of them was a
travesty.
Yet all romance and strangeness are not
gone from them. and in their distant land
they are living a life that it may be ofinter-
est to tell Of. Driven from the main isl.
and OF Japan by the Japanese, they now
live in the northern island of Sezo and in
some outlying islands. where they form
small communities apart from the Jap
anese, for whom they feel little friend
ship
The first Ainu man | saw reminded me
instantly Of the popular conception Of an
Old Testament patriarch. and thought at
once of Abraham as he must have look I'D
before his hair grew white. The fine face
of this man of 8O years included "a slightly
Jewish nose and deep set eyes and was
crowned by halo of thick hair which fell
just to his shoulders and stood out bush.
ly all around his head. Around his brow
was bound brightly colored handker.
chief, which intensified the illusion. Thii
type is common among the older men anc
of all the Ainu men ! saw only one wat
ugly and unintelligent in appearance, anc
he was obviously the village idiot. The
men are short, II is true. seldom exceeding
8 feet inches in stature; but pygmies they
are not, and so thick get and broad shouI.
dered that they have the appearance OF
great strength and manlness.
The Anu man differs W idely from the
Ainu woman. This fact is all the more
notable because among the japanese the
difference il often very slight. and in the
eyes OF a foreigner II may be impossible
to recognize the sex of an individual dur
ing the first and last ten yea m Of life The
Ainu woman looks i'll fitted TO be the mate
Of the Ainu man. for the faces Of the Older
ones. and many even of the girls. are rem
dered startling and somewhat repulsive
by the curious dark green tattoo mark
which are heavily scored on them.
Many Of the women are much shorter
than the men and more thick set; indeed
some Of the older ones are most suuatty y
and have such short lower ! imhs that
their figures are entirely lacking in grace,
alike in motion and repose. Their hair
Is worn without ornament or dressing,
very little longer than that Of the men.
and falls in waving locks on either side
of their broad faces. The typical pat
tern Of the tattoo marks Is one which
comes in a thick curved line both above
and below the lips. and continues on
either side almost 10 the ears. where it
suddenly turns upward At very
short distance it gives them the appear
ance Of wearing fierce mustache Of
the "es ist erreicht' type, Across the
forehead run one or two bands Of SINH
lar color. either straight or waving. and
going from temple TO temple like the I'M
welcome wrnk le- on Western foreheads.
The transformation Of expression re-
sulting from these ornaments IL so great
that at first one can hardly believe that
the women belong to the same race as
the keen. intelligent, handsome men
Yet among the younger women who have
not been tattooed the bright expression
OF face shows them to be fit mates for
the men Sometimes the girls are most
attractive-two of those | saw were
distinctly beautiful. even according to
our own standards and all of them ap-
pear quick and vlvacious IN comparison
with the inscrutable calm and apparent
stupidity of the Japanese women
To-day the Anus are subject race.
having been driven further and furt rther
back in Japan by the Japanese until
they hold only a part Of the northern
islands. In truth they have but a pre-
carious foothold in the land. which Is
now entirely under the Japanese and is
every year increasingly cultivated. They
live in villages or groups apart from tho
Japanese in houses Of different shape
from those common in the country. In
deed their houses are little more than
straw huts with Curiolsly high roof
Cor should one say low walls which make
the roof look ont of all porportionD with
many tiers Of thatching.
The women ride into the Japanese vii
lagos sitting cross legged on the backs
Of mares which are followed by friskng
foals. Here they sell the vegetables
they bring with them in great baskets
and buy soap and thread and all such
things as they cannot make themselves
This last class Of rtcle IL rapidly in
in number, for the old Ainu in
dustries and individual products are dying
out and the arts Of weaving, carving.
cloth making and many others are he
coming lost among them. The men still
hunt, but bears are much fewer now than
they we're in the old days when the great
bear feasts and festivals were original ed
and warriors of valor were decorated with
a crown. the ornament of which was a
bears head rudely carved in wood. Those
on the coast 90 out to sea 10 fish in boats
with square ended prows. some of which
are still rudely carved.
The people call TO each other in harsh
tones, in words with short syllables in
which k is apparently the most frequent
etter-a language very different from the
soft and poetical speech Of the conquer
ing Japanese. In the names of places y
s very common as many descriptive
begin with this letter in Ainu.
put often this is changed TO in Japanese;
Tor example, the place Poronai ia always
spoken Of and is even written up at the
railway station as Horona by the Jap
anese. Writing is an unknown art among
he Ainus-not even a forgotten one like
pottery making-and 1t does not seem
likely that it will now be evolved by peo-
pie who are rapidly dying out Of the land
they have lost.
THE CALI or C4LIFORkI