Arizona republican., 1911-02-02
HEAD HUNTERS SHOCKED.

An entirely new viewpoint on Lon
 don and the English was that of the
 Ainu and Formosian head hunters who
 recently went over there as sideshow
 attractions of the Anglo-Japanese ex-
 hibitions When the savages returned
 to Japan bound for their homes in
 Hokkaido and Formosa a Japanese
 paper gleaned some interesting inn
 pressions from them
 | The Ainu are the Indians of Japan.
 the primitive race driven northward
 by successive invasions of the ancient
 Japanese hosts from the mainland of Aisa until now they live on reserva-
 tions in the northernmost island of the
 Japanese group. not at all influenced 1 by the quick civilization which has
 been effected by their conquerors. The
 Formosan savages are even moro primitive people than the Ainu. Until
 Japan acquired the island from China and began & systematic opening mp of
 the interior with the aid of rifles the
 head hunters of the jungle had never come in contact with the outside
 world
 The Formosan savages told their in terviewer in Japan that people had tried to fool them over in London when they said that all of the great buildings there were built by man and that the steam railways were of mans devising. No. it was certain that mo- body except some tremendous god could have built these wonders: man was too puny person tO make steel rear itself several hundred feet above the earth or go tearing through the country with the speed of an arrow.
 A note of sadness crept into the retrospectiOn of the Formosans when they recalled the fact that once they were taken to great building where there were long sheds filled with hu- man heads and skulls. Now why was it that when the JapaneSe prohibited head gathering in Formosa and pun ished with death any one caught with l n head in his possession, these Eng fish. who called themselves civilized. 1 should be allowed to have countless l fine heads in their big houses? Was l it fair to the Formosans tO prohibit | their pastime Of head hunting yet to | allow the custom to exist in such q | as England?
 The gentle collectors from FOrmOsa | did not think much of the king of England. who received them in au- iience by special arrangement with ] the directors of the Japanese ex- hibit. Even small chief in Fomosa would have a retinue Of fifty men. he savages said. whereas this, king Of England had only four or five men m his house. and even they did not ook much like warriors. '
 The Ainu travellers here put in a word of reproduction. They had seen English men with women walking hand in hand or arm in arm in pub ic places. Were these Englismen not thoroughly ashamed to be seen thus Dy others. What kind Of civilization vas it that allowed a man and a woman 10 walk hand in hand cOwn | street?
 The sad waste of Hyde park inn pressed the hairy aborigines from iokkiado. There in the midst of a ,reat city. where every foot of ground vas occupied by a house or a store. were great fields which might have been planted to potatoes. but were simply lying idle. There were no such barren fields in Ainuland.
 The Formosan brothers saw only me thing that really reused their 'nvy. that was the modern rifle. It equired so little powder to shoot. md It never exploded in the hun CTS hands like the old Belgian mus tets which traders have been selling to the warlike natives f the camphor island The Formos- ms boastfully said that if they were rmed with such rifles instead of ha | japanese army of occupation would lever penetrate to the interior of heir mountain wilderness.