The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-06-08
.iRlP VAN WINKLES' OF JAPAN CURIOUS
 AND ANCIENT TRIBE
Strange Men In Mountain Businesses Interest Ethno-
 lOgists of Asia.

Tokio, June S.-Japanese etfnolo. gists have discovered in the mountain fastnesses of the island of Kyushu a curious and ancient people who have been designated the Rip Van Wrinkles of Japan. A similar group has been found in the mountains of Hida prov ince. It is said that both are of the Heil1i family, which descended from a Mikado of the ninthe century. They were all powerful in the twelfth cen tury until defeated in the Japanese War of the Roses by the Minamoto clan
 History holds that the Heiki fugi- tives who escaped after the twelfth century battle were drowned during their flight, but the, recent discovery of the picturesque clansmen. in the tW1lds of kyushu and in the mountains of Hida province leads to the belief thatm any esca ped and settled in re- mote mountain districts. Shut in by precipitous mountain peaks, these villagers lived an old world life, just as they must have centuries ago. One reason for believing they are the des- cendants of the Heiki is that their l style of clothing is the same as pre- vailed in Kyoto in the Heiki epoch and their dialect resembles somewhat the dialect of Kyoto in the olden times.
 They sing a song which, translated runs:
 Putting off our headgear of nobles and our hunting dress, proceed into the forest and the recesses of the mountains as woodcutters, to fell a tree.'' !
 Moreover, the villagers themselves think they are the descendants of the Heiki. Certainly these people are vastly different from the ordinary Japanese of today. both in language and in custom. The. families often number from 20 to 80 persons and live together in separate flats, as it were, in the same house. but at a common table as a measure of econo- my. The management of the family is vested in the head who exercised absolute authority. He occpuies a seat of honor and wears a ceremonial skirt. He spends most of his time in receiving visitors and attending to social matters. He is exempted from all manual labor.
 The heir of the family is all impor- that while the rest of the children are merely servants. He alone can take a, legitimate wife and in turn have heirs The smaHness of the clans has resulted in marriages that are sometimes too close and hardly eugenic. Neverth heless, the community life is on> the whole of a high order. Those who break rules are banished from the village. The houses are
 
 are more like family hotels and al- ways contain a shrine where the an- cestors are paid homage.
 The c1ansmen use no lamps, for the wood they burn in the middle of the floor. at night furnishes all the light. they need. They live chiefly on the grain of kind of grass. The headman sometimes has rice brought in from the outside world for his own use, but for the most part even he, has to live on communal food Pump kins, eggplants,= .yams and other vege- tables they grow in plenty.
 Their dress is a curiosity but ap- propriate to hardy mountaineers The men carry a piece Of bearskin or wild bear at the Ioin and hatchet in their belts The villagers are said to be very honest. always agreeable among with the greatest hospitality.