Some think that the spirits of
their friends go into wolves and snakes; others, that they wander
about the forests; and they are much afraid of ghosts.
A few think
that they go to "a good or bad place," according to their deeds;
but Shinondi said, and there was an infinite pathos in his words,
"How can we know? No one ever came back to tell us!" On asking
him what were bad deeds, he said, "Being bad to parents, stealing,
and telling lies." The future, however, does not occupy any place
in their thoughts, and they can hardly be said to believe in the
immortality of the soul, though their fear of ghosts shows that
they recognise a distinction between body and spirit.
Their social customs are very simple. Girls never marry before the
age of seventeen, or men before twenty-one. When a man wishes to
marry he thinks of some particular girl, and asks the chief if he
may ask for her. If leave is given, either through a "go-between"
or personally, he asks her father for her, and if he consents the
bridegroom gives him a present, usually a Japanese "curio." This
constitutes betrothal, and the marriage, which immediately follows,
is celebrated by carousals and the drinking of much sake. The
bride receives as her dowry her earrings and a highly ornamented
kimono. It is an essential that the husband provides a house to
which to take his wife. Each couple lives separately, and even the
eldest son does not take his bride to his father's house. Polygamy
is only allowed in two cases. The chief may have three wives; but
each must have her separate house. Benri has two wives; but it
appears that he took the second because the first was childless.
[The Usu Ainos told me that among the tribes of Volcano Bay
polygamy is not practised, even by the chiefs.] It is also
permitted in the case of a childless wife; but there is no instance
of it in Biratori, and the men say that they prefer to have one
wife, as two quarrel.
Widows are allowed to marry again with the chief's consent; but
among these mountain Ainos a woman must remain absolutely secluded
within the house of her late husband for a period varying from six
to twelve months, only going to the door at intervals to throw sake
to the right and left. A man secludes himself similarly for thirty
days. [So greatly do the customs vary, that round Volcano Bay I
found that the period of seclusion for a widow is only thirty days,
and for a man twenty-five; but that after a father's death the
house in which he has lived is burned down after the thirty days of
seclusion, and the widow and her children go to a friend's house
for three years, after which the house is rebuilt on its former
site.]
If a man does not like his wife, by obtaining the chief's consent
he can divorce her; but he must send her back to her parents with
plenty of good clothes; but divorce is impracticable where there
are children, and is rarely if ever practised.
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