Conjugal Fidelity
Is A Virtue Among Aino Women; But "Custom" Provides That, In Case
Of Unfaithfulness, The Injured Husband May
Bestow his wife upon her
paramour, if he be an unmarried man; in which case the chief fixes
the amount
Of damages which the paramour must pay; and these are
usually valuable Japanese curios.
The old and blind people are entirely supported by their children,
and receive until their dying day filial reverence and obedience.
If one man steals from another he must return what he has taken,
and give the injured man a present besides, the value of which is
fixed by the chief.
Their mode of living you already know, as I have shared it, and am
still receiving their hospitality. "Custom" enjoins the exercise
of hospitality on every Aino. They receive all strangers as they
received me, giving them of their best, placing them in the most
honourable place, bestowing gifts upon them, and, when they depart,
furnishing them with cakes of boiled millet.
They have few amusements, except certain feasts. Their dance,
which they have just given in my honour, is slow and mournful, and
their songs are chants or recitative. They have a musical
instrument, something like a guitar, with three, five, or six
strings, which are made from sinews of whales cast up on the shore.
They have another, which is believed to be peculiar to themselves,
consisting of a thin piece of wood, about five inches long and two
and a half inches broad, with a pointed wooden tongue, about two
lines in breadth and sixteen in length, fixed in the middle, and
grooved on three sides. The wood is held before the mouth, and the
tongue is set in motion by the vibration of the breath in singing.
Its sound, though less penetrating, is as discordant as that of a
Jew's harp, which it somewhat resembles. One of the men used it as
an accompaniment of a song; but they are unwilling to part with
them, as they say that it is very seldom that they can find a piece
of wood which will bear the fine splitting necessary for the
tongue.
They are a most courteous people among each other. The salutations
are frequent - on entering a house, on leaving it, on meeting on the
road, on receiving anything from the hand of another, and on
receiving a kind or complimentary speech. They do not make any
acknowledgments of this kind to the women, however. The common
salutation consists in extending the hands and waving them inwards,
once or oftener, and stroking the beard; the formal one in raising
the hands with an inward curve to the level of the head two or
three times, lowering them, and rubbing them together; the ceremony
concluding with stroking the beard several times. The latter and
more formal mode of salutation is offered to the chief, and by the
young to the old men. The women have no "manners!"
They have no "medicine men," and, though they are aware of the
existence of healing herbs, they do not know their special virtues
or the manner of using them.
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