As The Bear Is
Seen To Approach His End, They Shout In Chorus, "We Kill You, O
Bear!
Come back soon into an Aino."] When a bear is trapped or
wounded by an arrow, the hunters go through an apologetic or
propitiatory ceremony.
They appear to have certain rude ideas of
metempsychosis, as is evidenced by the Usu prayer to the bear and
certain rude traditions; but whether these are indigenous, or have
arisen by contact with Buddhism at a later period, it is impossible
to say.
They have no definite ideas concerning a future state, and the
subject is evidently not a pleasing one to them. Such notions as
they have are few and confused. 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.
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