I Was So Tired With These Nocturnal Expeditions And Anxieties That
On Lying Down I Fell Asleep, And On Waking Found More Than The
Usual Assemblage In The Room, And The Men Were Obviously Agog About
Something.
They have a singular, and I hope an unreasonable, fear
of the Japanese Government.
Mr. Von Siebold thinks that the
officials threaten and knock them about; and this is possible; but
I really think that the Kaitaikushi Department means well by them,
and, besides removing the oppressive restrictions by which, as a
conquered race, they were fettered, treats them far more humanely
and equitably than the U.S. Government, for instance, treats the
North American Indians. However, they are ignorant; and one of the
men, who had been most grateful because I said I would get Dr.
Hepburn to send some medicine for his child, came this morning and
begged me not to do so, as, he said, "the Japanese Government would
be angry." After this they again prayed me not to tell the
Japanese Government that they had told me their customs and then
they began to talk earnestly together.
The sub-chief then spoke, and said that I had been kind to their
sick people, and they would like to show me their temple, which had
never been seen by any foreigner; but they were very much afraid of
doing so, and they asked me many times "not to tell the Japanese
Government that they showed it to me, lest some great harm should
happen to them." The sub-chief put on a sleeveless Japanese war-
cloak to go up, and he, Shinondi, Pipichari, and two others
accompanied me. It was a beautiful but very steep walk, or rather
climb, to the top of an abrupt acclivity beyond the village, on
which the temple or shrine stands. It would be impossible to get
up were it not for the remains of a wooden staircase, not of Aino
construction. Forest and mountain surround Biratori, and the only
breaks in the dense greenery are glints of the shining waters of
the Sarufutogawa, and the tawny roofs of the Aino lodges. It is a
lonely and a silent land, fitter for the HIDING place than the
DWELLING place of men.
When the splendid young savage, Pipichari, saw that I found it
difficult to get up, he took my hand and helped me up, as gently as
an English gentleman would have done; and when he saw that I had
greater difficulty in getting down, he all but insisted on my
riding down on his back, and certainly would have carried me had
not Benri, the chief, who arrived while we were at the shrine, made
an end of it by taking my hand and helping me down himself. Their
instinct of helpfulness to a foreign woman strikes me as so odd,
because they never show any courtesy to their own women, whom they
treat (though to a less extent than is usual among savages) as
inferior beings.
On the very edge of the cliff, at the top of the zigzag, stands a
wooden temple or shrine, such as one sees in any grove, or on any
high place on the main island, obviously of Japanese construction,
but concerning which Aino tradition is silent. No European had
ever stood where I stood, and there was a solemnity in the
knowledge. The sub-chief drew back the sliding doors, and all
bowed with much reverence, It was a simple shrine of unlacquered
wood, with a broad shelf at the back, on which there was a small
shrine containing a figure of the historical hero Yoshitsune, in a
suit of inlaid brass armour, some metal gohei, a pair of tarnished
brass candle-sticks, and a coloured Chinese picture representing a
junk. Here, then, I was introduced to the great god of the
mountain Ainos. There is something very pathetic in these people
keeping alive the memory of Yoshitsune, not on account of his
martial exploits, but simply because their tradition tells them
that he was kind to them. They pulled the bell three times to
attract his attention, bowed three times, and made six libations of
sake, without which ceremony he cannot be approached. They asked
me to worship their god, but when I declined on the ground that I
could only worship my own God, the Lord of Earth and Heaven, of the
dead and of the living, they were too courteous to press their
request. As to Ito, it did not signify to him whether or not he
added another god to his already crowded Pantheon, and he
"worshipped," i.e. bowed down, most willingly before the great hero
of his own, the conquering race.
While we were crowded there on the narrow ledge of the cliff,
Benri, the chief, arrived - a square-built, broad-shouldered,
elderly man, strong as an ox, and very handsome, but his expression
is not pleasing, and his eyes are bloodshot with drinking. The
others saluted him very respectfully, but I noticed then and since
that his manner is very arbitrary, and that a blow not infrequently
follows a word. He had sent a message to his people by Ito that
they were not to answer any questions till he returned, but Ito
very tactfully neither gave it nor told me of it, and he was
displeased with the young men for having talked to me so much. His
mother had evidently "peached." I like him less than any of his
tribe. He has some fine qualities, truthfulness among others, but
he has been contaminated by the four or five foreigners that he has
seen, and is a brute and a sot. The hearts of his people are no
longer sad, for there is sake in every house to-night.
I. L. B.
LETTER XXXVII
Barrenness of Savage Life - Irreclaimable Savages - The Aino
Physique - Female Comeliness- Torture and Ornament - Child Life -
Docility and Obedience.
BIRATORI, YEZO, August 24.
I expected to have written out my notes on the Ainos in the
comparative quiet and comfort of Sarufuto, but the delay in Benri's
return, and the non-arrival of the horses, have compelled me to
accept Aino hospitality for another night, which involves living on
tea and potatoes, for my stock of food is exhausted.
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