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. 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. 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.
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