The Baggage Was Speedily Brought In By Several Willing
Pairs Of Hands; Some Reed Mats Fifteen Feet Long Were Laid
Down
upon the very coarse ones which covered the whole floor, and when
they saw Ito putting up my stretcher
They hung a fine mat along the
rough wall to conceal it, and suspended another on the beams of the
roof for a canopy. The alacrity and instinctive hospitality with
which these men rushed about to make things comfortable were very
fascinating, though comfort is a word misapplied in an Aino hut.
The women only did what the men told them.
They offered food at once, but I told them that I had brought my
own, and would only ask leave to cook it on their fire. I need not
have brought any cups, for they have many lacquer bowls, and
Shinondi brought me on a lacquer tray a bowl full of water from one
of their four wells. They said that Benri, the chief, would wish
me to make his house my own for as long as I cared to stay, and I
must excuse them in all things in which their ways were different
from my own. Shinondi and four others in the village speak
tolerable Japanese, and this of course is the medium of
communication. Ito has exerted himself nobly as an interpreter,
and has entered into my wishes with a cordiality and intelligence
which have been perfectly invaluable; and, though he did growl at
Mr. Von Siebold's injunctions regarding politeness, he has carried
them out to my satisfaction, and even admits that the mountain
Ainos are better than he expected; "but," he added "they have
learned their politeness from the Japanese!" They have never seen
a foreign woman, and only three foreign men, but there is neither
crowding nor staring as among the Japanese, possibly in part from
apathy and want of intelligence.
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