This Seems A
Savage Virtue Which Is Not Strong Enough To Survive Much Contact
With Civilisation.
Before I entered one lodge the woman brought
several of the finer mats, and arranged them as a pathway for me to
walk to the fire upon.
They will not accept anything for lodging,
or for anything that they give, so I was anxious to help them by
buying some of their handiwork, but found even this a difficult
matter. They were very anxious to give, but when I desired to buy
they said they did not wish to part with their things. I wanted
what they had in actual use, such as a tobacco-box and pipe-sheath,
and knives with carved handles and scabbards, and for three of
these I offered 2.5 dollars. They said they did not care to sell
them, but in the evening they came saying they were not worth more
than 1 dollar 10 cents, and they would sell them for that; and I
could not get them to take more. They said it was "not their
custom." I bought a bow and three poisoned arrows, two reed-mats,
with a diamond pattern on them in reeds stained red, some knives
with sheaths, and a bark cloth dress. I tried to buy the sake-
sticks with which they make libations to their gods, but they said
it was "not their custom" to part with the sake-stick of any living
man; however, this morning Shinondi has brought me, as a very
valuable present, the stick of a dead man! This morning the man
who sold the arrows brought two new ones, to replace two which were
imperfect. I found them, as Mr. Von Siebold had done,
punctiliously honest in all their transactions. They wear very
large earrings with hoops an inch and a half in diameter, a pair
constituting the dowry of an Aino bride; but they would not part
with these.
A house was burned down two nights ago, and "custom" in such a case
requires that all the men should work at rebuilding it, so in their
absence I got two boys to take me in a "dug-out" as far as we could
go up the Sarufutogawa - a lovely river, which winds tortuously
through the forests and mountains in unspeakable loveliness. I had
much of the feeling of the ancient mariner -
"We were the first
Who ever burst
Into that silent sea."
For certainly no European had ever previously floated on the dark
and forest-shrouded waters. I enjoyed those hours thoroughly, for
the silence was profound, and the faint blue of the autumn sky, and
the soft blue veil which "spiritualised" the distances, were so
exquisitely like the Indian summer.
The evening was spent like the previous one, but the hearts of the
savages were sad, for there was no more sake in Biratori, so they
could not "drink to the god," and the fire and the post with the
shavings had to go without libations. There was no more oil, so
after the strangers retired the hut was in complete darkness.
Yesterday morning we all breakfasted soon after daylight, and the
able-bodied men went away to hunt. Hunting and fishing are their
occupations, and for "indoor recreation" they carve tobacco-boxes,
knife-sheaths, sake-sticks, and shuttles. It is quite unnecessary
for them to do anything; they are quite contented to sit by the
fire, and smoke occasionally, and eat and sleep, this apathy being
varied by spasms of activity when there is no more dried flesh in
the kuras, and when skins must be taken to Sarufuto to pay for
sake. The women seem never to have an idle moment. They rise
early to sew, weave, and split bark, for they not only clothe
themselves and their husbands in this nearly indestructible cloth,
but weave it for barter, and the lower class of Japanese are
constantly to be seen wearing the product of Aino industry. They
do all the hard work, such as drawing water, chopping wood,
grinding millet, and cultivating the soil, after their fashion;
but, to do the men justice, I often see them trudging along
carrying one and even two children. The women take the exclusive
charge of the kuras, which are never entered by men.
I was left for some hours alone with the women, of whom there were
seven in the hut, with a few children. On the one side of the fire
the chief's mother sat like a Fate, for ever splitting and knotting
bark, and petrifying me by her cold, fateful eyes. Her thick, grey
hair hangs in shocks, the tattooing round her mouth has nearly
faded, and no longer disguises her really handsome features. She
is dressed in a much ornamented bark-cloth dress, and wears two
silver beads tied round her neck by a piece of blue cotton, in
addition to very large earrings. She has much sway in the house,
sitting on the men's side of the fire, drinking plenty of sake, and
occasionally chiding her grandson Shinondi for telling me too much,
saying that it will bring harm to her people. Though her
expression is so severe and forbidding, she is certainly very
handsome, and it is a European, not an Asiatic, beauty.
The younger women were all at work; two were seated on the floor
weaving without a loom, and the others were making and mending the
bark coats which are worn by both sexes. Noma, the chief's
principal wife, sat apart, seldom speaking. Two of the youngest
women are very pretty - as fair as ourselves, and their comeliness
is of the rosy, peasant kind. It turns out that two of them,
though they would not divulge it before men, speak Japanese, and
they prattled to Ito with great vivacity and merriment, the ancient
Fate scowling at them the while from under her shaggy eyebrows. I
got a number of words from them, and they laughed heartily at my
erroneous pronunciation.
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