Implicit And Prompt Obedience Is Required From Infancy; And From A
Very Early Age The Children Are Utilised By Being Made To Fetch And
Carry And Go On Messages.
I have seen children apparently not more
than two years old sent for wood; and even at this age
They are so
thoroughly trained in the observances of etiquette that babies just
able to walk never toddle into or out of this house without formal
salutations to each person within it, the mother alone excepted.
They don't wear any clothing till they are seven or eight years
old, and are then dressed like their elders. Their manners to
their parents are very affectionate. Even to-day, in the chief's
awe-inspiring presence, one dear little nude creature, who had been
sitting quietly for two hours staring into the fire with her big
brown eyes, rushed to meet her mother when she entered, and threw
her arms round her, to which the woman responded by a look of true
maternal tenderness and a kiss. These little creatures, in the
absolute unconsciousness of innocence, with their beautiful faces,
olive-tinted bodies, - all the darker, sad to say, from dirt, - their
perfect docility, and absence of prying curiosity, are very
bewitching. They all wear silver or pewter ornaments tied round
their necks by a wisp of blue cotton.
Apparently the ordinary infantile maladies, such as whooping-cough
and measles, do not afflict the Ainos fatally; but the children
suffer from a cutaneous affection, which wears off as they reach
the age of ten or eleven years, as well as from severe toothache
with their first teeth.
LETTER XXXVII - (Continued)
Aino Clothing - Holiday Dress - Domestic Architecture - Household
Gods - Japanese Curios - The Necessaries of Life - Clay Soup - Arrow
Poison - Arrow-Traps - Female Occupations - Bark Cloth - The Art of
Weaving.
Aino clothing, for savages, is exceptionally good. In the winter
it consists of one, two, or more coats of skins, with hoods of the
same, to which the men add rude moccasins when they go out hunting.
In summer they wear kimonos, or loose coats, made of cloth woven
from the split bark of a forest tree. This is a durable and
beautiful fabric in various shades of natural buff, and somewhat
resembles what is known to fancy workers as "Panama canvas." Under
this a skin or bark-cloth vest may or may not be worn. The men
wear these coats reaching a little below the knees, folded over
from right to left, and confined at the waist by a narrow girdle of
the same cloth, to which is attached a rude, dagger-shaped knife,
with a carved and engraved wooden handle and sheath. Smoking is by
no means a general practice; consequently the pipe and tobacco-box
are not, as with the Japanese, a part of ordinary male attire.
Tightly-fitting leggings, either of bark-cloth or skin, are worn by
both sexes, but neither shoes nor sandals. The coat worn by the
women reaches half-way between the knees and ankles, and is quite
loose and without a girdle. It is fastened the whole way up to the
collar-bone; and not only is the Aino woman completely covered, but
she will not change one garment for another except alone or in the
dark. Lately a Japanese woman at Sarufuto took an Aino woman into
her house, and insisted on her taking a bath, which she absolutely
refused to do till the bath-house had been made quite private by
means of screens. On the Japanese woman going back a little later
to see what had become of her, she found her sitting in the water
in her clothes; and on being remonstrated with, she said that the
gods would be angry if they saw her without clothes!
Many of the garments for holiday occasions are exceedingly
handsome, being decorated with "geometrical" patterns, in which the
"Greek fret" takes part, in coarse blue cotton, braided most
dexterously with scarlet and white thread. Some of the handsomest
take half a year to make. The masculine dress is completed by an
apron of oblong shape decorated in the same elaborate manner.
These handsome savages, with their powerful physique, look
remarkably well in their best clothes. I have not seen a boy or
girl above nine who is not thoroughly clothed. The "jewels" of the
women are large, hoop earrings of silver or pewter, with
attachments of a classical pattern, and silver neck ornaments, and
a few have brass bracelets soldered upon their arms. The women
have a perfect passion for every hue of red, and I have made
friends with them by dividing among them a large turkey-red silk
handkerchief, strips of which are already being utilised for the
ornamenting of coats.
The houses in the five villages up here are very good. So they are
at Horobets, but at Shiraoi, where the aborigines suffer from the
close proximity of several grog shops, they are inferior. They
differ in many ways from any that I have before seen, approaching
most nearly to the grass houses of the natives of Hawaii. Custom
does not appear to permit either of variety or innovations; in all
the style is the same, and the difference consists in the size and
plenishings. The dwellings seem ill-fitted for a rigorous climate,
but the same thing may be said of those of the Japanese. In their
houses, as in their faces, the Ainos are more European than their
conquerors, as they possess doorways, windows, central fireplaces,
like those of the Highlanders of Scotland, and raised sleeping-
places.
The usual appearance is that of a small house built on at the end
of a larger one. The small house is the vestibule or ante-room,
and is entered by a low doorway screened by a heavy mat of reeds.
It contains the large wooden mortar and pestle with two ends, used
for pounding millet, a wooden receptacle for millet, nets or
hunting gear, and some bundles of reeds for repairing roof or
walls.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 89 of 112
Words from 90300 to 91309
of 115002
