Alone With The Hairy Ainu Part 17

The track is tolerably fair for about twenty-four miles as far as k.u.mais.h.i.+. It runs either along the beach or around clay and conglomerate rocky points, occasionally over the cliffs and through ravines. North of Esas.h.i.+, along the a.s.sap River, is a good stretch of cultivable land; then the thickly-wooded mountainous region begins again towards the north.

k.u.mais.h.i.+ is said to be the best district for herring fis.h.i.+ng along that coast.

From k.u.mais.h.i.+ to Kudo numerous reefs extend out at sea, and small headlands afford a safe anchorage to junks. The track is mostly on a rough coast backed by high and well-wooded hills. Striking across the mountains, which rise sheer from the sea, we come to Cape Ota, the most westerly point of Yezo. From here the coast turns towards the north-east as far as Barabuta; but as it was impossible for me to go on horseback to that place, though only a few miles distant, I turned back and returned to Esas.h.i.+, then following the coast towards the south to Matsumai or f.u.kuyama, one of the first j.a.panese settlements established in Yezo, and formerly the capital of the island. The coast is rugged and picturesque from Esas.h.i.+ to the two villages of Kaminok.u.mi and s.h.i.+of.u.ki, after which a mountain path leads to Is.h.i.+saki.

I found the j.a.panese on this coast most polite and honest, and more like the "old j.a.panese" than the younger generations.

The cliffs on the south side of the Is.h.i.+zaki River were resplendent in beauty under the brilliant red and yellow light of the setting sun.

Os.h.i.+ma (or Large Island) could be seen on the horizon in the distant south. Five miles further, across a mountain track, I came to Cisango, and five more miles beyond that place landed me at Haraguchi, two small fis.h.i.+ng villages, with houses resting on high posts and against the cliffs, somewhat similar to the villages I found previous to my reaching the Is.h.i.+kari River.

After that are eight or ten miles of a monotonous hilly road, where you do nothing but ascend and descend one small hill after another, up and down a snake-like or a zig-zag path; but when Eramachi is pa.s.sed the track becomes much more interesting, with its peculiar groups of rocks of all shapes sticking out of the sea, and the long line of reef over which the breakers roll foaming and thundering. From here by the side of Os.h.i.+ma, another small island, "Kos.h.i.+ma," is seen on the horizon. Going south the coast gradually gets more and more picturesque, with its pretty little fis.h.i.+ng villages hidden among the rocks and sheltered under the high cliffs. At Neptka a good road leads over the cliffs to f.u.kuyama.

About a mile before the town is reached, from a high point of vantage on the road, is a pretty peep of Benten Island, just off the sh.o.r.e, with an old temple on it, and by its side a new lighthouse. On the sh.o.r.e, a few yards from the road opposite the island, a large rock is literally covered with hundreds of stone images of Amida and different G.o.ds, and two _Torii_, sacred emblems of j.a.pan, are placed in front of it.

I descended the slope gently and reached Koromatsumai, otherwise called Matsumai, or f.u.kuyama. It is a "dear old spot," the most picturesque of all the towns in Hokkaido. It is ancient, for one thing, while other places are modern--some villages, indeed, only a year or two old, or even less. Thus weather has toned down the light yellow colour of the new wood, which is so offensive to the eye in a landscape, and is so common in all j.a.panese villages of Yezo. Besides, f.u.kuyama has pretty temples on the surrounding hills, and prettily-laid-out gardens with tiny stone bridges, bronze lanterns, and dwarfed trees. It is more like a town of old j.a.pan. It has a three-storied castle with turned-up roofs, as one sees on the willow-pattern plates.

The castle, formerly the residence of the Daimio, a feudal prince, is now a restaurant. The irregular streets of the town, the narrow lanes, the houses blackened by smoke and age, give a certain _cachet_ which is peculiar to the place itself. The inhabitants, too, are more conservative than the younger colonists, and are quite "in keeping" with the place. Unluckily, the town has seen better days! It possesses no good harbour, and all its trade, little by little, is being carried away by its more fortunate rival, Hakodate. The population of Matsumai decreases considerably every year, as the inhabitants leave this poetical but dead-alive and decaying spot for the more exciting life to be found in newly-opened districts further east or north.

Between f.u.kuyama and Hakodate, a distance of over sixty miles, the road is extremely bad, and there is nothing whatever to see. s.h.i.+rakami Cape is interesting as being the most southern point of Yezo, and from here the coast turns slightly towards the north-east.

f.u.kus.h.i.+ma is an old village. The other headlands, and the Cape of Yagos.h.i.+, have no special features calling for attention. Near the latter cape the coast is volcanic, which renders it very rugged in shape and warmly tinted in colour. There are many villages along the coast, as Yos.h.i.+oka, s.h.i.+riuchi, Kikonai, Idzumizawa, Mohechi, and Kamiiro, and the inhabitants seem well off and well-to-do people.

A great quant.i.ty of coal and firewood is carried on pony-back from these mountains to Hakodate. Rows of ten, twelve, or fifteen ponies one after the other, loaded with as much as they can carry, can be seen slowly travelling, under the care of one man, down to the princ.i.p.al port of Yezo, especially at the beginning of the winter season; and here and there stacks of split wood are piled ready for transportation.

Rounding the Hakodate Bay, I was again at the point whence I had first started, and happy that, notwithstanding all the ill-luck I had had, notwithstanding the strain on my physique, which is not by any means herculean, and notwithstanding all the obstacles which had come in my way, I had finally succeeded in doing what no European had ever done before, namely, in completing the whole circuit of Yezo at one time, exploring all its most important rivers and lakes, studying the habits, customs, and manners of that strange race of people, the Hairy Ainu, and visiting the Kuriles besides.

Many parts which I travelled over had never been trodden by European foot, and this made my journey all the more interesting to me. As the book stands I have related but the princ.i.p.al adventures which I had during my long peregrinations in Hokkaido, most of which are intended to ill.u.s.trate Ainu customs and traits by my own personal experience rather than to excite sympathy for my hards.h.i.+ps. Really, though the journey nearly cost me my life, I have never, in my extensive wanderings, enjoyed a trip more than that to Ainuland.

I have touched but slightly, and not more than was absolutely necessary, on subjects relating to the j.a.panese; for this is intended as a work on the Ainu.

I was happy yet sorry to be at the end of my journey! This was the 146th day since I first left Hakodate, and the distance I had travelled was about 4,200 miles, out of which 3,800 were ridden on horseback, or an average of twenty-five miles a day. The remaining 400 miles were either by steamer or canoe travelling.

From the day I broke the bone in my foot I travelled fifty-eight days, mostly on horseback, and the first time it was attended to and properly bandaged up was sixty days after it occurred, or two days after my arrival in Hakodate, by Mr. Pooley, chief engineer on board the SS.

_Satsuma Maru_.

Mr. Henson was again extremely kind, and pressed me to leave the tea-house and go and stay at his place, and after five months of "hard planks" I slept again in a comfortable bed. What a treat it was! What a curious sensation to sleep in a bed again, and actually have sheets and blankets! But this was not all, for surprise followed surprise.

The pompous Consul, who for the sake of saving himself the trouble of looking into his desk, had made my last portion of the journey wretched and sorrowful, found that after all he was mistaken, and on the breakfast-table in my place I found a packet of about 100 letters and newspapers, which the Consul sent to me with a message saying that when I called last time he had forgotten who I was, and therefore had forgotten to give me my correspondence!

Now that we have travelled round and through the country in every direction; now that we have seen where the different tribes of Ainu are, I shall attempt to give my readers some insight into the Ainu themselves, and their mode of living.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WOODEN DRINKING VESSELS.]

CHAPTER XX.

Ainu Habitations, Storehouses, Trophies, Furniture--Conservatism.

Ainu architecture is by no means elaborate, let alone beautiful; but though it is so simple, it is to a certain extent varied, differing according to the exigencies of climate and locality. Huts of one district vary from those of another not only in small details, but also in the whole shape; or if the shape is the same, the materials are different.

The princ.i.p.al characteristics of the Volcano Bay and Saru River huts is, that they have angular roofs and are thatched with tall reeds and arundinaria, while the huts up the Tokachi River are more often covered with bark, though in form they are almost identical with those others.

On the Kutcharo Lake, again, the huts are thatched with tall reeds like those of Volcano Bay, but the building itself has a totally different shape. The roof is semicircular, and each hut is in appearance like the half of a cylinder lying on its rectangular base.

On the north-east coast the huts have either roofs similar to the Kutcharo ones, or else the angle is very obtuse instead of being sharp, as with the Piratori or Volcano Bay huts.

In the Kuriles, at s.h.i.+kotan, the Ainu have houses exactly similar to those at Piratori.

Setting aside the varieties of form, we shall now consider how the huts are built. A frame is first made by horizontally las.h.i.+ng at short intervals long poles to others at the angles of the roof. Often the roof is made first and lifted up bodily on the forked poles on which it rests. Then long reeds and arundinaria are collected in sufficient quant.i.ty to thatch the frame thickly on each side. Other poles or rafters are then placed over these reeds, and through them lashed tightly to the under frame, thus preventing the thatch from being blown or washed away. Care is taken to leave an opening for the door; and the small east window--usually the only one in Ainu huts--is cut out afterwards by means of a knife. Ainu huts have never more than one storey and never more than one room and a small porch. In districts where the climate is less severe the porch is often dispensed with. In building their habitations the hairy people make no attempt whatever at symmetry or beauty; all they aim at is to make themselves a shelter and nothing more.

There are no more professional architects than professionals of any other kind in the Ainu country. Each man is his own architect, builder, and carpenter. He may occasionally receive the help of a neighbour when he is building his hut, if all hands in the family are not sufficient to carry him through his work.

Each family has its own hut, which is used day and night by all the members. If one of the sons gets married he sometimes brings his bride to live in his father's hut, or else he goes to live in his bride's hut; but as the "hairy mother-in-law" is no better than other "mothers-in-law," the end of this arrangement is that generally the bridegroom has to build a habitation for himself and his better-half.

Fortunately for him, he has to pay no ground-rent; nor has he to take a lease, nor pay the lawyer for an agreement, nor yet to buy the ground nor the materials on which and of which his not too luxurious abode is to be built. He chooses the site which is most suitable to him, and there he builds his hut as best he can; and no one is any the worse or the wiser for it. The "furnis.h.i.+ng" is a matter of no consideration with the Ainu, as he prefers to live in an "unfurnished house." By instalments, however, as he finds his floor becoming rather damp, he provides himself with a few rough planks, which afford him comfortable sleeping accommodation; and during the winter, when fis.h.i.+ng is not practicable, and he spends most of his day at home, he roughly carves for himself a moustache-lifter (the _Kike-ush-bashui_); a small paddle, the _Hera_ (which is used both to stir the wine and as an implement in weaving); a pestle and mortar carved out of the trunk of a tree; and, if he be a very ambitious person and fond of his wife, he will probably make her a weaving loom as well as two or three "water-jugs" if we may call them so--vessels made of bark bent into shape, and lashed so strongly as to be water-tight, and used for carrying water as needed.

A few wooden bowls, a wooden hook, which is suspended over the fire when bear-meat is smoked, occasionally a _Kinna_ (a mat), and a skin or two, are all the articles of furniture of Ainu manufacture which an Ainu can possess, though few of them possess so many. The Ainu hut has a fire-place in the centre, or rather, a fire is lighted in the centre of the hut. The fire is lighted with a flint and steel--a method learned from the j.a.panese--or by the friction of two sticks. The more civilised Ainu have now adopted matches. A hole in the angle of the roof acts as chimney, but unfortunately more in name than in practice.

Chairs, stools, sofas, beds, tables, etc., are all things unknown to the Ainu. While inspecting the hut it may be as well to see how the weaving-loom, the most complicated article of the Ainu household, is made and worked. There is a "yarn beam" (the _Kammakappe_), on which the "warp" of unwoven thread is wound and kept separated, and another "roll"

by which the warp threads in the process of weaving are kept in tension between the two gratings. There then is the _Poro-usa_ (the "large grating"), through the intervals of which the warp threads pa.s.s, and the _Usa_, a similar but smaller grating placed on the other side of the roll.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE KAMMAKAPPE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PORO-USA, OR "LARGE GRATING."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE USA.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: STICKS.]

The cloth is wound round a stick which rests on the lap of the weaver, and is kept in tension by means of her wrists; and at the same time the _Ahunkanitte_ (the "shuttle"), is pa.s.sed between the two sets of warp threads carrying the transverse thread, or "woof," from one side of the cloth to the other and back again. This is then beaten up by means of a long shuttle like a netting mesh, which first draws the weft into its place, and is then used to beat it up. In some ways this form of loom is similar to that of India. The "netting mesh" is called _Atzis-Hera_.

Finally, the _Pekoatnit_ is a bi-forked instrument for separating the threads.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE AHUNKANITTE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PEKOATNIT.]

It is needless to say that with this primitive and homemade loom it takes a very long time to weave a very short piece of cloth; but as time is not money with Ainu women, and patience is one of their virtues, it answers their purpose, and they wish for nothing better.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ATZIS-CLOTH IN PROCESS OF WEAVING.]

The thread used for manufacturing the cloth is made of the inner fibre of the _Ulmus campestris_ bark. At the beginning of the spring the elm bark is peeled off the trees and is put in water to soak and soften until the inner fibres can be separated, made into threads, and wound up round reeds. The material woven from these threads is very coa.r.s.e and brittle, except in wet weather or when soaked in water, in which case clothes made of it cannot be worn out.

The weaving is usually plain, but sometimes a simple pattern of black parallel lines is woven in with the material. The natural colour of the elm-fibre thread is dark yellow, and the black lines are composed of the same thread stained.

The other contrivance in Ainu huts which strikes one as being simple but clever is the hook suspended over the fire. The rope is pa.s.sed over a rafter. One end of it is fastened to the hook, the other, as shown in the ill.u.s.tration, to a piece of wood through which the hook has previously been pa.s.sed.