United States or Turks and Caicos Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I have, therefore, now collected and classified all the tales that were communicated to me by Ainos, in Aino, during my last stay in the island, and more latterly in Tōkyō, when, by the kind assistance of the President of the University, Mr. H. Watanabe, an exceptionally intelligent Aino was procured from the North, and spent a month in my house.
Among the Ainos of Yezo and Saghalin the medicine-man or shaman is decorated with fetichistic bric-
These in time were conquered, and only a few of them now remain, known as Ainos, and dwelling in the island of Yezo. In the Japanese year 1 appeared a conqueror, Jimmu Tenno by name, the first of the mikados or emperors.
Thus very bad men lived in ancient times also. So it is said. xliii. Yoshitsune. The following details concerning Yoshitsune bear so completely the stamp of the myth, that they may, perhaps, be allowed a place in this collection. It should be mentioned that Yoshitsune is known to the Ainos under the name of Hongai Sama. Sama is the Japanese for "Mr." or "Lord."
But they did not come to America as civilizers; there is nothing Malayan in either the antiquities or the ancient speech of these countries. The people who inhabit the eastern side of Formosa, it is said, use a Malay dialect, and have no resemblance whatever to the Mongols. Who can fully explain the little known Ainos, who formerly occupied the whole, or nearly the whole of Japan?
Then in more touristy strain of volcanoes and their craters, waterfalls and river gorges, tiny tree-clad islets, that feature of Japan baths and their bathers, Ainos, and so on. His descriptions were well given and we all of us thoroughly enjoyed our evening. Tuesday, May 30. Am busy with my physiological investigations.
Going on for a time, they came to the shore of Iwanai. Their wives were wearing widows' caps. So their husbands embraced them. So the story of woman-land was listened to carefully. All the Ainos saw the beautiful scabbard which the chief had used with that woman. xxxiv. The Worship of the Salmon, the Divine Fish. A certain Aino went out in a boat to catch fish in the sea.
Unfortunately the Ainos themselves are the obstacle to the carrying into effect of this project. They desire to live their own life in their own way. They have not only no wish to be, but they resent any effort to make them, either educated or civilised.
Inasmuch as the little civilisation now possessed by the Ainos has in great measure been learnt from the Japanese, it is natural that their modern language should have picked up numbers of Japanese words, from the name of kamui which they give to their gods, down to the rice-beer or sake in which they seek continual drunkenness, now their main source of enjoyment.
When, therefore, the fishing and the weather are exhausted, the European sojourner in one of their dreary, filthy seaside hamlets will find himself, at least I found myself, sadly at a loss for any further means of setting his native companions' tongues in motion. It is then that fairy-tales come to the rescue. The Ainos would not suggest the idea themselves. To suggest ideas is not their habit.
Word Of The Day