Prof. Milne tells us that[1] in the year 1878 he visited some of these Ainu on this very Island of Shimushir, the total number of whom was only 22. “The men,” he says, “were short in stature, had roundish heads, and short thick beards. None of those I saw had the long beard which characterizes many of the Ainus in Southern Yezo, nor were their features so well defined. They call themselves Kurilsky Ainu, spoke a language of their an, and also Russian.” The Prof. did not know Ainu, so that when he speaks of these Ainu as speaking a language of their own I am sure from what I have heard them speak and from what I have gathered elsewhere, that their language was an Ainu dialect.
Captain Snow, a gentleman of large experience among these Islands and their inhabitants told Prof. Milne that during the winter of 1879 and 1880 some of this tribe were living on Matua. Later they were in Rashua and Ushishiri. He also informed Prof. Milne that the oldest man among them said that he came from Saghalien. This is just what these Ainu told me; viz., that originally they came from Saghalien. And, what is also very much to the point here, Prof. Milne adds:—“they construct houses by making shallow excavations in the ground, which are then roofed over with turf, and that these excavations have a striking resemblance to the pits which we find farther south. This custom of making a dwelling-place out of an excavation in the ground belongs, I believe, to certain of the inhabitants of Kamschatka and Saghalien.”
The existence of such “pits” or “excavations” in Yezo was first brought to the notice of Europe by Captain T. Blakiston in an account of a journey round Yezo, given by him to the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain, (July 27th, 1872).
Secondly, there is the question of the ancient Japanese name Tsuchi-gumo, “Earth-spiders,” and Ko-bito, “Little people,” applied to these pit-dwellers. And besides, the Ainu themselves sometimes talk about the “little men.” But nothing of value
- ↑ Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. x, Part I., pages 190–1.
