the ancient pit-dwellers of yezo.

THE ANCIENT PIT-DWELLERS OF

YEZO.

By

Eomyn

Hitchcock.

When

the first

Emperor

ofJapan,

known

by the posthumos title

Jimum

Tenno,

whose

traditional reign

began

660 B.

C, was

on his im- perial journey eastward from ancient Tsukushi, to establish the seat of

government

in

Yamato,

he

came

toa great "cave^"or "apartment", in which eighty tsuchigumo or cave-dwelling savages were awaiting him.

The word

tsuchigumo is usually translated "earth-spiders," but Prof. B.

H.

Chamberlainregards itas a corruption of tsuchi-gomori, or

"earth-hiders."

Whatever

theoriginal

meaning may

have been, there canbe no doubtthatit

was

applied to asavage people,

who

inhabited

Japan

before the

coming

oftheJapanese.

The

ancient records of theJapanese contain

many

allusions to these dwellers in caves,or dwellers under ground. In the reign of the

Em-

peror

Keiko

two

Kumaso

braves werekilled in acave

by

Yamato-take.

The Empress

Jingo

Kogo was

wrecked

amoug

tsuchi-gumo.

They

are said tohave been

numerous

in

Bungo and

in other western provinces, in Omi, inYamato,

and

in otherlocalities.

The

character of^their dwellings isnot clearly defined,

owing

to the

ambiguous meaning

of theChinese character translated "cave." In certain parts of

Japan

natural caves are numerous, but theyare not

common

throughout the country. Artificial caves are not

uncommon,

butI

have

endeavored to show, in an articletreating of ancient Japa- neseburialcustoms, read beforesection

H

^ofthe

^American

Association forthe

Advancement

of Science at Toronto in 1889, that such caves wereconstructed for interment of the dead

and

not for dwellings.

Still other structures,

chambers made by

piling up

huge

rocks

and

heaping

up mounds

of earth to cover them, are also

numerous

in southern Japan,

and

these

have

been designated as caves

by

von Siebold,rather carelessly it seems to me.

But

these also were only burial chambers. Granting that

mere

opinions concerning such a subjectarenotof

much

value,Iwouldonly

add

thatuntil

some

stronger evidencethan

von

Sieboldhasadduced givescolor to the idea that the earlyinhabitants of

Japan

^livedin truecaves, I hold thattheirdwell- ings were

more

probablyof the character of the pit-dwellings to be described in this article. It is true

we

do notfind the ruins of such

417

H. Mis. _129, pt.

2—27

418 REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM,

1890.

dwellings in the south, although they are

numerous

iu Yezo. Thisis

doubtlessbecauseallsuchruins have beendestroyedinthe

more

popu- lous island, where every available plot of ground has long been under cultivation.

The

fact is not to beoverlooked, however, that the ideaofcave life

was

familiar to the ancient Japanese.

The

well-known

myth

of the sun-goddess,

who

retired intoa cave

and

closed the entrance with a stone,is significant ofthe truth ofthis assumption. Itis notunlikely that the idea

came

from

China and

that truecavelife

was

never prac- ticed inJapan.

Fig.6-t.

There are stillother people mentioned in the Japanese records, dis- tinguishedas Ebisu orhairy savages,

who

were contemporaneous with the earthhiders, Itisnotdifficulttorecognizein these the ancestors ofthe Ainos, who, are

now

confinedtoYezo.

Not

only isthe historic evidenceclearthat theAinos once lived iu the

main

island as farsouth asSendai, but

we

have

numerous

facts in support of the furthercon- clusion that, in

more

ancienttimes,thev occupied the cpast asfarsouth,

THE ANCIENT PIT-DWELLERS OF

YEZO.

419

asthe extreme endofKiushiu.

Such

evidence

we

findin the distribu- tion ofgeographical place-names, which are obviously of

Aino

origin, inthe

names

^of famous charactersin Japanese mythology, which are certainlyof

Aino

derivation,

and

in the contents ofkitchen-middensor shell-heaps,which are

numerous

here

and

there alongthecoast.

The

writerhasbriefly

summarized

theevidenceof

Aino

occupancyof

Japan

in the paper following this one.

The

character of the pot- tery found in the shell-heaps is entirely different from

any

pottery

made by

the aucient Japanese.

The

material is the

same

as that oftheJapanese sepulchralpottery, but the shapes of the vessels are not the

same and

thedecoratiou

upon them

is absolutely distinctive.

Strangeasit

may

seem, the potteryofthe shell-heapsis far

more

elab- oratelydecoratedthan

any

ancientpottery of Japaneseorigiu.

Plate lxxiiishowsa

number

ofspecimens fromthelarge collectionof

M.

l'AbbeFuret,ofHakodate, which1

was

very kindlypermittedtopho- tograph.

Many

of these arecovered withcomplexdesigns, suchasare absolutely

unknown

on Japanese pottery.

The

small fragmentsrepre- senting parts of

human

figures are, so faras

lam

aware, unique.

Owing

tothe absence from

home

ofthecollector, I

was

unable to learn any- thingabout them.

The

ancientJapanese pottery

comes

from burial

mounds

whichare prehistoric,or at least which date from a time before theyear A. D.

400,

when

the authentic records of

Japan

begin.

The

pottery of the shell-heaps,oftendesignatedas

Aino

pottery,although

more

elaborately decorated,

must

beolder thau this,

and

it

would seem

to afford indis- putable evidence that the Japanese were preceded by anaboriginal people,

who

werepotters.

We

find the

same

kindofpotteryin Yezo, inthe shell-heapsatOtaru, near Sapporo, on the small island Benten-

jiina,in

Nemuro

harbor,about ancient pits in Kushiro,

and

aboutsim- ilar places on the Island of Yeterof. Associated with iteverywhere are found arrow-heads

and

other implements,such as

may

be found scatteredover

many

parts of

Yezo

in the surface

mold

atthepresent day.

The

questionthenarises,to

what

peopleshall

we

attribute this spoil1 Ithasbeen supposed that the shell

mounds

were left

by

theAinos.

This istheopinionof Prof.

John

Milne.

But we

immediately

come

face to facewith thefact that theAinosof thepresent

day

donot

make

pot- tery.

The

claimismade,

upon

ratherinsufficient

ground

itseemstome, thattheAinos formerly did

make

pots; but if so, it isstrange that iu all

my

^journeying

among them

I found no indications of such handi- work, norof theirneed of such utensils. Icannot bring myselfto be- lievethat a people

who

notonly possessed that usefulart, but

who

also acquired such a degreeofartistic skill in decoratingtheirproductions, could

have

absolutely lostit. Certainlyitcould not havedisappeared within a century, as

we must

supposeif

we

acceptall the evidence

we

possess of

Aino

potmaking.

420 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM,

1890.

Itwould be a bold assumption indeed to suppose that the dwellers inearth houses, the tsuchigumo,

made

the pottery.

We have no

evi-

dence of this furtherthan the factthat here

and

there fragmentsof pottery,

and

occasionallywell-preserved vessels,arefound aboutpitsin

Yezo

andYeterof, which, asI shallendeavortoshow, areprobably the ruins of a kind of pit-dwellings corresponding,in theopinion of the presentwriter, to those of the traditional tsuchi-gumo.

The

potteryis there,

and

itassuredly

was

uot

made

bythe Japanese. It

may

be

much

olderthan

we

think, older than the

Aino

occupancy; olderthan even the traditions of theJapanese.

Whoever

were the people

who made

it,they spread over the whole country from southern Kiushiuto the bleak shores of

Yezo and

theadjacentislands.

Who

were the pitdwellers of

Yezo?

I

have

supposed

them

to be thetsuchigumo of tradition, but ouronly

knowledge

concerning these

is found in the Japanese accounts, unreliable enough, but at the

same

time not without

some

bearingon thequestion.

For

one would scarcely expectsuch circumstantial

and numerous

accounts ofmeetings

and

combats with dwellers in burrows or caves to be pureinventions.

The word "cave"

translated

means

^"apartment."

They

werenotcave- dwellersin the ordinarysense, for innearlyall theaccounts of thepeo- ple they

seem

to

have

lived iu holes

dug

in the ground.

We

havethe less reason to doubtthis, since it is

known

thatthe

Smelenkur

of Sag- halinconstruct earth-covered dwellingson thesides ofhills,notinauy sensecaves,

and

housesofanotherformwillshortlybedescribedwhich may, with still

more

probability, represent thedwellings of the tsuchi-

gumo.

Mr. T.

W.

Blakiston firstbrought prominently into notice certain re-

markable depressions or pits iu the ground which he

had

observed invarious parts ofYezo,

and

which he believed to be the remainsof

human

habitations. In the

summer

of18881

made

an extended journey in theisland,coveringadistance of

more

than800 mileson horseback, visiting theAinos

and

alwayslookingforpits.

The

pitsare

numerous

in places,usuallyon elevated land near thecoast,oroverlookiugthe

mouths

ofrivers, presumably thatthepeoplemightreadilysight sboals offish.

The

island

known

as Bentenjima,which forms abreakwater to

Nemuro

harbor,iscovered with

numerous

pits. Plate

lxxiv shows

the townas seenfromthe residenceofMrs. H.Carpenter, amost devotedmissionary,

and

the onlyforeign resident.

The

islandisseenontheleft. Just back of the threesheds or storehouses bordering on the water, where the

bank

isfallingaway, there is a small line ofwhite, indicating the re-

mains ofa shell-mound. It

was

at thisspot that Prof.

John

Milne, in 1881, found

some

fragments of pottery, several arrow-heads,

and

one complete vase. I

was

only able to find afew brokenshells,not having the

means

with

me

fordigging.

About

4 milesfrom

Ncmuro,

in a northeasterly direction, on a bluff overlooking the sea, near the

mouth

of a small stream, there are seven

pits,approximately square inshape, varying in length from 10 to20

ReportofNationalMuseum, 1890.—Hitchcock. Plate LXXIII.

,y.8

ReportofNationalMuseum,^1890.

—

Hitchcock. Plate LXXIV.

' -' : iiil_

THE ANCIENT PIT-DWELLERS OE

YEZO.

421

feet.

They

arenot wellpreserved, but it

was

thoughtworth whileto diga trench acrossoneof

them

inthehopeof finding

some

pottery or arrow-heads.

The

trench was

dug

twofeet wide

down

to a stratumof clay, but nothing

was

found.

On

theisland ofYeterof there are

many

hundred of such pitson ele-

vatedknolls

some

distauce from the coast, but overlooking a broad valley, through which a stream

meanders

for a long distance nearly parallel tothe coast. It seemed to

me

quite possiblethat atthe time thedwellingsrepresented

by

thesepitswereinhabited,the presentriver valley

was

an

immense arm

of thesea,

and

arich fishing-ground. It

was

aboutthese pits thatMr. Blakiston says fragmentsof pottery were pickedup. I

was

thereforequiteanxious to exploreoneof

them

with a spade,

and

leaving

my

companions, Mr. Leroux

and

Mr.

Odium,

I set offinsearchforahabitation. After a longwalk I found an

Aino

hut occupied by an old

woman, and

there obtained a dilapidatedold Jap- anese instrumentwhich

was

used for digging. It

was

the best the countryafforded, soIcarried itback

and we dug

over the whole bottom ofthe pit,

and

also inseveral places outside, without finding a single articleto rewardus.

We made some measurements

of the pits in the vicinity, which werelarge

and

well preserved.

Two

pits gave thefol-

lowingresults

:

Southeast and northwest.

Northeastand

southwest. Depth.

Metres.

4 4

Metres.

3.8 4.5

Centimetres.

53 73

Although

Ihavenotyetfouudasingle pieceofpottery,nor a chipped

flintin

any

pit whereI havedug, itdoes not follow that nothingofthe kind is tobefound about them. Otherexplorers have been morefor- tunate.

The

most promisinglocality forsuch explorationsisatKushiro, onthesoutheast coast of Yezo.

Only want

of the necessary timepre- vented

me

from digging about the pits there. In walking over the ground Ipicked

up

severalsmallbitsofold potterywhichtherains

had washed

out,

and

theJapanese local officers

showed me a

smallcollec- tionofvessels, tolerablywell preserved, which

had

been found there.

Some

of the Kushiropits arevery large. I measured one, which

was

32feet across

and

8feetdeep.

The

Ainos have a tradition concerning a race of dwellers under groundcalled Jcoropokguru,

who

formerly occupied the country.

The

Ainos claim to have

subdued and

exterminated them.

We

have no

means

of

knowing

whetherthis is agenuine tradition, or alate inven- tion toexplain the existence of the pits.

Presuming

ittobethefor-

mer,itis notunreasonableto suppose that the

Aino

accountof dwarfs,

who

lived under ground,

and

the Japanese tales of earth spidersor

422 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM,

1890.

tsucM-gumo, refers to the

same

^people. In thelightoftheobservations related furtheron, it would also

seem

probable that the pits of

Yezo

are the ruins of the dwellings once occupied

by

them,

now

affording landmarks

whereby we may

trace the migrations of a once

uumerous

peopleto theirdisappearance

and

oblivion.

Iu theyear1878 Prof.

John

Milne* visited

Shumushu

or PeroiIsland, the most northernof the Kuriles. There, at thevillageof

Myrup,

he found a small colony of migratory people

who made

huts over excava- tions. His accountof

them

is short.

He

writes:

Heretherewerethree wooden houseswhichhad heenbuilt bythe Russians, and quite a number (perhaps ascore) of halfunderground dwellings. Oulanding we foundthatalltheseweredeserted,andinmanycasesevendifficulttofind, owingto thegrowthofwormwoodand wildgrasses.

Theinhabitants of theislaud,who call themselves Kurilsky, are twenty- threein innumber. Theychiefly live ata placecalledSeleuo,about4milesdistant. Imen- tion these people, as they seem to be the only inhabitants ofthe Kurilesnorthof Iturup(Yeterof).

Itappears that the dwellersin the deserted houses weremigratory.

ProfessorMilne has elsewhere declared that "theseexcavations have astrikingresemblance to thepits which

we

find furthersouth."

A

Japanese author, Mr. Y. Hashiba, haspublished a descriptionof

some

peculiardwellings built over pits,which he found iu Shonai,on the west coast of the northern part of the

main

islaud of Japan.

I

am

indebted to Mr. P. Jaisohn for a partial translationofthis arti- cle, which is written in Japanese. There are two huts, built over circular pits about 1 foot iu depth

by

2 to 3 yards in diameter.

The framework

of one is of reeds, that of the other of branches, overwhich thereis a covering of earth 2 feetthick. Iu themiddle of thefloor isa triangularfireplace. Other pits were found iu thevicin- ity

and

fragmentsofpottery, butthe pottery is said todifferfromthat foundin Yezo.

The

points of difference I have beeu unableto learn.

The

Aleutsbuildalso overexcavationsintheearth,erecting a frame-

work

of

wood

over whichtheypilea covering ofsods.

The

entranceto such dwellings isthrough a low passage alongwhich one

must

crawl.

When

the Japaneseobtained the Kurile Islandsfrom Eussia in ex- change for Saghalin, they determined to transferthe few inhabitants they foundthere to a

more

accessible spot.

They

selectedtheislandof Shikotan,and although the people did notwishto changetheirabode, asteamer

was

senttotake

them

away,

and

thus a colony of aboutone huudredpersons

was

established on Shikotan. Thisislandissituated nearly east of theextremeeastern limitof

Yezo and

south ofKuuashiri.

It is small, mountainous, not of

much

importance,

and

difficult to reach

.

ProfessorMilne

was

the first totell

me

of thesepeople, but he

had

not seen them.

At Nemuro

I

made

inquiriesabout

them and

resolved

fTrans. SeismologicalSoc. ofJapan, IX, 188G, pp. ^{127, 128.}

Reportof NationalMuseum, 1890 Hitchcock.

Plate LXXV.

>iJf£-

Reportof NationalMuseum, 1890.—Hitchcock. Plate LXXVI.

THE ANCIENT PIT-DWELLERS OF

YEZO.

423

to visit

them

^ifpossible.

My

Japaueseservant bargainedfora native fishing-boat tocarry

me

^over,

and

the lowestprice offered

was

$30for thetrip. In such acraftthetrip wouldnot be without danger, and it

mightbe avoyageofeithera

day

ora week. FortunatelyI

had

already

made

theacquaintance of

two

otherforeigners

who

weretraveling for pleasure

and

observation,

and

as

we happened

tobetogetherin

Nemuro,

they had

become

interested iu

my

proposedvisit toShikotau.

But

the fishing-boat plan did not seemtobewellreceived

by

eitherofthem.

M.

Lereux, chefdemusiqueat Tokio,one

day

hailed

me

on thestreet with the

news

thatiu fourdaysa steamer

was

going to Yeterof

and

would stop forus atShikotan. Mr.

Odium,

a botanist, joiued us,

and

at 3:45 a. in., on

August

9, the

Yoshinomaru

with her three foreignpassengers and a load ofsaltforthe fisheriesof Yeterof, steamed fromher anchor- age inthe harbor. I

was

ondeck before sunrise, butalready

we

were outoutheheavingwater.

Toward

thesouth the terraced shoresof

Yezo

could bedimly traced asfarastheeye could reach.

Toward

thenorth the volcanicrangeofthe

Menashi

Peuiusula

was capped

withsnow.

At

half-pasteight

we

wereabreastofKuuashiriatthe point

where

Chia-chia towers as a regular volcaniccone

and

slopes ou one sideingraceful, un- brokencoucavetothesea. Shikotanhadalready beensightedand

now

lay close at

haud

on thestarboardbow, whileYeterof

was

visible inthe distance.

But

^it

was

noon before

we

anchoredin theharbor, entering througha beautiful narrow passage between high, bold, gray cliffs of sandstone, concealed here

and

there with patches of green.

Within

liesa quiet

bay

with a verdant valley,inclosedon every

haud by

moun- tains

and

brush covered hills.

The

settlement (Plate

lxxv)

consistsof eighteen housesarranged on opposite sidesofasingle streetwhich runsdirectlyback fromthesandy beach.

The number

of inhabitants is at present uncertain

—

^{one in-}

formant told us sixty, another sixty-five.

They

are in appearancea well-formed, hardy people, but they are fastdying off. Subsistingon themost miserablefood, bulbousroots,green tops of plants,

and

apit- tance ofricefrom theJapanese

Government

^; not properlyclothed,

and

unabletoobtainthefish

and

other thingswhichintheirnativeisleswere soabundant,disease, especiallyconsumption, has

made

fearful havoc

among

them. Iu fiveyears their

number

has decreased one-third.

The

Japanese are

now

tryingto better their condition,but past neglect has done its work.

The

people can not subsist without aidwhere they

now

live,

and

in

any

eventthey will soon disappear from the faceof the earth.

The

picture of the group here

shown

(Plate lxxvi) is

probably the only oneever

made

of these people. It

was

takenonthe beachjustbelowthe Japanese official residence, which isconspicuous iuthepicture. Inthebackground

may

be seen

many

plainslabsmark- ing thefinal resting-places of

many

poor souls

who succumbed

to the privations of afewyearsin a

home

not of their

own

choosing. It will

benoticed that thepeople are clothed iu Europeandress. This is be-

424 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM,

1890.

cause they

have

so longbeen under Kussiauinfluences. In winterthey are accustomedto dressin skins, but whether they are abletoprovide themselves withsuch

warm

clothingfrom theresources of Shikotan is

very doubtful.

The

character of the dwellings will be

more

clearly understood from theillustrationsthan from

any words

of description. In a general

way

it

may

besaid that each dwelling is

composed

of

two

parts, afront, thatched house, occupiedin

summer, and

a winter earthhouse connected with the former

by

a covered passage.

The

thatched house very

much

resembles the houses of theAinos.

Platelxxviirepresents aview alongthevillagestreet. Thereisthelow frontpart usedforstorage

and

asa hall orpassage-way,

and

the

main

portion whichconstitutes the livingroom. This

room

is usuallynearly square, with alow door in front

and

a small door atthe back opening intothepassage whichleadstothe winter house.

A

goodgeneralview of a well-made house,

and

of the passage behind, is

shown

in Plate lxxviii. Entering from thefront

we

findin the

main room

a rude

and

verydirty floorof boards,raised six inches from the ground, leavinga small inclosed spacenear theentrance from which one

may

step

up

on

to thefloor. There is a large, rectangular fireplace

sunk

in thefloor

aboutthe middle,on whichpieces of

wood

fitfullyburnand fillthehouse

witli smoke.

The

rafters

and

crossbeams are covered with a shiny coating of oily soot. There is a smoke-holein the roof, but only the excess of

smoke

escapes. Thereare usually

two

smallwindows, one

on

each side, perhaps afoot square,

and

on one side a raised

bunk

with high sideboards.

Above

the fire hangs aJapanese iron potcontaining a

more

orless

unsavory stew.

The

potis coated with accumulated deposits within and sootwithout,

and

is probablyneverwashed,if it is everquiteemp- tied.

Around

the walls

haug

articles of clothing, such as fur-lined gloves

and

shoes of fish-skin, rude baskets, skins of small animals, strips of hideforthongs, articlesof driedfruit, etc.

The

winterhouse isofgreaterinterest,because^itprobablyrepresents the early pit-dwellings of Yezo.

One

of

my

pictures (Plate lxxix)

shows

two such houses standing alone. These areattheupper end of the village,

aud

they are the onlyones notconnected with thatched houses.

As

will be seen,theyare dome-shaped

mounds

of earth, with

windows and

a sort of chimney. Usually there is one such

mound,

sometimesthere are two, backof a thatched house, as will be under- stood bya glance at the next plate, which represents a view of the backs of the houses, showingtheearth-dwellings attached.

The mounds

are builtover shallow excavations orpits intheground about12 to 18 inches deep.

A

^plan of one of the dwellings (Fig. 65) shows the approximate size

and

proportions of the differentrooms.

The room

oftheearth-coveredhouse ontheleftmeasured2metres wide?

ReportofNationalMuseum, 1890.—Hitchcock Plate LXXVII.

Reportof NationalMuseum,1890.

—

^Hitchcock. Plate LXXVIII.

ReportofNatipnalMuseum 1890.—Hitchcock Plate LXXIX.

THE ANCIENT PIT-DWELLERS OF

YEZO.

425

2.25metres deep,

and

1.30 metres from thefloor to the highestpart of the ceiling.

The

bedsweresimply bunks, 38 centimetresfromthefloor

and

60 centimetres wide.

The

entrance is througha small, low door-

\,tvtof^r,

Fig.65.

PlanofDwelling,Siitkotan.

way

fromthe covered passage. Thispassage

may

run quiteacross the back of the thatched house and extend

some

distance beyond it, as in the house

shown

in Plate

lxxx,

whichisthe one from which the planis

drawn.

As

one descendsiuto thehut,it seems very

damp and

gloomy.

There isnothingto be seenbutthebare floor,the sleeping

bunks

on the sides,

and

the fireplace

made

bypilingup rounded stonesinouecorner.

I have expressed tuebeliefthatthese Shikotan huts are the

modern

representativesof the ancient pit-dwellingsof Yezo. Perhaps it will

be very difficult, or even impossible, to prove this connection; cer- tainly thehuts I

saw

were

much

smaller than

mauy

ofthepitsofYezo, but ^Ido not

know what

kind ofa pitwould be left

by

thefallingin of one of these houses. I should think, after weathering a fewyears, it

mightnotbe very unlike thepiis.

On

the other hand, it

may

be that the people, having learned to build better above ground, no longer requiresuch large

and

deepsubterranean huts asin the past,

and

that these shallow excavations arebut survivals ofthe old planofconstruc- tion,which ^isno longer useful.

However

this

may

be, it

would seem

that the ancient pit-dwellers weredriven from Yezo, perhaps

by

the Ainos,tothe Kuriles, for the pitscau betraced through Yeterof,

and

perhapsin the smaller islands beyond.

The

existenceof the pits in Yeterof,the finding

by

Professor Milne of a small

remnant

of people

426 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM,

1890.

on tbe

same

chain of islands

who

build houses over pits,

and

the find- ing of still otherson Shikotan,

may

be fairly taken to indicate acon- nection between the people

who

dug- the ancient pits

and

those

who

live in such dwellings atthepresent time.

There

was

verylittle tocollect in the

way

of specimensto represent the people.

M.

Leroux

was

so fortunate as to tiud a single musical instrumentof the form represented in Fig.66.

Not

another could be

Fig.66.

MusicalInstrument, Shikotan.

foundofthe

same

shape, which will berecognized asofRussian ^design.

The

peoplewere

making

othersofdifferentshape, evidently inimitation oftheJapanesesamisen.

Fig.67 represents a carrying

band

used by

women

to carrytheirchil-

Fig.67.

CarryingBand, Shikotan.

drenon the back.

The

childsitsin acurved

wooden

seat,

and

the

band

ispassed overthe chest of the bearer.

We

^left Shikotan towards evening,

bound

forYeterof.

The

rocky

bluffs roseclear and sharp behind us, soon to be shrouded in aveilof

ReportofNationalMuseum,1890.

—

^Hitchcock. Plate LXXX.

THE ANCIENT PIT-DWELLERS OF

YEZO.

427

mist, which in this region is constantly forming

and

reforming with endless changes in the scenery of shore

and

mountain. Early next morning

we

arrived at Shiana, a small fishing station ou the island, where a lew Aiuos

and

Japanese were found.

At

noon

we

were on board readyto start again,

when

suddenlya dense fog shut in around and heldus,

damp,

cold,

and

miserable,in thelittle steamer until mid- night.

At

half-pastfivethenextmorning

we

anchoredatBettobu,where

we

visitedthe pitsalready described,

and

then returned to

Nemuro.

•*