Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/217

Rh In stature they are rather under the average of the Caucasian, nor do they seem to be as tall as the southern Japanese, but upon this point I am not prepared to make any positive statement, as I took no measurements. Batchelor says: "Their men would measure about five feet seven inches in height. . . . Their foreheads are high, and the facial angle measures about 70°." I can not but think this is rather taller than the average; for one young man who seemed quite a giant among his fellows could not have been more than five feet eight inches in height. Their proportions are good, and the men are both stout and squarely built, the whole appearance being rather more attractive than that of the Japanese of the same relative standing. Their attractiveness, however, does not tempt one to anything like familiarity, as in their personal habits they are the very personification of dirtiness. Washing of person or clothing for the sake of cleanliness never seems to be considered of the slightest importance to them. In warm weather the younger people are tempted to cool off a bit by bathing and swimming in the rivers or saltwater estuaries near the villages; but, during all of my experience '(and this is fully confirmed by the statements of others who have had longer knowledge of them), I never once saw a man or a woman performing anything like ablutions in an Ainu village. When brought under civilizing influences, they adapt themselves to their environment, and make very good servants.

An old custom of the people forbids an Ainu woman exposing her person in any way. Some go so far as to say that they must not be unclothed even in private. Consequently, the girls whom I saw in bathing wore their cotton gowns, cut in the shape of a shift, while the boys were without clothing of any kind, though some of them wore amulets (of Japanese origin) tied around their necks.

I was particularly struck by the shapeliness of the Ainu limbs and extremities. Some of the women had small hands and feet, attached to well-turned wrists and ankles, whose symmetry and delicacy of shape dirt could not hide. The color of the skin seems to be darker than that of the Japanese, but just how much of this is due to exposure, and how much to their antipathy to water and utter ignorance of soap, it is impossible to even guess.

The face is round and broad, and although it is lacking in length as a rule, yet in many instances the chin is not badly shaped; the lips are large without being disgustingly gross; the eyes are dark-brown in color, and rather larger than those of the Japanese, without any drooping of the inner corner of the upper lid, and hence appear to be straight, without any of the obliquity which characterizes the Mongolian eyes; the cheek-bones are