Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 34.djvu/99

Rh toward the rising sun. But such is not the case: a shallow grave is dug, the body—rolled in a good mat—is tumbled in, a few stones perhaps thrown in to prevent animals from disturbing the remains, the dirt hastily replaced, and the corpse is left to its fate. Sometimes the pipe and tobacco-pouch, or a small package of tobacco, will be buried with the man, if he has been specially fond of smoking. This fact, and the additional one that a stout stick or club is provided to furnish the man with means of defense, point to a belief in a transition state, but the Ainu has only a hazy idea of the hereafter, and particularly as to purgatory, or the passage of the soul, which is thought to be naturally immortal, to the reward or punishment it is to receive in Pokna moshiri. "The wicked are supposed to be harassed by the evil spirits—nitne kamui—in this place, but what the rewards of the righteous are the Ainu have no idea."

It is customary to put up a short stick at the head of a grave, the carved top of which indicates the sex of the person therein buried. If it is a man, the top of the stick will be cut in the shape of a spear-head; if a woman, it will be a rudely shaped ball. There is nothing to correspond to a tombstone either at the grave or in the village, where there is no temple, as in every Japanese village, with memorial tablets and altars to keep alive the memory of the deceased. Indeed, it appears to be the desire of the Ainu to forget the dead as soon as possible; their reluctance to speak of them is an evidence of this. In the case of women this is absolutely so, a possible exception is mentioned below. In the case of a man, his son may offer a small libation of saké at his grave, and at the inao raised to his memory at his former home, on the anniversary of his death; and, in the case of a prominent chief, the men will perhaps do this for two or three years—never for a longer time. These anniversaries are really made excuses for saké-drinking rather than true testimonials of respect.

The inao spoken of above are whittled willow sticks with pendent, curl-like shavings, offerings given to the gods (with the