The transient visits of Europeans to Jesse scarcely ena ble us to speak of the manners and customs of the inhabi tants with any degree of certainty, unless in what has casu ally been the subject of observation ; and there is considera ble risk of error in misinterpreting what the natives of Ja pan have written regarding them. Polygamy is said to be practised here without any regard to consanguinity : a bro ther marries his sister, and the men have from four to eight wives, according to their circumstances. Adultery is pun ished by cutting the hair off the offender. The infringe ment of ordinary contracts is attended with the forfeiture of something exceeding the value of the engagement. A tree i is planted on the graves of their dead, and blood is then spilled, either by mutual encounters somewhat similar to the practice of the savages of New Ilolland, or by voluntary lacerations, as arc frequent in other parts of the world. No external demonstrations of religion have been observed among the Ainos, in temples or places of public worship ; neither does it appear that they adore supreme or interme diate deities, though before eating and drinking they offer up a prayer, and likewise pray during sickness. i In regard to the political state of this island, the Japanese seem to be masters of the whole, and to employ the natives exclusively for their own benefit. It is divided into five dis tricts, and the government is committed to the prince of Matzumay, but whether he is resident here, or on a neigh bouring island, or in Japan, is not explained. We should rather infer that the executive is committed to a viceroy, who lives in the town of Al atzumay. It is certain that the Ainos arc tributary to the Japanese, and among themselves they have no form of government. Each district is under a chief, whose consideration is proportioned to its extent and population. The inhabitants always add the name of their district to their own name ; another peculiarity coin ciding with the practice of the New Ilollanders. Probably they are collected chiefly towards the coast, where a num ber of their villages appear; but it is not likely that the island is populous.
It is difficult to form any precise opinion regarding the degree of civilization which has been attained by the Ainus. They are considerably removed from the state of savages, not only in the absence of ferocity,a general attribute,but both in food and clothing. Yet they seem to have undergone only the slighte st changes since they arc first mentioned in his tory. A Japanese author of 1720 compares the condition of the Ainos to that of his countrymen 660 years before Christ : " They are ignorant of all ceremonies and social tics, and differ but little from brutes: thay cat raw flesh, and drink the blood or animals, nor are tncy aware that viands cooked are more savoury than raw. Nevertheless, at different places on the east coast they have lor some time learned the cultivation of the earth, and to sow grain, from the Japanese ; but they are unacquainted with the two sea sons for planting rice." Besides the aborigines, it rather appears that there is a different race dispersed in scanty numbers in'the island, of which no correct intelligence is yet obtained. But the Ja: pancse have been long settled here in different establish ments on the coast, the principal of which is Matzumay, said to signify the town of firs. It is situated towards the south-west extremity of the island in Lat. 41° S2' north, nod Long. 219° 56' east, extending along the margin of an open bay about four miles wide at the entrance, and ascending the rising grounds behind, inteispersed with trees and gar dens. This town, which has not been visited by modern i Europeans, is of considerable magnitude, built of wood, and fortified. There are a lighthouse or observatory on the west side of the bay, which is much frequented by shipping, and two small islands opposite to the town. Between
\1atzumay and Japan constant and regular intercourse is carried on, but it would seem that the Ainos have always had sonic channel of communication with Corea or Tartar y. They pay a tribute to the prince of Matzumay, which for those on the coast consists of fish, and for those in the in terior of game : and this prince acknowledges the supre macy of Japan by presents and other acknowledgments to the sovereign.
During the greater independence of the Ainos, they cy re sorted to the northern parts of Japan for the purposes of traffic with peltry and the skin of a kind of seal called rak ko, a certain marine plant, eagles feathers for arrows, and other commodities ; and at present, though subservient to that nation, it is probable some trade is carried on with them.
To trace the history of an island which has been enve loped in so much obscurity, doubt, and perplexity, would be no easy matter. In the words of a learned geographer, who wrote in the middle of the preceding century, " no country of the terrestrial globe has been so differently re presented for these last 150 years as the land of Jeso, Jczo, Yee°, Eso, Jeclso, Jesso, Yesso," names by which, as well as Insu, it was known. The Japanese seem to carry back the history of this island to a period corresponding with the second year of the Christian wra, at which time it was probably called Mozin ; and according to the Chinese his tories, it was divided into 55 provinces or districts. In 658 the sovereign of Japan sent a fleet hither with troops, who conquered part of the inhabitants, then divided into three races, one of which was characterised as savage. The Ja panese had occasion to repress the natives in 762, when a great stone inscribed with their respective boundaries was erected, which still subsisted in 1720. But the proper history of Jesso is considered as commencing in 1443, when Fakeda Noboe Fir°, crossing the straits, subdued one half of the island, while the other half submitted to him ; and his descendants still inherit the government of it. On occasion of a revolt previous to 1652, which Japan ese forces were ernplo ed to quell, that nation perhaps first gained a correct knowledge of the country and its in habitants, who are now driven towards the coast. Before this period, however, Europeans, animated by the desire of propagating their religious opinions, had reached that re mote territory. Whether Froes the Portuguese mission ary, who gives the earliest account of the natives in 1565, had been in the island, is not evident ; but other two mis sionaries of the same nation, J. Caravaglio, and Jer.t me de Angelis, were certainly at Matzurnay in 1620 and 1621. The people were then represented nearly the same as at present, only very warlike, and much dreaded by the Japan ese. The murder or these two missionaries soon after, upon the proscription of the Christian doctrines in Japan, terminated a source of information, which added so much to the geographical knowledge of different Asiatic coun tries. The loss was in some respects indemnified by the transient observations of successive mariners, which, con joined to the writings of the Japanese, have illustrated the nature of Jesso, and the manners of its inhabitants. It is singular, however, and ought not to escape notice, that Sa ris, an English navigator of the beginning of the 17.1) cen tury, was solliciently aware of the insular nature of Jesso, its distance from Japan, the Straits of S.ingar, and the posi tion of Matzumay, from the information of the Japanese, which were all the subjects of doubt in Britain nearly 200 years later. Indeed, the accuracy of some early navigators is surprising, and there is a general coincidence between their narratives regarding the natives of Jesso, and those which the Japanese obtained somewhat inure recently. (c)