“THE BEARDED LADY.”

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1929, Page 2

“THE BEARDED LADY.”

Hokkaido, the original home of the “bearded lady,” figured in the news re-, cently as the scene of great and destructive forest fires. Hokkaido is a sort of frontier island —the Japenese region which corresponds in a way with America’s “Wild West,” of two generations ago. The island lies just north of what is know as the Japanese mainland, the island of Hondo. The bearded lady of Hokkaido is not really bearded, , but she sports on her upper lip a neatly tatooed moustache that reaches almost to her ears. This, practice is not in effect among the Japanases women of Hokkaido. It is the habit of the native Ainu women, who pay a delicate compliment to their husbands. The Ainu men do not shave not cut.their hair after a certain age, and all the grown maies look like animated mops with lull beards and bushy heads. The women, who are little more than slaves, simulate this hirsute adornment with tattoo and let their hair grow to shoulder length in a fuzzy bob. 'liie Ainu are one of Japan’s mysteries. Some anthropologists have called them aboriginal Japanese, but their theories do not work out. Many of them have distinctly Aryan types of faces. It is thought that they may he a remnant of some neolithic people. They are a gentle, shy, and only partly civilised people, who contrast sharply with their Japanese conquerors. The Jnpnnese are rapidly developing Hokkaido and the Ainus are now greatly outnumbered.

Most Japanese bathe daily, but the Ainu does not consider himself dirtv if he goes for six months without washing his face. Many of them have never bathed. The Ainu housewife cannot be bothered washing her cooking utensils, and her house reeks with the smell of ancient fish. All the peifumcs of Araby could not make attractive to the Western nose the home of an ordinary Ainu family.

The long beards of the Ainu men have necessitated the invention of a moustache lifter for use when they eat. They also use chopsticks, but the .vomen eat with wooden spoons. There are no dining room tables nor chairs, so everyone sits on the floor, which has been covered with a double mat. The favourite viand on the menu is meat, whenever it is procurable. Bear meat is preferred, hut the Ainu will eat anything available—fox, wolf, badger, or ox or horse. Vegetables, millet, boiled or roast fish, and herbs and roots complete the ' Bill-of-fai'e. Although they have numerous gods, the Ainus have no stable religion and no priests. When they feel religious, the village chief conducts'the ceremonies. The bear is the most' important god. He is the king of the . forests, and when a bear is killed' for'food, the pious natives usually follow the killing with a big funeral in his honour.