. Review of reviews and world's work. ern island of theempire, a peculiar people called the Ainus, com-monly supposed to be the earliest inhabitants ofthe whole group, and already known then to theChinese as the hairy men. The remnant of thispeople to-day is found only in the northern partof Japan, and numbers, perhaps, fifty thousandsouls. The Japanese generally look down uponthe Ainus as an inferior people, and recently,when Prof. Frederick Starr, of the Universityof Chicago, went to Japan for the purpose ofengaging an Ainu family to exhibit at the worlds fair (he has given his impr
. Review of reviews and world's work. ern island of theempire, a peculiar people called the Ainus, com-monly supposed to be the earliest inhabitants ofthe whole group, and already known then to theChinese as the hairy men. The remnant of thispeople to-day is found only in the northern partof Japan, and numbers, perhaps, fifty thousandsouls. The Japanese generally look down uponthe Ainus as an inferior people, and recently,when Prof. Frederick Starr, of the Universityof Chicago, went to Japan for the purpose ofengaging an Ainu family to exhibit at the worlds fair (he has given his impressionsin a little book noted in this Review for October,1904), the Japanese authorities permitted himto carry out his project only on the promise thathe would let the visitors to the fair know thatthe Ainus are not Japanese, but merely a peoplesubject to the Mikado. ARE THE AINUS A WHITE RACE ? Some interesting data about the Ainus is pre-sented in a copiously illustrated article in a re-cent number of the Open Cotirt. The writer of. AINUS MAKING MATS. J LEADING ARTICLES OF THE MONTH. 611 the article (the editor of the Open Court), innoting the belief of scientists that the Ainusare a white race and nearer kin to Europeansthan to Asiatics, expresses the opinion that theycame to Japan from the continent of Asia,—perhaps from Siberia. In this connection, hepoints out the resemblance in features betweenthe Russian peasant type and the Ainus. Thesepeople, he goes on to say, are, like the Russianpeasants, a most inoffensive and peaceable are not nomadic, but live chiefly by hunt-ing and fishing, and their principal accomplish-ments are weaving and wood-carving. In dis-position they are good-natured, and so amenablethat the Japanese Government, which, it mustbe confessed, is veiy considerate with them,has never had any trouble in ruling them. Inphysical appearance they are mild and of those seen by Professor Starr had an al-most Christlike expression in hi
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