ABSTRACT
W H 0 were the aborigines of Japan is yet a disputed question. Remains have been found of a race of dwarfs who dwelt in
caves and pits, but who these people were is not positively known. They may have been contemporary with the Ainu, whom many call "the aborigines of Japan." It is certain, however, that the Ainu were once a very numerous nation, "the members of which formerly extended all over Japan, and were in Japan long before the present race of Japanese." But the latter gradually forced the former northward, until a final refuge was found in Yezo and the Kurile Islands. There the Ainu are now living, but are slowly dying out as a race; there are at present only about 17,600 remaining. They are said to be "the hairiest race in the whole world," "of sturdy build," filthy in their habits (bathing is unknown), addicted
to drunkenness, and yet "of a mild and amiable dis· position." Their religion is nature-worship. 1
It is well known that the Japanese are classed under the Mongolian (or Yell ow) Race. They themselves boastfully assert that they belong to the "golden race," and are superior to Caucasians, who belong to the "silver race " ! As Mongolians, they are marked, not only by a yellowish hue, of many shades from the darkest to the lightest, but also by straight black hair (rather coarse), scanty beard, rather broad and prominent cheek-bones, and eyes more or less oblique. Some think that the Japanese people show strong evidences of Malay origin, 2 and claim that the present Emperor, for in·
stance, is of a striking Malay type. It is not impossible, nor even improbable, that Malays were borne on the "Japan Current" northward from their tropical abodes to the Japanese islands; but there is no historical record of such a movement. Therefore the best authorities, like Rein and Baelz, do not acknowledge more than slight traces of Malay influence. A more recent theory concerning the origin of the real Japanese-or Y amato men, as they called themselves-is that they are descendants of the Hittites, whose capital was Hamath, or Y a math, or Yamato.
