In the middle of the yurt is a hearth with burning wood, the smoke escaping through an opening in the roof. A large black kettle hangs on a hook over the fire and contains a bubbling, sulphurous, foaming fish soup which I believe no European would eat for love or money. Mon- strosities crouch around the kettle. In the same degree that the Ainu men are solid-looking and handsome, so are the Ainu wives and mothers repugnant. Some authors describe the appearance of Ainu women as hideous and even loath- some. Their coloring is a swarthy yellow, akin to parch- ment, their eyes are narrow, their features massive. Straight, wiry hair hangs over their faces in shaggy strands, like straw on an old barn. Their clothing is untidy and ugly. Together with all this they are extraordinarily thin and have a senile look about them. The married women use a blue coloring on their lips as a result of which their faces lose all semblance of humanity. When I had the oppor- tunity to see them and observe the gravity, almost the grimness, with which they stirred the kettles with their spoons and removed the filthy foam, I felt I was seeing real witches. The younger and older girls do not give such a repulsive impression.8
The Ainu never wash, and they sleep in their clothing.
Almost all those who have described the Ainu refer to their characteristics in the best possible light. The con- sensus is that they are a gentle, modest, good-natured, trustworthy, loquacious, courteous people who respect prop- erty, are brave when out hunting, and according to Dr.
Rollen, the companion of La P^rouse, they are intelligent. Unselfishness, forthrightness, fidelity in friendship, and generosity are their customary traits. They are truthful and cannot countenance deceit. Krusenstern was enraptured with them. After enumerating their wonderful spiritual qualities, he concludes: "Such truly rare qualities, for which they are not beholden to an exalted culture but to nature alone, awoke in me the sentiment that they are better than all the others I have known up to this time."!J
Rudanovsky writes: "There cannot be a more peaceful and modest people than those we encountered in the south- ern part of Sakhalin." All violence arouses disgust and fear in them. Polonsky describes the following grievous episode recorded in the archives: It happened long ago, in the past century. Cherny, the captain of the Cossack troop escorting the Ainu from the Kurile Islands into Russian subjugation, decided to beat some of them with birch rods. "'When the Ainu saw the preparations for the beating they became ter- rified, and when the Cossacks began tying the hands of two Ainu women behind their backs in order to obtain satis- faction more conveniently, some of the Ainu escaped to an inaccessible cliff, while another fled out to sea in a canoe loaded with twenty women. The women who had not been able to escape were beaten. The Cossacks then took six men with them in a canoe, and in order to prevent them from escaping, they tied their hands behind their backs. This was done so brutally that one of them died. They tossed his body weighted down with a rock into the sea, his swollen hands looking as though they had been scalded, and Cherny exclaimed to his comrades in high elation: "That's the way we do it in Russian style!"
Finally, a few words about the Japanese, who played such a leading role in the history of Southern Sakhalin. It is a fact that the southern third of Sakhalin has belonged to Russia only since 1875. Previously it was subject to Japan. In A Gt^ide to Practical Navigation and Nautical A.rtronomy by Prince Golitsyn, published in 1854, a book used by sailors even today, Northern Sakhalin, with the Capes of Maria and Elizaveta, is described as Japanese.
Many people, including Nevelskoy, doubted that Southern Sakhalin belonged to Japan. Even the Japanese themselves were not convinced about it until the Russians suggested it to them by their strange behavior.
The Japanese first appeared in Southern Sakhalin at the beginning of this century, not earlier. In 1853, N. V. Busse recorded a conversation with some old Ainu men, who remembered the time when they were independent. They said, "Sakhalin is the land of the Ainu. There is no Japa- nese territory on Sakhalin." In 1806, the year of Khvostov's piratical expedition, there was only one Japanese settlement on the banks of the Aniva, and it was all built of new wooden boards. It was obvious that the Japanese had only recently settled thcre. Krusenstern was on the Aniva in April when the herring were running. The water seemed to boil with an amazing multitude of fish, whales and seals. The Japanese had no nets or seines and caught the fish in pails. This shows they had no conception of the wealth of fish to be found here; later, of course, large-scale fisheries werc established. These first Japanese colonists were prob- ably cscaped convicts or men exiled from their homeland for having visited a foreign country.
Our diplomats first turned their attention to Sakhalin at thc beginning of the century. Ambassador Rezanov10 was authorized to conclude a trade alliance with Japan and "to acquire Sakhalin Island, which is independent of both the Japanese and the Chinese." He conducted himself with ex- treme stupidity. "Taking into consideration the Japanese intolerance of the Christian faith," he forbade the members of his party to cross themselves and ordered the confisca- tion without any exceptions of all crosses, holy pictures, prayerbooks and "everything that represents Christianity or bears a Christian symbol." If one is to believe Krusen- stern, Rezanov was denied a chair during the audience, he was not permitted to wear his sword and, "bowing to the stiff-necked attitude of the Japanese," he walked barefoot. And this was an ambassador, a Russian nobleman! It would, I imagine, be difficult to demonstrate a greater lack of dignity.
Having suffered a complete fiasco, Rezanov decided to revenge himself upon the Japanese. He ordered the naval officer Khvostov to terrorize the Sakhalin Japanese. This order was not given in exactly the customary manner, but rather deviously; it came in a sealed envelope with the explicit instruction that it was to be opened and read only when he arrived at his destination.11
Thus Rezanov and Khvostov were the first to admit that Southern Sakhalin belonged to the Japanese. Howcvcr, the Japancse did not take possession of thcir new propcrty, but merely sent their surveyor Mamia-Rinzo to ascertain what kind of island it was. In general, although shrewd, hard-working and cunning, the Japanese conductcd them- selvcs sluggishly and indecisively thoughout thc entire his- tory of Sakhalin, and this can only be explaincd by thc fact that thcy had as littlc faith in their own rights as thc Russians had in theirs.
Apparcntly thc Japancsc, after getting to know the island, thought of establishing a colony, or perhaps an agricultural settlement, but experimcnts in this direction, if there werc any, could only have rcsulted in disillusionment sincc, according to the engincer Lopatin, Japanesc laborers suffered greatly and were quite unable to withstand thc win- ter. Only Japanesc traders, rarely accompanicd by thcir wives, camc to Sakhalin. They lived hcre in bivouacs, and only a small group, amounting co a scorc or two, rcmaincd to spend the winter. The rcst returned home on junks. Those who remained did not sow anything, they did not have vcgetable gardcns or horned cattle, but thcy brought all necessary supplies with them from Japan. The only thing attracting them to Sakhalin was the fish. It brought them tremendous profits bccausc it was caught in great abundance, while the Ainus who did all of the hard work cost them almost nothing. The profit from the fishing in- dustry reached 50,000 and later 300,000 rubles a year. It is therefore not surprising that thesc Japanese overlords took to wearing sevcn silk kimonos, one on top of the other.