ric savages but modern Japanese soldiers. Further very
conclusive testimony has been collected by the Rev. John Batchelor,
who has devoted profound study to the Ainu. He found that the
inhabitants of Shikotan, who had long been supposed to be a remnant
of pre-Ainu immigrants, were brought thither from an island called
Shimushir in the Kurile group in 1885 by order of the Japanese
Government; that they declared themselves to be descended from men of
Saghalien; that they spoke nothing but the Ainu language, and that
they inhabited pits in winter, as do also the Ainu now living in
Saghalien. If any further proof were needed, it might be drawn from
the fact that no excavation has brought to light any relics whatever
of a race preceding and distinct from the Yemishi (Ainu), all the
pits and graves hitherto searched having yielded Yamato or Yemishi
skulls. Neither has there been found any trace of pigmies.

An Ainu myth is responsible for the belief in the existence of such
beings: "In very ancient times, a race of people who dwelt in pits
lived among us. They were so very tiny that ten of them could easily
take shelter beneath one burdock leaf. When they went to catch
herrings they used to make boats by sewing the leaves together, and
always fished with a hook. If a single herring was caught, it took
all the strength of the men of five boats, or ten sometimes, to hold
it and drag it ashore, while whole crowds were required to kill it
with their clubs and spears. Yet, strange to say, these divine little
men used even to kill great whales. Surely these pit-dwellers were
gods."*

*"The Ainu and their Folk-lore," by Batchelor.

Evidently if such legends are to be credited, the existence of
fairies must no longer be denied in Europe. Side by side with the
total absence of all tangible relics may be set the fact that,
whereas numerous place-names in the main island of Japan have been
identified as Ainu words, none has been traced to any alien tongue
such as might be associated with earlier inhabitants. Thus, the
theory of a special race of immigrants anterior to the Yemishi has to
be abandoned so far as the evidence of pit-dwelling is concerned.
The fact is that the use of partially underground residences
cannot be regarded as specially characteristic of any race or as
differentiating one section of the people of Japan from another. To
this day the poorer classes in Korea depend for shelter upon pits
covered with thatch or str