5. Killing the Sacred Bear
DOUBT also hangs at first sight over the meaning of the
bear-sacrifice offered by the Aino or Ainu, a primitive people who
are found in the Japanese island of Yezo or Yesso, as well as in
Saghalien and the southern of the Kurile Islands. It is not quite
easy to define the attitude of the Aino towards the bear. On the one
hand they give it the name of _kamui_ or "god"; but as they apply
the same word to strangers, it may mean no more than a being
supposed to be endowed with superhuman, or at all events
extraordinary, powers. Again, it is said that "the bear is their
chief divinity"; "in the religion of the Aino the bear plays a chief
part"; "amongst the animals it is especially the bear which receives
an idolatrous veneration"; "they worship it after their fashion";
"there is no doubt that this wild beast inspires more of the feeling
which prompts worship than the inanimate forces of nature, and the
Aino may be distinguished as bear-worshippers." Yet, on the other
hand, they kill the bear whenever they can; "in bygone years the
Ainu considered bear-hunting the most manly and useful way in which
a person could possibly spend his time"; "the men spend the autumn,
winter, and spring in hunting deer and bears.
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