Blood and liver were offered to Dr. Scheube. While the
bear was being disembowelled, the women and girls danced the same
dance which they had danced at the beginning--not, however, round
the cage, but in front of the sacred wands. At this dance the old
women, who had been merry a moment before, again shed tears freely.
After the brain had been extracted from the bear's head and
swallowed with salt, the skull, detached from the skin, was hung on
a pole beside the sacred wands. The stick with which the bear had
been gagged was also fastened to the pole, and so were the sword and
quiver which had been hung on the carcase. The latter were removed
in about an hour, but the rest remained standing. The whole company,
men and women, danced noisily before the pole; and another
drinking-bout, in which the women joined, closed the festival.
Perhaps the first published account of the bear-feast of the Aino is
one which was given to the world by a Japanese writer in 1652. It
has been translated into French and runs thus: "When they find a
young bear, they bring it home, and the wife suckles it.
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