When it is
grown they feed it with fish and fowl and kill it in winter for the
sake of the liver, which they esteem an antidote to poison, the
worms, colic, and disorders of the stomach. It is of a very bitter
taste, and is good for nothing if the bear has been killed in
summer. This butchery begins in the first Japanese month. For this
purpose they put the animal's head between two long poles, which are
squeezed together by fifty or sixty people, both men and women. When
the bear is dead they eat his flesh, keep the liver as a medicine,
and sell the skin, which is black and commonly six feet long, but
the longest measure twelve feet. As soon as he is skinned, the
persons who nourished the beast begin to bewail him; afterwards they
make little cakes to regale those who helped them."
The Aino of Saghalien rear bear cubs and kill them with similar
ceremonies. We are told that they do not look upon the bear as a god
but only as a messenger whom they despatch with various commissions
to the god of the forest. The animal is kept for about two years in
a cage, and then killed at a festival, which always takes place in
winter and at night.
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