Abstract
THE twenty-third and twenty-fourth parts of the Mittheilungen der dattschen Gesellschaft für Natur und Völkerkunde Ostasiens contain an article by Dr. L. Döderlein on Oshima, one of the largest of the chain of islands which runs from the south coast of Japan to the east coast of Formosa, and which include the Loochooan archipelago. The island has never before been visited by a European, and presents many features of scientific and general interest. Dr. Döderlein spent sixteen days there, during six of which he was kept indoors and in darkness by a violent typhoon, which is described in the twenty-third number of the Transactions of the same Society by Mr. Knipping of Tokio. Two distinct types of people were found in the island, one pure Japanese, the other—probably the original inhabitants before the Japanese conquest—are about the same size as Japanese, but somewhat better built. The face is not so broad, and grows smaller towards the bottom, so that the chin is pointed, a feature rarely found in the Japanese, whose chins are broad and round. The lips and nose are thin, the bridge of the latter being convex. The eyes are large like those of the people of Southern Europe. The most striking portion of the appearance of this people, however, is the thick hair which they have all over their bodies. In this respect they closely resemble the Ainos of Yezo and Sagbalin. The language, of which some examples are given, is evidently a dialect of Japanese, half-way between the latter and Loochooan. The customs are in many respects different from those of Japan. The women tatoo themselves on the backs of the hands (the Aico women, it will be remembered, tatoo the lips) from the wrists to the roots of the nails. The marks are always the same, but no explanation of the custom could be given by the people. When a girl reaches the age of thirteen the operation is performed on her hands by people specially trained for the purpose. Married women never blacken the teeth, as in Japan. Although the population is about 50,000, there is neiiher priest nor temple in the island, and the people know nothing of a deity to whom they should pray. They pay a sort of veneration to their ancestors, but only to individuals, not to the progenitors of their race or tribe, as in Japan. Life would run very smoothly with the people, were it not for a poisonous snake, called habu, belonging to the Trimeresurus class. It attains a length of six or seven feet, and is equal in venom to the most poisonous snakes. The Japanese fear to land on the island on account of these reptiles, which are found everywhere. They are said to pursue eels in the streams, to climb trees easily, and even to do so for the purpose of attacking travellers more easily. At night no one will stir abroad, for the bite is invariably fatal unless assistance is immediately procured. In one place a village of thirty-one houses was abandoned because the habu were numerous in the neighbourhood. The only cure employed is excision of the part, or even of the limb, which has been bitten. The general conclusion at which Dr. Doderlein arrives is that Osbima belongs in its fauna to the Loochoos, and has but little connection in this respect with Japan. He thinks, therefore, that the boundary between two great zoological regions, the paleoarctic and the oriental, lies between the island and Japan.
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Geographical Notes . Nature 25, 43–44 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/025043b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/025043b0