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rests on the back of a fish whose movements cause earthquakes. It is scarcely possible to doubt that this fancy is derived from the Japanese, who used to hold an identical theory. They believe in a supreme Creator, but also in a sun god, a moon god, a bear god, a water god, and a mountain god; deities whose river is the Milky Way, whose voices are heard in the thunder and whose glory is reflected in the lightning. They have no priests by profession. The village chief performs whatever religious ceremonies are necessary; ceremonies confined to making libations of wine, uttering short prayers and offering willow sticks with wooden shavings attached to them, much as the Japanese set up the well-known gohei at sacred spots. The Ainu gives thanks to the gods before eating, and prays to the deity of fire in time of sickness. He thinks that his spirit is immortal, and that it will be rewarded hereafter in heaven or punished in hell, both of which places are beneath the earth, hell being the land of volcanoes; but he has no theory as to a resurrection of the body or metempsychosis. He preserves a tradition about a flood which seems to be the counterpart of the Biblical deluge, and about an earthquake which lasted a hundred days, produced the three volcanoes of Ezo, and created the island by bridging the waters that had previously separated it into two parts. He is now governed by Japanese laws and judged by Japanese tribunals, but in former times his affairs were administered by hereditary chiefs, three in each village, and for administrative purposes the country was divided into three districts, Sara, Usu, and Ishikari, which were under the ultimate control of Sara, though the relations between their respective inhabitants were not close and intermarriages were avoided. The functions of judge were not entrusted to these chiefs ; an indefinite number of a community’s members sat in judgment upon its criminals. Capital punishment did not exist, nor was imprisonment resorted to, beating being considered a sufficient and final penalty, except in the case of murder, when the nose and ears of the assassin were cut off or the tendons of his feet severed. These peculiar methods of criminal procedure are alluded to by ancient Japanese historians, who appear to have regarded them as more barbarous than infliction of the death penalty. Little as the Japanese and the Ainu have in common, intermarriages are not infrequent, and at Sambutsu especially, on the eastern coast, many children of such marriages may be seen. Doenitz, Hilgendorf, and Scheube, arguing from a minute investigation of the physical traits of the Ainu, have concluded that they are “ Mongolians who differ less, perhaps, from the Japanese than the Germans do from the Rumanians,” but if their customs, traditions, and religious beliefs be conDynamite Gun sidered, the points of dissimilarity are very striking. According to Professor A. H. Keane, the Ainu “are quite distinct from the surrounding Mongolic peoples, and present several remarkable physical characters which seem to point to a remote connexion with the Caucasic races. Such are a very full beard, shaggy or wavy black or dark-brown hair, sometimes covering the back and chest; a somewhat fair
GUN
or even white compfexion, large nose, straight eyes, and regular features, often quite handsome, and of European type. They seem to be a last remnant of the Neolithic peoples, who ranged in prehistoric times across the northern hemisphere from the British Isles to Manchuria and Japan. They are bear-worshippers, and have other customs in common with the Manchurian aborigines, but the language is entirely different, and they have traditions of a time when they were the dominant people in the surrounding lands.” It should be noted finally that the Ainu are altogether free from ferocity or exclusiveness, and that they treat strangers with gentle kindness. (f. By.) Airdrie, a parliamentary and municipal burgh (Falkirk group) in new Monkland parish, Lanarkshire, Scotland, 10 miles E. of Glasgow by rail. There are 35 coal mines in the parish, but the seams are now largely worked out. Brass-founding, steel-casting, tubemaking, boiler-making, wagon-building, the weaving of woollens, calico-printing, paper-making, and oil and fireclay manufacture, are now important, while several new branches of engineering have been started. There is a good free library. One of the board schools is an academy or secondary school. Population in 1881, 13,363; 1891, 19,135; 1901, 22,288. Air Gun.—Air as a propellant has in recent years been applied to guns of large calibre, in which its comparatively gentle action has proved advantageous when high explosives contained in their shells are employed as projectiles. In 1883 Mr. Mefford of Ohio utilized an air pressure of 500 lb per square inch in a 2-inch gun, and succeeded in propelling a projectile 2100 yards. The arrangement was of the simplest form—a hose with an ordinary cock by which the air was admitted into the gun behind the projectile. The question was then taken up by Captain E. L. Zalinski of the United States Artillery, who in 1888 reduced the so-called “dynamite gun” to a practical shape and obtained excellent firing results. The principal features of his system are :—1. An extremely ingenious balanced valve admitting the air pressure into the gun. This valve is opened and closed by a simple movement of the firing lever, and is capable of adjustment so that the propelling force, and consequently the range, can be regulated. 2. A light steel
Mounted at Sandy Hook, New York Harbour. projectile carrying the bursting charge, and provided with a tail to which vanes are attached in order to give rotation. 3. Electric fuses of entirely original design. Each shell carries a wet battery, the current from which fires the charge on impact with any solid object, and a dry battery which becomes active after the shell has dived below the surface of the water, and ignites the charge after delay capable of regulation. For safety all the electric circuits are made to pass through a disconnector, which prevents them from being completed until the shell has been fired. The gun is a built-up
