ird century B.C., the civilised Bak tribes
came into the land." In Japan we have also evidence of their existence.
This country, now inhabited by the Niphonians, or Japanese, as we have
come to call them, was previously the home of the Ainu, a white, hairy
under-sized race, possibly, even probably, emigrants from Europe, and now
gradually dying out in Yezo and the Kurile Islands. Prior to the Ainu was
a Negrito race, whose connection with the former is a matter of much
dispute, whose remains in the shape of pit-dwellings, stone arrow-heads,
pottery, and other implements still exist, and will be found fully
described by Mr. Savage Landor in a recent most interesting work.[B] In
the Shan-hai-king, as Professor Schlegel[C] points out, their country is
spoken of as the Siao-jin-Kouo, or land of little men, in distinction, be
it noted, to the Peh-min-Kouo, or land of white people, identified by him
with the Ainu. These little men are spoken of by the Ainu as
Koro-puk-guru, _i.e._, according to Milne, men occupying excavations, or
pit-dwellers. According to Chamberlain, the name means dwellers under
burdocks, and is associated with the following legend. Before the time of
the Ainu, Yezo was inhabited by a race of dwarfs, said by some to be two
to three feet, by others only one inch in height. When an enemy
approached, they hid themselves under the great leaves of the burdock
(_koro_), for which reason they are called Koro-puk-guru, i.e., the men
under the burdocks. When they were exterminated by the wooden clubs of the
Ainu, they raised their eyes to heaven, and, weeping, cried aloud to the
gods, "Why were we made so small?" It should be said that Professor
Schlegel and Mr. Savage Landor both seem to prefer the former etymology.

[Footnote A: Babylonian and Oriental Record, vol. v.]

[Footnote B: Alone with the Hairy Ainu.]

[Footnote C: _Problemes Geographiques. Les Peuples Etrangers chez les
Historiens Chinois_. Extrait du T'oung-pao, vol. _iv_. No. 4. Leide, E.J.
Brill.]

Passing to the north-west of the Andamans, we find in India a problem of
considerable difficulty. That there were at one period numerous Negrito
tribes inhabiting that part of Asia is indubitable; that some of them
persist to this day in a state of approximate purity is no less true, but
the influence of crossing has here been most potent. Races of lighter hue
and taller stature have invaded the territory of the Negritos, to a
certain extent intermarri