"Twelve hundred years ago a Chinese historian stated that "on the eastern frontier of the land of Japan there is a barrier of great mountains, beyond which is the land of the Hairy Men." These were the Aino, so named from the word in their own language signifying 'man.' ...."

This volume contains short tales and scraps of folklore which were written down from the dictation of Aino elders in the summer of 1886 by the renowned Japanologist Basil Hall Chamberlain. By turn lively, dramatic and vigorously uninhibited, they reflect a vigorous oral tradition and are a unique record of a...