knowing, who bears such a relation as mine to this work, that sentimentality is the chief obstacle to its progress and efficiency, it was most encouraging to note that no one of the speakers sank to unreality or exaggeration; but rather tempted men and women by calling attention to this enterprise's great promise for the nations and for human society as showed in what has already been accomplished and in the rare opportunity it offers individuals for their highest development.

The lecturers on the Scriptures, with equal discrimination, contented themselves with sane discussion of its teaching concerning the development of human society. The secretary of the Student Volunteer Movement exemplified the wisdom of those who chose him by the sound judgment he displayed in all his addresses. I do not recall anyone who with greater force and clearness warned young people away from fanatical attachment to particular enterprises, or made more clear the high privilege of unreserved consecration of one's life to the service of one's brethren for love of Him Who invites our help.

That department of the work at Silver Bay which attracted me most and to which I gave most attention (perhaps because I know how sore is the need for it everywhere in the Church) was the school in which methods of study were discussed. This department under the direction of T. H. P. Sailer, Ph.D., assisted by men and women of large experience, among them our own Educational Secretary, treated the whole subject of the development of Christianity with the same intelligence that would have been showed if any other matter of supreme importance to human society. had been under discussion. The basis of the work was the text-book that the Y. P. M. M. recommends for study during the coming winter. When the conference ended there were as many men and women as attended the school competent to return to their homes and help

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other people understand how they can help forward that enterprise which lies at the root of our permanent social development, and to make clear the reason why no good citizen may withhold his co-operation. For the efficiency of this school's work all earnest people owe a debt to Dr. Sailer, who, having trained himself in this country and in Europe with utmost carefulness in all that pertains to pedagogics, has given himself to this service.

Perhaps pleasure, and therefore profit, is added to all the work done at Silver Bay by the charming conditions attending it. A comfortable and well-managed hotel in a location that is most beautiful is the home of those studying. During the hours for recreation one is drawn in spite of one's self to the lake or the woods. Withal the cost of living is easily within the reach of any who wish to become more efficient servants.

The whole Christian community in America is under obligaton to those having the management at Silver Bay.

་

An English missionary in India thus sums up some of the influences, other than missionary, making inevitably for change:

THE

HE best literature in the English language is put into every student's hands in every college in India, and that literature is permeated through and through with Christian ideals. Every lecturer, whether Hindu, Muslim or Christian, when teaching science and mathematics is breaking to pieces with a rod of iron the earthenware vessels of Hinduism. Every Hindu magistrate that punishes a Brahman, or delivers any sound judgment, is not only stabbing at the heart of his own religion, but is preaching the morality of the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. Nay, every guard that hustles a heterogeneous crowd of all castes into a third-class carriage is cutting with a sharp axe at the tap-root of Hinduism.

NE of the greatest pleasures of

a brief sojourn in Japan has been a tour through a large section of Ainu-land with the Rev. John Batchelor, of the Church Missionary Society. To visit the Ainu under any circumstances would be interesting, but to see them in the company of the missionary whose life is being devoted to the conversion to the Faith of this neglected and fast decaying race, was a rare privilege. For more than twenty-five years Mr. Batchelor has labored almost single-handed among this primitive people, in face of repeated opposition on the part of Japanese traders and settlers whose one object, apparently, has been to swindle the simple Ainu of all they possess, in face of great phys

ical hardships, and in spite of the old and universal enemies found in Ainuland, as elsewhere-the world, the flesh, and the devil. But his efforts have been blessed; and he goes in and out among them as the one who knows most about, and cares most for, the poor Ainu. Their appreciation of his devotion to their welfare is very marked. He is called "the Master" by all; little children run to meet him as he rides into the villages and shout to their parents in the huts or in the fields: "Master has come! Master is here!" Old men and women leave their work for a moment, showing by their whole manner that they sincerely welcome him in their midst again. He was asked once to become associate chief of the Ainu, in

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THE REV. JOHN BATCHELOR

AND MRS. BATCHELOR

the largest settlement of their land, but has been content to act simply as adviser in things temporal, while putting his main efforts on things eternal. He has devoted all his influence and power over the people to the sole object of furthering the Gospel of Christ; and his

evident disinterestedness has made his work all the more effective and successful.

But who are these Ainu? one may ask. And where do they live? The Ainu are the aborigines of Japan. Before the present Mongol race came to Japan (from what land is not certainly known) the Ainu inhabited the whole of Japan proper, i.e., all but the newly acquired Island of Formosa. Little by little, under famous Japanese generals-of whom Tamura Maro, who died 811 A.D., was one of the greatest-they were driven further and further north. Not until the eighteenth century, however, were they finally subjugated. At present, the 16,000 survivors of this once numerous race are found only in the northern islands, chiefly in Yezo. Yet they have left many traces behind them, particularly in the names of places, and the like. For instance, Satsuma, from which the famous pottery ware is named, is an Ainu word; and so is Fuji, the name of the grandest of all the mountains in Japan. It means "fire" in Ainu, a not inappropriate name for a volcano. Where the Ainu themselves came from is not certain. They belong to a type of beings as different from the Japanese as

the American Indians are from the whites, who have displaced them. Judging by their language, Mr. Batchelor thinks they are of Aryan stock.

While the first preparations for our trip were being made, I stayed a day or two at Sapporo, with Mrs. Batchelor. Behind the house is a "rest," where sick and convalescent Ainu are brought and cared for, as they never could be cared for properly in the rough, wild districts. in the mountains. Near by is a small Home for Ainu girls. Mr. Batchelor was preparing for a month's tour among the principal villages to say good-by before leaving for England on furlough. To visit all of his Ainu villages requires two months. Besides the Ainu stations, he has charge of the C. M. S. Japanese work all through the Sapporo district, with fifteen Japanese and Ainu catechists under him. The Ainu work lies partly in the mountain regions of central Yezo, and partly along the shores of Volcano Bay, on the southern coast. Being able only to go half way, I decided for the mountains, where Mr. Batchelor said I should see the Ainu in their wilder and more primitive state. Half a day by rail, and a day and a half by cart, in saddle and on foot along the seashore, brought us to a little village called Pon-sep. On the way we had met many Ainu, men and women, riding down to certain fishing grounds, and had seen many others hard at work getting in their crops of beans, before the heavy snow set in-so that we were prepared to find many villages partly deserted, and to get along with small congregations.

The appearance of the first Ainu I saw, naturally attracted my attention. One approaching on horseback began to smile as soon as he saw Mr. Batchelor in the distance. He was sitting astride a sturdy mountain pony, with legs hanging down over the horse's shoulders, a pack of no small dimensions, and a baby behind. The long hair, black as coal, fell down to his shoulders, and an unmistakable moustache covered his mouth. As we walked on, I asked Mr. Batchelor

something about the man we had just passed. "The man!" he said, "that was a woman." "With all that moustache?" I continued. "Yes, that is not real, but tattooed." The Ainu are a hairy people -the hairiest in the world-and, not content to let the men wear full beards and flowing hair, they have taken to marking the faces and arms of the women, to increase this hairy appearance. Girls are tattooed slightly first when eight or ten years of age. Each year the marking is increased, until before they are married a circle is completed, as large in diameter as the mouth is long; at marriage the tips are added, which run out into the middle of the cheeks and turn up, as moustache-like as you please!

The Ainu dress resembles the Japanese, except that the sleeves are tighter, and less flowing. The coarse blue material is made beautiful by a sort of appliqué work. White cord is sewn on in many graceful geometrical designs. Men and women alike wear their hair down to the shoulders, and bind it out of the way by a bit of cloth-or, more usually, by a Japanese towel-tied round the head. As we approached them they all took off this covering, and the men made what seemed to me a very graceful salutation. While inclining their heads