Lu Chu

Lu-Chu, the inhabitants of the Lu-Chu (Liu-Kiu, Riu-Kiu) archipelago between Japan and Formosa; apparently of Japanese stock, but showing Corean affinities in their habits and traditions. The language is an archaic form of Japanese, akin to the Satsuma dialect; it has never been cultivated, and the so-called "Lu-Chu" version of the Bible is really composed in pure Japanese. All are Buddhists, and are noted especially for the respect shown to the dead (a reminiscence of ancestor worship), who are deposited in large and sumptuous tombs for three years, after which the remains are collected and preserved in urns. (Basil Hall, Voyage, etc., to Corea and the Great Loo-Ckoo Island; Church Missionary Intelligencer, August, 1879.)