MAGIC, DIVINATION, INSPIRATION.
The reader will find few traces of normal religious development in the
practices to be described in this chapter. The pathological element is
decidedly predominant.
=Magic=.--The older view of magic is that of Prof. Zimmern, who defines
it as "the attempt on man's part to influence, persuade, or compel
spiritual beings to comply with certain requests or demands." With
this the view of the modern Japanese lexicographer Yamada, who calls
magic (in Japanese _majinahi_) "the keeping off of calamity by the
aid of the supernatural power of Kami and Buddhas," is in substantial
agreement. Prof. Zimmern's definition is open to several objections.
It is too wide, as it would include prayer and sacrifice; it assumes
that all the sentient beings appealed to are spiritual, and it excludes
the numerous cases of magic in which Gods and spirits are in no wise
concerned. It is, however, impossible to leave out of consideration
the last-mentioned class of magic, though it might be convenient to
distinguish it by a different name, as "charms." Sir Alfred Lyall
and Mr. J. G. Frazer have shown that magic of this kind has preceded
religion, and that it is in principle the same as science, although
based on wrong premises.
=Magic and Medicine=.--Magic is the bastard brother of medicine.
The two arts are associated in many countries. Hirata says that in
China medicine had its origin in magic. In Japan, in Kōtoku's reign
(645-654), we find State departments of medicine and of magic organized
on a similar footing. A _Nihongi_ myth states that mankind owes both
arts to the teaching of the Gods Ohonamochi and Sukunabikona. Evidently
the myth by which these institutions are referred to a divine origin
is of later growth than the institutions themselves. The same is
plainly the case with the deification of the phallic emblems used to
repel disease,[288] and with the various magical appliances described
on p. 196. The object of the myth-maker in these cases was to lend a
religious sanction to what was in its origin a non-religious magical
procedure. The same principle might be copiously illustrated from
non-Japanese sources. On the other hand, there are cases in which a
practice based on religion has its original character obliterated, so
that it might easily be mistaken for a charm of no religious import.
=Bakin on Magic=.--I have before me a collection of "vulgar magical
practices" (_majinahi_) made early in the last century by the famous
novelist Bakin.[289] It illustrates the confusion, even with highly
educated men, between science and magic on the one hand, and between
non-religious and religious magic on the other. A good many of Bakin's
so-called _majinahi_ turn out to be merely recipes, such as how to
remove oil stains from books by an application of lime; to cure
costiveness in fowls by doses of saltpetre; to kill the parasites of
gold-fish by means of a preparation of human excrement; to keep away
bookworms by exposing the books in the sun: "If a pot-tree withers
in the middle and seems likely to die, take it out, shake the earth
from its roots, and expose it to the sun for one day. Then steep its
roots in a drain for one night. When replanted it will thrive." The
scrapings of a copper ladle mixed with fish will cure disease in cats.
We approach true magic more nearly in the following: "When stung by a
wasp, take up a pebble which is half sunk in the ground, turn it over,
and replace it, when the pain will at once leave you." The cure of
illness from eating poisonous fish by swallowing the ashes of an old
almanac seems also to belong rather to magic than to medicine. There
are traces of a religious element in the following: "To cure toothache,
apply to the tooth the ashes of a sardine which has been set up over
the door on the last day of the year."[290] Another plan is: "Inscribe
on a slip of wood certain incantations (given) in the ordinary
Chinese character, in the seal character, and in Sanskrit. Beside the
inscription make two circles. If the toothache is in the upper jaw,
knock a new nail with a purified hammer into the upper circle; if in
the lower jaw, into the lower circle. If the pain does not go away,
continue knocking the nail with the hammer. The slip of wood should be
afterwards thrown away into a stream."[291] Bakin tried this plan and
found it effectual. He attributes his immunity from conflagration to
his respect for fire. He always avoided stamping it out with his foot,
and enjoins on his descendants to follow his example. If the master
of a house before going to bed goes round calling out, "Be careful of
fire: fasten well the doors," the spirit (of his words) will fill the
house, and it will be preserved against fire and robbery. On the last
night of the year, and on other festival occasions, water should be
drawn from the well at sunset, placed in a clean vessel, and offered
without a drop being spilled to the God of the kitchen furnace. It
should be returned to the well the next morning. This will prevent
danger of fire.
A Korean book of household recipes contains, along with instructions
for making cakes, spiced wine, &c., such magical, but non-religious
devices as the following: "To make a runaway slave come back of his own
accord. Take a garment which he has worn and put it down the well, or
hang some of his hair on a wheel and turn it round. He will then not
know where to go and will come back to you."
=Imitative or Sympathetic Magic=.--These Korean examples illustrate the
principle of imitative or sympathetic magic thus described by Mr. J. G.
Frazer[292]:--
"Manifold as are the applications of this crude philosophy--for a
philosophy it is as well as an art--the fundamental principles on
which it is based would seem to be reducible to two; first, that like
produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause; and second,
that things which have once been in contact, but have ceased to be
so, continue to act on each other as if the contact still persisted.
From the first of these principles the savage infers that he can
produce any desired effect merely by imitating it; from the second he
concludes that he can influence at pleasure and at any distance any
person of whom, or anything of which, he possesses a particle. Magic of
the latter sort, resting as it does on the belief in a certain secret
sympathy which unites indissolubly things that have once been connected
with each other, may appropriately be termed sympathetic in the strict
sense of the term. Magic of the former kind, in which the supposed
cause resembles or simulates the supposed effect, may conveniently be
described as imitative or mimetic."
The sympathetic or imitative principle is not very conspicuous in
the instances of vulgar (that is, non-professional) magic quoted by
Bakin. It is, however, illustrated by other Japanese customs. There
is a round stone in a shrine in Sagami which brings rain when water
is poured over it. The stone is supposed to be the _shintai_ of an
Aburi no Kami (rain-fall-God), to whom the shrine is dedicated. Here
we have a combination of religion with magic.[293] Whistling in order
to raise the wind[294] is a purely non-religious piece of imitative
magic, but in the _Nihongi_ myth it is associated with religion by
being represented as taught by a God. We should probably regard as a
form of sympathetic magic the modern practice of devout visitors to the
shrine of Tenjin, near Kiôto, who, in order to obtain relief from their
ailments, rub the corresponding part of a bronze bull which stands
before the shrine. A characteristic example of non-religious imitative
magic is the custom of _kasedori_. When a marriage is unfruitful, the
old women of the neighbourhood come to the house and go through the
form of delivering the wife of a child. The infant is represented by
a doll. The date selected for this ceremony is not immaterial. It
is that of the festival of Sahe no kami. This, no doubt, gives it a
quasi-religious flavour. To this class we may also refer the New Year's
practice of going to sleep with a picture of a boat under the pillow.
If lucky dreams follow an anchor is painted to it, if unlucky dreams a
sail.
The _Nihongi_[295] records a case in which a woman took earth from
Mount Kako in Yamato, which she wrapped in her neckerchief and prayed,
saying: "'This earth represents the country of Yamato.' Then she turned
it upside down." The common witchcraft of ill-treating a figure of the
intended victim in order to make him suffer in a corresponding manner
is well known in Japan. The _Nihongi_ (A.D. 587) speaks of a rebellious
Minister preparing figures of the Heir to the Throne and loathing them.
Dr. Griffis[296] gives the following description of a magical ceremony
performed by a woman in revenge for her lover's desertion of her:--
"At two o'clock in the morning she proceeds to the shrine of her
patron-God, usually the _Ujigami_. Sometimes she wears a crown, made
of an iron tripod reversed, on which burn three candles. In her left
hand she carries a straw effigy of her victim; in her right she grasps
a hammer. On her bosom is suspended a mirror. Reaching the sacred
tree before the shrine, she impales the effigy upon it with nails,
adjuring the Gods to save their tree, impute the guilt of desecration
to the traitor, and visit him with their deadly vengeance. The visit
is repeated nightly until the object of her sorcery sickens and dies.
At Sabae, before a shrine of Kompira, stood a pine tree about a foot
thick, plentifully studded with such nails."[297]
The possession by the operator of the hair or nails of his victim adds
greatly to the potency of his devices. Hence they are carefully kept by
the proper owners and thrown away together in the twelfth month.
Another form of witchcraft is represented by the later custom of
Inu-gami (dog-deity) thus described by Motoöri: "A hungry dog is tied
up in sight of food which he is not allowed to eat. When his desire is
keenest, his head is cut off and at once flies to seize the food. This
head is put into a vessel and worshipped. A serpent or a weasel will
do as well." It constitutes a mighty charm, which evidently owes its
power to the keenness of the animal's sufferings.[298] The Fūzoku Gwaho
tells a story which was probably invented in order to account for this
custom. "An old woman buried her pet dog, leaving only the head above
ground. Then she cut him about with a bamboo saw, saying, 'If thou hast
a soul, kill such a one, and I will make thee a God.' The man really
did die afterwards in strange fashion. From that time the dog-deity
dwelt in the old woman's house and wrought many wonderful curses." In
Tosa each village has several Inugami-mochi (dog-deity-owners). They
are shunned by their neighbours. A matchmaker's very first inquiry
is whether there is such a person in the family. Leprosy is the next
subject of his questions, sudden death (supposed to be hereditary),
riches or poverty, wisdom or foolishness, are of subsidiary importance.
The same idea of a materialized emotion is illustrated by a practice
common near Yamaguchi. In order to drive away certain destructive
insects from the rice-fields a straw figure, made to resemble a cavalry
soldier, is led round in stately procession, and finally flung into the
sea. This figure represents the leader of some fugitives from a battle
who hid in these fields, but were pursued and slain there. The noxious
insects are their materialized resentment at this fate.
The principles of sympathetic and imitative magic, so copiously
illustrated in 'The Golden Bough,' are not applicable to all magical
procedures. Many defy specific explanation, and are possibly the
result of some chance association of ideas no longer traceable, or of
a mistaken empiricism. _Post hoc, ergo propter hoc_ is responsible for
much that is called magic.
The description of magic in Hastings's 'Dictionary of the Bible' as
a "means of binding superhuman powers, either to restrain them from
injuring oneself, or to constrain them to injure others and put them
under a spell, or to reveal what to mortal man was unknown," scarcely
applies at all to Japanese magic. I have not met with any mention in
the older literature of pacts with demons or the coercion of spirits.
=The Symbol in Magic=.--In Japan, as in other countries, magic makes
great use of the Symbol, the Talisman, and the Formula, spoken or
written. This seems to depend on the more general notion that things
which are associated in thought must have also a direct physical
influence on each other, of which a familiar example among ourselves
is the objection to receive a knife as a present, because it might
cut the friendship between the giver and receiver. Possibly this
association of the subjective with the objective (in Dr. Tylor's words
"mistaking an ideal for a real connexion")[299] was in Hirata's mind
when he used the somewhat cryptic phrase, "Magic (_majinahi_, or magic,
means etymologically mixture) is so called because it mixes the spirit
(_tama_) of that which is here with the body of that which is there."
We have seen[300] that the phallus, as a symbol of robust animal
life, was used to exorcise evil things, whether demons or diseases.
Roof-tiles impressed with a symbol (bubbles) which is indicative of
water, are used at the present day as a charm to protect houses from
fire. The deification of the gourd, the clay and the water-plant,
no doubt, points to a previous magical use as preventives of
conflagration. Rice, perhaps as a representative of the kteis, is used
for several magical purposes. In one of the _Fudoki_, unhulled rice is
scattered broadcast by Tsuchigumo,[301] to disperse a strange darkness
which turned day into night.
=The Talisman=.--When the meaning of the symbol is altogether
obliterated or unknown, we have the Talisman. It is not clear what
was meant by the "tide-ebbing" and "tide-flowing" jewels given by the
Sea-God to Hohodemi,[302] or even that they had any meaning at all. A
sort of scarf (_hire_) was much used as a talisman. In the _Kojiki_ we
are told of a scarf, which, when waved thrice, quieted snakes. Another
kind gave protection against wasps and centipedes.[303] The _Nihongi_
has the following account of magical practices, suggested apparently by
some acquaintance with the art of acupuncture:--
_"Summer, 4th month, 1st day. The Koryö student-priests said that
their fellow-student Kura-tsukuri no Tokushi had made friends with
a tiger, and had learnt from him his arts, such as to make a barren
mountain change into a green mountain, or to cause yellow earth to
become clear water, and all manner of wonderful arts too many to
enumerate. Moreover, the tiger bestowed on him his needle, saying: 'Be
watchful! be watchful, and let no one know! Treated with this, there is
no disease which may not be cured.' Truly, as the tiger had said, there
was no disease which was not cured when treated by it. Tokushi always
kept the needle concealed in a pillar. Afterwards the tiger broke the
pillar and ran away, taking the needle with him._"
Shaking or jingling talismans or other objects is supposed to have a
magical virtue. Izanagi shakes the jewels which he takes from his neck
to bestow on the Sun-Goddess. The Sun-Goddess and Susa no wo shook
the jewels from which their children were produced. Shaking a number
of talismans was part of the ceremony of _Mitama furishiki_, above
described.[304]
Part of the outfit of a district wise-woman or sorceress in recent
times was a small bow, called _adzusa-yumi_, by twanging which she
could call from the vasty deep the spirits of the dead, or even
summon deities to her behests. Another small bow, called _ha-ma-yumi_
(break-demon-bow) is given to boys at the New Year. I conjecture that
both of these had something to do with the bows used in the ceremony of
_tsuina_ described above.
Another magical appliance for the restraint of demoniac or evil
influences is the _shime-naha_, or close-rope. It is made of
rice-straw plucked up by the roots, the ends being allowed to dangle
down at regular intervals. A rope of this kind was used to prevent
the Sun-Goddess from returning into the Rock-cave of Heaven. At the
present day it is hung in front of shrines, and at the New Year
before ordinary dwellings. Sacred trees are girt with it, or it may
be suspended across a road to prevent the passage of evil spirits.
Some people wear _shime-naha_ on their person. The twin rocks at
Ise, between which there is a view of Fuji and the rising sun, are
connected by an immense _shime-naha_, with which a legend is associated
to the effect that Susa no wo, in return for hospitality, taught
his host how to keep out the God of Pestilence by stretching such a
rope across the door. The _shime-naha_ is sometimes called _Hi no mi
tsuna_ (sun-august-rope). The _shime-naha_ is the counterpart of the
consecrated rope which in Siam is fastened on the last day of the year
round the city walls to prevent the banished demons from returning.
Garlic has the same power over evil spirits in Japan that it has in
Europe.
=The Formula in Magic=.--The magic power of set forms of speech, quite
distinct from any meaning which they may possess, is well illustrated
by the use of the numerals from one to ten as a magic formula for the
cure of disease. But in the instructions of the Sea-God to Hohodemi to
return the lost fish-hook to his brother with the words, "A hook of
poverty, a hook of ruin, a hook of downfall," the proper meaning of the
words is retained, though they are evidently supposed to be accompanied
by some mysterious potency, independent of it. Beyond the circumstance
that they were taught by Gods, these incantations do not seem to have
had any religious character. Nor, when a judge[305] is about to execute
some criminals by casting them into the fire, and uses the charm, "Not
by my hands are they cast," is there apparently any God invoked. The
words themselves avert any evil result. There is no hint of a religious
origin in the passage of the _Nihongi_ which states that the first
Mikado, Jimmu, invented magical formulæ for the dissipation of evil
influences. Of course, there are many formulæ of this kind which stand
on a different footing. When, at the present day, a Japanese calls out
_Kuhabara! Kuhabara!_ (mulberry-grove) during a thunderstorm, it
is no doubt with the idea of suggesting to the Thunder-God that the
place is a mulberry grove, which, it is believed, is never struck by
lightning. Charms often consist of a ticket with the name of the God
(usually the _ubusuna_) and a statement that the bearer is under his
protection.
=Magic and Shinto=.--The treatment of magic by Shinto is not uniform.
We have seen that it lends its sanction to some practices of this
kind by affirming that they were taught or practised by Gods, or by
deifying the objects used in them. But there are others which it
condemns, including them in the offences against the Gods enumerated
in the Oho-harahi.[306] It is, however, for their malicious purpose
that they are reprobated. There is no trace in the old records of any
scepticism as to their efficacy. A scientific knowledge sufficient to
arouse doubts of the power of magic did not then exist, and would have
been equally fatal to much in Shinto itself. Even in modern times such
highly educated men as Bakin and Hirata had an implicit belief in the
efficacy of this art. The latter complains that there is a tendency
among physicians of the Chinese school to neglect it. Some diseases,
he says, are caused by evil spirits and some by minute insects
(microbes?). Magic and medicine should therefore, in his opinion, be
combined.
The decay of magic in modern Japan is not owing to religious but to
scientific progress. It is due to China, whose philosophy, imperfect as
it is, taught far truer views of the limitations of man's powers than
anything Japan was able to discover for herself.
=Divination=.--Divination (in Japanese _uranahi_) is magic which has
a special object, namely, the revelation of the unknown. This is
implied by the Japanese word, which is derived from _ura_, the rear,
heart, lining, obverse, and hence that which is concealed. Ordinary
experience, and, at a later stage of progress, science, enable us to
reason with more or less certainty from the known to the unknown; but
mankind, not satisfied with legitimate methods, have supplemented
them by divination, which comprises various irregular and ineffective
processes specially directed to discovering the will of the Gods,
ascertaining what will be lucky or unlucky, and predicting future
events.
=Objects of Divination=.--In Japan we find divination practised to
ascertain whether an expedition would be successful or unsuccessful,
the reason of the disturbed state of the country and its remedy, the
best site for a temple, tomb, or dwelling-house, whether the Mikado
should make a progress to a certain place and perform sacrifices there,
what crops it is best to sow, what days will be lucky or unlucky, when
to expect a lover, the name of a future husband, &c. The priestess
of Ise was selected by divination, and the provinces from which the
rice for the Ohonihe ceremony should be taken. Ominous occurrences
were interpreted by the help of this art. The purity of persons about
to take part in a religious ceremony was tested in this manner. Or
divination might be applied to the baser use of recovering lost
property or discovering thieves. There was a special divination on the
10th day of the 12th month to ascertain what ill luck threatened the
Mikado during the ensuing six months, so that the Gods whose curse was
feared might be propitiated in advance.
=Religious and Non-religious Divination=.--Divination, like magic, does
not necessarily involve the intervention of superhuman sentient beings,
as we may see by our own palmistry, fortune-telling by cards, and
Shakespeare cryptograms. That the art passed through a non-religious
phase is highly probable. In Japan, however, the cases met with in the
oldest records are commonly associated, explicitly or implicitly,
with an appeal for divine guidance. Hirata defines divination as
"respectfully inquiring the heart (_ura_) of the Gods." Motoöri
takes the same view, though both writers admit that in modern times
divination which has no religious sanction is sometimes resorted to,
playfully, or in unimportant matters.
=The Greater Divination=.--The greater, or official, divination
consists in drawing conclusions according to certain conventional
rules from the cracks which appear in a deer's shoulder-blade when
exposed to fire. This practice is known not only to the Chinese,
Kalmucks, Cherkeses, and other races of North-Eastern Asia, but to
the ancient Germans and Greeks. Nearer home we have the "reading the
speal" (_épaule_), a sort of divination by examining the marks on a
shoulder-blade of mutton, practised not very long ago in the Highlands
of Scotland. The _Nihongi_ tells us that the Gods themselves made use
of the Greater Divination in order to learn the reason of Izanagi and
Izanami's abortive children the Hiruko and the Island of Ahaji. The
God Koyane, ancestor of the Nakatomi, was specially charged with this
form of divination. In the numerous passages of the _Nihongi_ where
divination is mentioned without further description, it is no doubt the
Greater Divination which is intended. Chinese methods of divination
were introduced into Japan from Korea at an early date. In 553 it seems
to have been an established practice that Koreans learned in medicine,
in divination, and in calendar-making should take turns of service
at the Court of Japan. It was no doubt owing to their influence that
the tortoise-shell was substituted for the deer's shoulder-blade in
this divination. A reference to the "divine Tortoise" in the _Nihongi_
under the legendary date B.C. 92 is merely an anachronism. But the
tortoise was really in use for this purpose in the eighth century. The
_Yengishiki_ recognizes no other, though in the country districts the
shoulder-blades of deer were long retained.
In an old book purporting to describe the practice of the Tsushima
college of diviners at a much later period than the _Yengishiki_,
we are told that the diviner, after practising religious abstinence
for seven days, took his place in the divination plot (_uraba_ or
_uraniha_), from which all other persons were rigorously excluded. He
was provided with the tortoise-shell, some _hahaka_ wood, and other
requisites. Having prayed to the God of the divination plot,[307]
who is besought to grant a true divination, the diviner recites the
_Kami-oroshi_ (formula which brings down the God), and kindles in a
blazing fire a stick of _hahaka_ about four or five inches long, and of
the thickness of a chopstick. When it has taken fire, he blows it out,
and with it pricks the tortoise-shell from the back. Divination is then
made from the lines thus produced. When the divination is over, the
_Kami-agari_ (ascent of the God) is recited, and the ceremony is at an
end.
The _Shintō Miōmoku Ruijiu_ gives the following description of a form
of tortoise-shell divination practised at Kashima to select young girls
for the service of the God (_mono-imi_). Two candidates who have not
reached puberty perform rites to the God for 100 days. On the final
day a caldron is set up before the shrine and two tortoise-shells are
placed in it, each of which bears the name of one of the girls. These
are roasted from early morning till dusk. The tortoise-shell with the
name of the successful candidate is then found to be wholly uninjured
by the fire whilst the other is reduced to ashes. It is said that the
girl selected attains a great age and that she never menstruates.
=Tsuji-ura= (cross-roads divination).[308]--This form of divination
was much practised in ancient Japan, especially by women and lovers.
It consisted in going out to the road at dusk, planting a stick in the
ground to represent Kunado, the phallic God of roads, and interpreting
the fragmentary talk of passers-by as an answer to the question.[309]
Another account says that to perform _tsuji-ura_ you take a box-wood
comb in your hand, go to cross-roads and sound it three times by
drawing your finger along it (_tsuge_, "box-wood," also means "inform
me"). Then, with devotion to the Sahe no Kami, repeat this verse
three times: "Oh, thou God of the cross-roads-divination, grant me a
true response." Good or bad luck is to be inferred from the words of
the next (or the third) person who makes his appearance. Sometimes
a boundary line was marked out and rice sprinkled to keep away evil
influences. The words of the passer-by who first entered the charmed
limit constituted the response.
=Hashi-ura= (bridge-divination). Little is known of this kind of
divination. The procedure was the same as in _tsuji-ura_, and the Gods
concerned were probably the Sahe no Kami. The end-post of a bridge was,
and still is, a _wo-bashira_, that is, male pillar or phallus.
=Ishi-ura=, or stone-divination, is mentioned in the _Manyōshiu_ along
with _tsuji-ura_. The "stone" is probably the stone emblem of Kunado or
Sahe no Kami. It consisted in judging of future fortune by the apparent
weight of the stone when lifted. Such stones were called _Ishi-gami_
(stone-deities) and were no doubt phallic.
=Mikayu-ura= (divination by gruel). This kind of divination is also
associated with the Sahe no Kami. It was practised in various forms at
Kirawoka in Kahachi, Suha in Shinano, and other places, on the 15th
day of the 1st month[310] in order to ascertain what crops it would
be best to sow that year. A pot was set up before the God in which
adzuki beans[311] were boiled. Then tubes of reed, five or six inches
long, marked with the names of all manner of crops were plunged into
the gruel. The _negi_ (priests) stood by, and taking out the tubes with
chopsticks divined from the manner in which the grains of rice (mixed
with the gruel) entered them whether the crop in question would be good
or bad. At Haruna the priests published the results to the peasants in
a printed form.
Hirata mentions another form of divination in which beans are set in a
row round the hearth and fire brought close to them. Some are roasted
black while others remain white, and from this the weather and luck of
the ensuing year are divined.
=Koto-ura= (harp-divination) was formerly (11th century) practised at
Ise with the object of ascertaining whether the priests who were to
take part in the three great religious services of the year and the
utensils employed were pure or not. Prayer having been made to the
Sun-Goddess, the officiating priest struck a harp three times,[312]
uttering with each note a loud Hush! He then recited the following
_Kami-oroshi_ (bringing-down the Gods):--
_"Ah! we protest that we are in earnest,_
_To your pure seat deign to descend_
_All ye Gods of Heaven and Earth,_
_Ah! we protest that we are in earnest,_
_To thy pure seat deign to descend_
_Thou Thunder-God also._
_Ah! we protest that we are in earnest,_
_To your pure seat deign to descend_
_Oh thou upper great brother and thou lower great brother."_[313]
The names of the priests were then called over and the question asked
in the case of each, "Is he clean or unclean?" The officiating priest
then struck the harp and tried to whistle by drawing in his breath. If
the whistle was audible it was a sign of purity, and _vice versâ_. The
same procedure was observed with regard to the persons who had prepared
the offerings, the offerings themselves, and the utensils required in
the service.
=Caldron-Divination=.--At the shrine of Kibitsu no miya in Bittchu
there is a mode of divining good and ill-luck from the sound made by a
caldron in boiling. The priests, on the application of a worshipper,
recite _norito_ and kindle a fire of brushwood under a caldron. If the
sound produced resembles the bellowing of a bull, the prognostic is
good, if otherwise, it is bad.
=Divination by Lots=.--Sticks with numbers inscribed on them, or slips
of paper, were much used for divination. The succession to the Imperial
throne has been decided in this way. Prayer to the Kami often preceded
their use. The following is a form of divination by lot which is used
by sailors when they have lost their reckoning. The names of the points
of the compass are written on slips of paper, placed in a measure of
rice, and the whole mixed up. A _harahi-bako_ of the Great Deity of
Ise is put on the top. Prayer is offered and the lot which is found to
adhere to the _harahi-bako_ is looked upon as the answer of the Deity.
Another form of divination by lots is thus described: "You place three
sticks, numbered one, two, three, in a bamboo tube and inquire of the
God as to good or ill luck, saying reverently, 'If the thing is lucky,
let it be such a number, if unlucky, such another number.'" In what
is called _harahi-kuji_ "you write lucky or unlucky, or whatever your
prayer may be, on papers which you fold up and roll into a ball. Then
having offered reverent prayer to the God, rub the lots with _harahi
ko-nusa_,[314] when that which adheres to them is concluded to be the
answer. This is common at all shrines."
Lots were, and still are, used for all manner of non-religious
purposes. If a solitary passenger appears at a jinriksha stand, he
is often cast lots for by means of a set of cords of various lengths
knotted together at one end which is kept for the purpose. The
'Yih-King,' a Chinese book which sets forth a non-religious system of
divination depending partly on drawing lots is much used in Japan.
=Divination by Means of the Stars= was first introduced in A.D. 675 by
the Korean teachers of Chinese arts.
=Kitsune-tsukahi=.--"Amongst the ordinary diviners is one called
_Kitsune-tsukahi_, _i.e._, a fox-possessor. The divination is carried
on by means of a small image of a fox, made in a very odd way. A fox
is buried alive in a hole with its head left free. Food of the sort
of which foxes are known to be most fond is placed just beyond the
animal's reach. As days pass by the poor beast in its dying agony of
hunger makes frantic efforts to reach the food; but in vain. At the
moment of death the spirit of the fox is supposed to pass into the
food, which is then mixed with a quantity of clay, and shaped into the
form of the animal. Armed with this extraordinary object, the _miko_ is
supposed to become an infallible guide to foretelling future events of
every kind."[315]
Augury by various kinds of birds was known. The geomancy practised to
some extent in Japan is of Chinese origin.
The _Nihongi_ mentions a number of isolated cases of divination
invented on the spur of the moment. The following is an example:--
"When the Emperor was about to attack the enemy, he made a station on
the great moor of Kashihawo. On this moor there was a stone six feet in
length, three feet in breadth, and one foot five inches in thickness.
The Emperor prayed, saying: 'If we are to succeed in destroying the
Tsuchi-gumo, when we kick this stone, may we make it mount up like a
_kashiha_ leaf.' Accordingly he kicked it, upon which, like a _kashiha_
leaf, it arose to the Great Void. Therefore that stone was called
Homishi. The Gods whom he prayed to at this time were the God of Shiga,
the God of the Mononobe of Nawori, and the God of the Nakatomi of
Nawori--these three Gods."[316]
=Omens= are frequently mentioned. A leg-rest breaking without apparent
cause was a bad omen. The migration of rats from the capital, the
movements of a swarm of flies, comets, a dog bringing in a dead man's
hand and depositing it in a shrine, prolonged darkness, to meet a
blind or a lame person are examples of evil omens. Earthquakes,
floods and storms were supposed to portend war. A wren's entering a
parturition-house is described as a favourable omen. White animals
of all kinds were good omens, and also three-legged crows or even
sparrows, no doubt because the Sun-crow had three legs.
=Dreams=.--At all stages of human progress, the rational, normal,
and usual attitude of mankind towards dreams is a disbelief in their
reality. The ivory gate is recognized to be their ordinary, every-day
thoroughfare. There are good reasons for this. Most dreams are so
palpably absurd that the common sense even of the primitive man,
enlightened by daily experience, rejects them as something not to be
depended on. A man dreams that he has partaken of a hearty meal and
wakes up hungry. The cogent logic of an empty belly leaves him no
choice but to reject unhesitatingly the proposition that his dream was
a reality. He dreams that he has broken his leg. Will he, therefore,
lie up for a month to give it time to heal? In his dreams he can fly.
Nature exacts a stern penalty if he is idiotic enough to act on the
belief that he can do so in reality. The practical necessities of
life prohibit a man who has to earn a living and support a family
from indulging in any such foolish imaginations. The analogy of his
own day-dreams, which he must know to be unreal, is too obvious to be
disregarded.
It is true that we do not find much evidence of this attitude of
mind in books of travel or history. Nobody thinks it worth while to
commit to paper instances of so very evident a fact. Most men are
comparatively uninterested in the normal and familiar. Travellers, and
sometimes even men of science, are prone to neglect the universal and
commonplace for the strange and unusual. Like Desdemona, they seriously
incline to hear of
"The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders."
Herbert Spencer[317] thinks that the primitive man accepts the events
dreamed as events that have actually occurred, and adduces evidence
which no doubt shows that there really is a current of thought to
that effect among savages and others. For the reasons above stated I
prefer to regard such cases as abnormal and exceptional. The _Kojiki_
and _Nihongi_ have many instances of Gods appearing to men in dreams
and giving them instructions. These are doubtless inventions of
some scribe, but they indicate a belief in the possibility of such
occurrences. Hirata thought it possible by witchcraft to cause people
to have dreams.
A more frequent view of dreams is that, although not in themselves
realities, it is possible by suitable interpretation to deduce truth
from them--usually in the form of predictions of the future. There are
cases of this kind in the old Japanese records. A deer, for example,
dreams that a white mist has come down and covered him. This portends
that he will be killed by hunters and his body covered with white salt.
There is evidence that some men occasionally attain in dreams to a
deeper spiritual insight and a keener emotional sensibility to divine
influences than in their waking moments. Those who have had such
experiences do not speak lightly of them. At the present time science
is not in a position to deal adequately with this matter. Shinto helps
us nothing.
=Ordeal= is a species of divination. Under the date A.D. 277 the
_Nihongi_ has the following:--
_"The Emperor forthwith questioned Takechi no Sukune along with Umashi
no Sukune, upon which these two men were each obstinate, and wrangled
with one another, so that it was impossible to ascertain the right and
the wrong. The Emperor then gave orders to ask of the Gods of Heaven
and Earth the ordeal by boiling water. Hereupon Takechi no Sukune and
Umashi no Sukune went out together to the bank of the Shiki river,
and underwent the ordeal of boiling water. Takechi no Sukune was
victorious. Taking his cross-sword, he threw down Umashi no Sukune, and
was at length about to slay him, when the Emperor ordered him to let
him go. So he gave him to the ancestor of the Atahe of Kiï."_
The same authority informs us that in A.D. 415 the Mikado, in
consequence of the great confusion caused by the assumption of false
names and titles, commanded the people of the various houses and
surnames to wash themselves and practise abstinence.
_"Then let them, each calling upon the Gods to witness, plunge their
hands in boiling water. Hereupon every one put on straps of tree-fibre,
and coming to the caldrons, plunged their hands in the boiling water,
when those who were true remained naturally uninjured, and all
those who were false were harmed. Therefore those who had falsified
[their titles] were afraid, and, slipping away beforehand, did not
come forward. From this time forward the Houses and surnames were
spontaneously ordered, and there was no longer any one who falsified
them."_
A note adds:--
_"This is called Kugadachi. Sometimes mud was put into a caldron and
made to boil up. Then the arms were bared and the boiling mud stirred
with them. Sometimes an axe was heated red-hot and placed on the palm
of the hand."_
In a case which occurred in A.D. 530, it is stated that a judge,
in order to save himself trouble, was too ready to resort to the
boiling-water ordeal and that many persons were scalded to death in
consequence.
At the present day plunging the hand into boiling water, walking
barefoot over a bed of live coals and climbing a ladder formed of
sword-blades set edge upwards are practised, not by way of ordeal,
but to excite the awe and stimulate the piety of the ignorant
spectators.[318]
=Inspiration=.--Such knowledge as we possess of the divine will and
nature comes in the first place to the nobler individuals of our race,
men in whom high intellectual powers are harmoniously allied to keen
and healthy emotional susceptibilities and ripened by long years of
experience and reflection. They it is--the seers, inspired prophets,
men of genius, or by whatever name we may call them--who furnish the
material out of which religion is developed, not the vulgar, with their
superstitions which are only a product of its decay.
Inspiration is not an isolated phenomenon. Like all our thoughts and
doings, it is the resultant of three component factors--namely, our own
_ego_ and that of our fellow-men, and the all-pervading influence of
that divine environment in which we live, and move, and have our being.
Each of these may predominate according to circumstances. In what we
call inspiration, the two former are, as far as may be, in abeyance,
and the mind is left free to be acted on by such higher influences as
it is capable of receiving.
In the case of Shinto, we have, unfortunately, no record of the
conditions under which such truths as it contains became revealed. The
deification of the Sun and the recognition of the fact that there is
love for mankind in the warmth and light which proceed from him was a
truly magnificent idea in a world destitute of religion. The Izanagi
myth, by which so many of the Gods were assigned a common parentage,
was a brilliant conception, paving the way towards monotheism. Musubi,
the God of Growth, marks a further stage of progress in this direction.
To these may be added such few and vague glimpses as were caught of
the truth that offences against our neighbour are also displeasing
to the Gods. But we have no knowledge of the circumstances attending
these discoveries or of the persons who made them. The only true seer
of whom the old records tell us anything was an unfortunate man who
in A.D. 644 taught his countrymen to worship--albeit in the form of a
caterpillar--the God of the Everlasting World, the God of Gods, and
suffered death in consequence.
The seer is not equally clear sighted at all times. He has temporary
enhancements of lucidity due to conditions which are very imperfectly
understood. Some are of a physical nature. The moderate use of certain
drugs and stimulants is an acknowledged help towards producing such
exalted states of mind. Music, quiet, sympathy, voluntary concentration
of mind (lapsing sometimes into the hypnotic trance, or something
resembling it), general abstemiousness, and occasional fasting, are all
aids of recognized value which are not neglected by the individual,
compact of common clay, who vainly aspires to fill the high office of
interpreter between Gods and men.
The Japanese word for inspiration is _Kangakari_, which means
God-attachment, and is nearly equivalent to our "possession." It
is indicative of the passive attitude claimed by the seer in all
countries, with an earnestness which, however genuine, notoriously
does not exclude the possibility of error. The most transparent bodies
deflect or modify the light which passes through them. Other words for
inspiration are _takusen_ and _shintaku_. They are of Chinese origin,
and involve the idea of a divine message or commission.
In the notices of inspired communications recorded in the Shinto books
we seldom or never recognize the true prophet. Instead of revelations
of divine truth, we are given the fruits of hypnotism, imposture, and a
credulous interpretation of meaningless things. The reader will discern
few traces of genuine inspiration in the following examples, of which
the earlier are taken from the _Nihongi_.
The Goddess Uzume gave forth an "inspired utterance" as part of her
performance before the Rock-cave of Heaven into which the Sun Goddess
had retired. It consisted of the numerals from one to ten.
B.C. 5. The Sun-Goddess instructed the Princess-priestess Yamato-hime
that a shrine should be erected to her in the province of Ise.
B.C. 38. A young child pronounced an unintelligible speech which
sounded like the names of deities, and was thought to be inspired.
Worship was offered in consequence.
B.C. 91. A God inspired Yamato totohi momoso hime (a Princess) to say
as follows: "Why is the Emperor grieved at the disordered state of the
country? If he duly did us reverence it would assuredly become pacified
of itself."
A.D. 193. The Empress Jingo was inspired by a certain God to urge her
husband the Mikado to invade Korea.
_"200. 3rd month, 1st day. The same Empress, having selected a lucky
day, entered the Palace of worship, and discharged in person the office
of priest.[319] She commanded Takechi no Sukune to play on the lute,
and the Nakatomi, Igatsu no Omi, was designated as Saniha.[320] Then
placing one thousand pieces of cloth, high pieces of cloth, on the top
and bottom of the lute, she prayed, saying: 'Who is the God who on a
former day instructed the Emperor? I pray that I may know his name.'
After seven days and seven nights there came an answer, saying: 'I am
the Deity who dwells in the Shrine of Ise.'"_
_"487. A certain man, inspired by the Moon-God, said, 'My forefather
Taka-musubi had the merit of creating Heaven and Earth. Let him be
honoured by dedicating to him people and land. I am the Moon-God and I
shall rejoice if this my desire is complied with.'"_
555. Mention is made of a divine inspiration by which the _Hafuri_, a
century before, had advised humble prayer to the "Founder of the Land"
before going to the assistance of a Korean king.
_"672. Kome, Takechi no Agata-nushi, Governor of the district of
Takechi, suddenly had his mouth closed so that he could not speak.
After three days, a divine inspiration came upon him, and he said:
'I am the God who dwells in the Shrine of Takechi, and my name is
Koto-shiro-nushi no Kami.' Again, 'I am the God who dwells in the
Shrine of Musa, and my name is Iku-ikadzuchi no Kami.' This was their
revelation: 'Let offerings of horses and weapons of all kinds be made
at the misasagi (tomb) of the Emperor Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko.' Further
they said: 'We stood in front and rear of the Imperial descendant and
escorted him to Fuha, whence we returned. We have now again taken our
stand in the midst of the Imperial army for its protection.' Further
they said: 'An army is about to arrive by the Western road. Be on your
guard.' When he had done speaking, he awoke [from his trance]. For this
reason, therefore, Kome was sent to worship at the Imperial misasagi
and to make offerings of horses and weapons. He also made offerings of
cloth and worshipped the Gods of the Shrines of Takechi and Musa._
_"After this Karakuni, Iki no Fubito, arrived from Ohosaka. Therefore
the people of that day said: 'The words of the instructions of the
Gods of the two Shrines are in accordance with the fact.'_
_"Moreover the Goddess of Muraya said by the mouth of a priest: 'An
army is now about to arrive by the middle road of my shrine. Therefore
let the middle road of my shrine be blocked.' Accordingly, not many
days after, the army of Kujira, Ihoriwi no Miyakko, arrived by the
middle road. The men of that day said: 'So the words of the teaching
of the God were right.' When the war was over, the Generals reported
the monitions of these three Gods to the Emperor, who straightway
commanded that the three Gods should be raised in rank and worshipped
accordingly."_
812. A decree was passed denouncing punishment on peasants who, without
reason, predicted good or bad fortune. The authorities were at the same
time enjoined to report any genuine predictions.
1031. While a service to the Sun-Goddess was being performed at Ise,
a storm of thunder and lightning came on. The Saiwō (virgin priestess
of Imperial blood) was inspired and said: "I am the Ara-matsuri no
miya, the first of the separate shrines of the Great Shrine, and I now
speak by command of the Great God. The Sātō [an official designation]
Sōdzu and his wife have for years past made absurd pretensions, such
as that the two great Deities have flown to and attached themselves
to them, the Ara-matsuri and the Takamiya to their children and
the [deities of] the five separate shrines to their domestic. Such
extraordinary assertions evince a want of loyalty both to the Gods and
to the Mikado. Their disregard of the ceremonial regulations and the
fewness of the offerings are not (in themselves) deserving of severe
blame, but they show a want of respect to the Gods. Iga no Kami reaped
the rice officially set apart for the service of the shrine and slew
the peasants of the Deity. Yet, by the remissness of the Government
officials, it was the third year before he was banished.... Let Sōdzu
be sent into exile at once." After delivering this message the Saiwō
drank several cups of the sacred sake. Nowadays, with ourselves,
recourse is had, under like circumstances, to a letter to the _Times_
or a question in the House of Commons.
1225-27. Though not an inspiration, I may mention here an oracle which
was delivered at Idzumo by wormholes in the wood of the old Temple
which took the form of Chinese characters. It intimated that the God
did not care for lofty buildings, but that the people should turn to
virtue. Motoöri strongly suspects its authenticity. No Shinto God, he
thinks, would be likely to use Chinese for his oracles.
1348. A Buddhist priest of the province of Ise, having made prayer for
1,000 days at the Shrine of the Great Deity, saw on the thousandth
day a bright object floating on the sea. This he found to be a sword
two feet five or six inches in length. At this time a boy of twelve
or thirteen, being divinely inspired, said: "This is one of the three
regalia, the precious sword sunk in the sea."[321] The matter was
reported to Kioto, where the authenticity of the sword was corroborated
by dreams, but ultimately not officially recognized.
The _Wa Rongo_, a work published in 1669, contains a number of oracles
(_Kangakari_) attributed to a great variety of Deities throughout
Japan. Some account of this work will be given in the next chapter.
Numerous other cases of inspired utterances are recorded in Japanese
history. They have generally relation to the worship of the God
concerned, directing the erection of a new shrine, indicating religious
observances which will do him pleasure, or complaining that he is
neglected or insulted. The Buddhist priests, who converted Shinto to
their own purposes, made frequent use of this means of sanctioning
their encroachments, and it was also made to serve political purposes.
Some of the above notices are purely legendary, and of the rest many
are open to a suspicion of imposture. It is probable, however, that in
most cases the writers who recorded or invented them had in view the
hypnotic trance, a kind of condition which is well known in Japan at
the present day. The following description of a hypnotic _séance_ is
abridged from Mr. Percival Lowell's interesting book, 'Occult Japan.'
A place having been chosen, either holy or else purified _ad hoc_, a
_gohei_ is set up with lighted candles beside it and flanking these,
sprigs of _sakaki_, the sacred tree of Shinto. In front of the _gohei_
is set out a feast for the God. Some five feet in front a porous
earthenware bowl is placed on a stand, and in the bowl a pyre of
incense sticks. The purification of the place consists in enclosing
the spot with strings, from which depend at intervals small _gohei_,
and from the space so shut off driving out all evil spirits by prayer,
finger-charms,[322] sprinkling of salt, striking of sparks by flint and
steel, and brandishing a _gohei_.
The persons of the officiators are purified by bathing and putting on
fresh white garments.
In its full complement the company consists of eight persons, the
_naka-za_ (middle-seat) corresponding to the medium, the _mae-za_
(front-seat), who is the director of the proceedings, and puts the
necessary questions to the medium, and several others whose business it
is to ward off evil influences, &c.
A purification service having been chanted under the leadership of the
_mae-za_, and songs sung to the accompaniment of the _shaku-jō_,[323] a
sort of staff with metal rings attached to it, the pyre is lighted, and
as the flames ascend into the air prayers go up to Fudōsama.[324]
The _gohei_ having been removed and set up in the middle, the men take
their seats for the descent of the God. Facing the _gohei_, they go
through a further short incantation. Then one of the subordinates holds
the _gohei_ while the _naka-za_ seats himself where it had been and
closes his eyes. The _mae-za_ takes the _gohei_ and places it between
the hands of the _naka-za_. Then all the others join in chant, and
watch for the advent of the God.
For a few minutes, the time varying with the particular _naka-za_, the
man remains perfectly motionless. Then suddenly the _gohei_ begins
to quiver. The quiver gains till all at once the man is seized with
a convulsive throe. In some trances the eyes then open, the eyeballs
being rolled up half out of sight. In others the eyes remain half shut.
Then the throe subsides again to a permanent quiver, the eyes, if open,
fixed in the trance look. The man has now become the God.
The _mae-za_, bowed down, then reverently asks the name of the God,
and the God answers, after which the _mae-za_ prefers his petitions,
to which the God makes reply. When he has finished, the _naka-za_
falls forward on his face. The _mae-za_ concludes with a prayer, then,
striking the _naka-za_ on the back, wakes him up. One of the others
gives him water from a cup, and when he has been able to swallow it
the rest set to and rub his arms and body out of their cataleptic
contraction.
The _Sankairi_, a work published in 1853, mentions a kind of inspired
medium known as _yori-dai_:--
_"There are numbers of these in Ôsaka who practise Kami-oroshi
(bringing down the God). An altar to Sho-ichi-i Inari Miōjin (first
of first rank illustrious God Inari) is consecrated within their
dwelling-house, before which the medium takes his seat. Some of these
bringers-down of the God are men, others women. They take a gohei in
each hand and repeat the Rokkon shōjō no harahi [a bastard Buddhist
form of harahi], muttering at the same time something or another so
that one might think they were veritable official bringers-down of the
God._
_"At Tenōji there is a Miko-machi, or street of mediums who pretend
that it was established by Shōtoku Taishi. When the cries of these
mediums reach the street, people look in at the windows. They differ,
however, from the Inari-oroshi. Some there are who use the formula, 'Is
it a living mouth or a dead mouth?' so that they probably belong to
the Shinano mediums, who talk of [the God] being drawn by the adzusa
bow. There is also a kind of witchcraft called Inugami.[325] But the
Miōjin-oroshi [or yoridai] we speak of repeats over and over again the
phrase 'Be pleased to cleanse, be pleased to purify', so long as he
retains his senses. Then his complexion changes and he becomes pale,
while the gohei in his hands shake themselves erect. He will then
answer, one after another, by manifest inspiration, any questions which
the applicant may put to him."_
The _Sankairi_ is a Buddhist book, and goes on to tell a story of a
_Kami_ being brought down by _nembutsu_ (Buddhist prayers) and the
medium repeating a Buddhist hymn.[326]
It need hardly be said that, as in the case of our own spiritualistic
_séances_, the net value of the information obtained by this process
is _nil_. It is hardly fair to Shinto to call this sort of thing
"esoteric Shinto," as Mr. Lowell does. Spiritualism is not esoteric
Christianity, but a diseased excrescence on it. The higher Shinto
functionaries do not condescend to such practices, and, indeed, they
are commonly performed by laymen, or even by Buddhist priests. The
official Shinto mode of ascertaining the will of the Gods was by the
"Greater Divination," that is, by the deer's shoulder-blade or the
tortoise-shell. _Kangakari_, or inspiration, was, however, known at all
periods of Japanese history; and although no detailed accounts have
reached us of the methods used to produce it, there are indications
that they were of a similar character to those described by Mr. Lowell.
The _kannushi_ of the ceremony of the Empress Jingō's inspiration[327]
seems to be the same as Mr. Lowell's _naka-za_, and the _saniha_
corresponds to his _mae-za_. We may presume that his office sometimes
resembled that of the functionary at Delphi, whose business it was to
clarify the obscurities of the Pythian priestess's utterances. The
_miko_ of the shrine of Ise gave inspired utterances. The sprinkling of
boiling water is said to have been part of the process by which they
were induced.
True inspiration, such as that which touched Isaiah's hallowed lips
with fire, belongs chiefly to the male sex. The _kangakari_, or
hypnotic trance, on the other hand, has in Japan, as elsewhere, a
decided preference for women or boys.[328]
'Occult Japan' deals only with the hypnotic trance as a condition
in which communications are received from the Gods. But there are
also mediums, called _miko_ or _ichiko_, who when hypnotized deliver
messages from deceased relatives and others.[329] Hirata speaks of
the _miko_ and _hafuri_ providing _yori-bito_ (mediums), by whom
they brought near (_yoru_) by prayer the spirits of Gods or men and
questioned them. _Ichiko_ is defined in the dictionary, _Kotoba no
Idzumi_, as a woman who, as the representative of a God or living soul,
or dead man's soul, delivers their thoughts from her own mouth.
Possession by foxes, badgers, and other animals is a well-known
phenomenon in Japan, but as it has no special connexion with Shinto
I shall only refer the reader to Mr. B. H. Chamberlain's 'Things
Japanese,' which contains a scientific account of this form of disease
from the pen of Dr. Baelz.
There are in Japan families who are believed to own foxes, by whom they
are assisted and protected, and who watch over their fields and prevent
outsiders from doing damage. Such families are avoided, and none but
members of similar fox-owning families will intermarry with them.[330]
FOOTNOTES:
[288] See above, p. 197.
[289] 'Yenzeki Zasshi,' v. 1.
[290] When demons and evil influences are expelled. See above, p. 308.
[291] After the manner of the Oho-harahi offerings.
[292] 'The Golden Bough,' second edition, p. 9.
[293] I cannot offer any explanation of the magic used by women and
children in order to bring fine weather. They hang upside down to the
eaves or on the branch of a tree human figures cut in paper, and called
_Teri-teri-bōzu_ (shine-shine-priest).
[294] See above, p. 115.
[295] I. 157.
[296] 'The Mikado's Empire,' p. 474.
[297] See also Ch. K. 263.
[298] According to Van Helmont, the reason why bull's fat is so
powerful in a vulnerary ointment is that the bull at the time of
slaughter is full of secret reluctancy and vindictive murmurs, and
therefore dies with a higher flame of revenge about him than any other
animal.
[299] See 'Primitive Culture,' i. 116, where numerous examples of
symbolic magic are given.
[300] See above, p. 187.
[301] The _Tsuchigumo_ (earth-hiders) were men of a low class, who
lived in dwellings sunk in the earth, and gave much trouble to the
Japanese Government in ancient times. Dr. Tylor, in his 'Primitive
Culture,' i. 113, has noted the tendency to attribute magical powers to
pariahs and foreigners. Sukunabikona, the teacher of magic to Japan,
came from abroad.
[302] See above, p. 115.
[303] See above, p. 106.
[304] See p. 292.
[305] _Nihongi_, ii. 82.
[306] See above, p. 294.
[307] Koyane. Hirata speaks with scorn of the Chinese methods of
divining current in Japan in later times, in which no invocation of the
Gods was used. Sometimes other Gods, and even Buddhas, were invoked.
[308] "The King of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head
of the two ways, to perform divination."--Ezekiel xxi. 21.
[309] Pausanias says that in ancient Greece the inquirer, after asking
his question of the God and making his offering, took as the divine
answer the first words he might hear on quitting the sanctuary.
[310] The date of the festival of the Sahe no Kami.
[311] See above, p. 193.
[312] The _Kami-yori-ita_ (God-resort-board), struck in later times to
bring down the Gods, is believed to be a substitute for this harp.
[313] It is not known who these Gods were.
[314] Smaller _gohei_ used in the _harahi_ ceremony.
[315] Weston, 'Mountaineering in the Japanese Alps,' p. 307. See also
Index, _Inugami_; and Mr. Chamberlain's 'Things Japanese,' third
edition, p. 110.
[316] Compare the story of Gideon's fleece in Judges vi. 37. See also
_Nihongi_, I. 237, and Ch. K. 194.
[317] 'Sociology,' i. 154.
[318] See Mr. P. Lowell's 'Occult Japan,' p. 36.
[319] _Kannushi_.
[320] Saniha (pure court) is explained as the official who examines the
utterances prompted by the Deity.
[321] At the battle of Dannoüra, in 1184.
[322] _In-musubi_, a Chinese practice.
[323] A Buddhist religious implement.
[324] A Buddhist deity. The incense is also Buddhist.
[325] See above, p. 332.
[326] An excellent account of a Japanese hypnotic _séance_ is given in
Mr. Weston's 'Mountaineering in the Japanese Alps,' p. 282.
[327] See above, p. 350.
[328] "Antiquity regarded the soul of woman as more accessible to every
sort of inspiration, which also, according to ancient opinion, is a
πάσχεον."--Müller, 'Sc. Myth.,' p. 217.
[329] See above, p. 206.
[330] See above, p. 344.