Sincerely yours,
LAFCADIO HEARN.
I enclose a few _mamori_ of Kishibojin,--the Sanscrit Harite,--to whom
wives pray for children. I suppose you know more about her worship
than I do. But in the Northern temples of her the votive offerings of
children dresses are large dresses. Here the dresses are only models
of dresses--doll size. The pregnant woman picks one out of a thousand,
keeping her eyes shut. When she looks, if she has picked out a girl's
dress, she is sure the child in her womb is a boy!--and vice versa. When
the child is born she makes another dress and brings it to the temple. I
am very fond of Kishibojin, and I think her worship beautiful.
Verily I have become quite as much of an idolater as any of these.