And now from the river-front touching my garden there rises to me a sound of clapping of hands,- one, two, three, four claps,- but the owner of of the hands is screened�@from viev by the srubbery. At the same time, however, I see men and women descending the stone steps of the wharves on the opposite side of the Ohashigawa, all with little blue towels tucked into their girdles. They wash their faces and hands and rinse their mouths,- the custumary ablution preliminary to Shinto prayer. Then they turn their faces to the sun- rise and clap their hands four times and pray. From the long high white bridge come other clappings, like echoes, and others again from far light graceful craft, curved like new moons,- extraordinary boats, in which I see bare-limbed fishermen standing whith foreheads bowed to the golden east. Now the clappings multiply,- multiply at last into an almost continiuos volleying of sharp sounds. For all the population is saluting the rising sun,- O-Hi-San, the Lady of Fire,- Amaterasu-oho-mi-Kami, the Lady of the Great Light. Konnichi-Sama! Hail this day to thee, divinest Day-Maker! Thanks unutterrable unto thee, for this thy sweet light, making beatiful the world! So, doubtless, the thought, if not the utterance, of countless hearts. Some turn to the sun only, clapping their hands; yet many turn also to the West, to holy Kitzuki, the immemorial shrine; and not a few turn their faces successively to all the points of heaven, murmuring the names of a hundred gods; and others, again, after having saluted the Lady of Fire look toward high Ichibata, toward the place of the great temple of Yakushi-Nyorai, who giveth sight to the blind,- not clapping their hands as in Shinto prayer, but only rubbing the palms softly together after the Buddhist manner. But all- for in this most antique province of Japan all Buddhists are Shintoists likewise- utter the archaic words of Shinto prayer: " Harai tamai kiyome tanai to Kami imi tani."
Prayer to the most ancient gods who reigned before the coming of the Buddha, and who still reign here in their own Izumo-land-,in the Land of Reed Plains, in the Place of the Issuing of Clouds; prayer to the deities of primal chaos and primeval sea and of the beginnings of the world,- strange gods with long weird names, kindred of U-hiji-ni-no-Kami, the First-Mud-Lord, kindred of Su-hiji-no-Kami, the First-Sand-Lady; prayer to those who came after them, the gods of strenght and beauty, the worldfashioners, makers of the mountains and the isles, ancestors of those sovereigns whose lineage still is named "The Sun's Succession;" prayer to the Three Thousand Gods "residing within the provinces" and to the Eight Hundred Myriads who dwell in the azure Takama-no-hara,-in the blue Plain of High Heaven. " Nippon-koku-chu-yaoyorozu-no-Kami-gami-sama!"

In nearly every Izumo household there is a kamidama or "Shelf of the Gods". On thisis usually placed a small shinto shrine (miya) containing tablets bearing the names of gods (one at least of which tablet is furnisht by the neigbouring Shinto parish temple), and various ofuda, holy texts or charms, which most often are written promoses in the name of some Kami to protect his worshipper. If there be no miya, the tablets or ofuda are simply placed upon the shelf in a certain order, the most sacred having the middli placr. Very rarely are images to be seen upon a kamidama: for primitive Shintoism excluded images rigidly as Jewish or Mohammedan law; and all Shinto iconography belongs to a comparativly modern era,-especially to the period ryobu-shinto- and must be considered of Buddhist origin. If there be any images, they will probatly be such as have been made only within recent years, two small figurines of Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami and of Koto-shiro-nushi-no-Kami. Shinto kakemono, representing incidents from the Kojiki, are much more common than Shinto icon: these usually occupy the toko, or alcove, in the same room in which the Kamidama is placed; but they will not be seen in the houses of the more cultivated classes. Ordinaryly there will be found upon the kamidama nothing but the simple miya containing some ofuda: very seldom will a mirror be seen, or gohei, -exept the gohei attached to the small shimenawa either hung just above the kamidama or suspended to the box-like frame in which the miya is sometimes placed. The shimenawa and the paper gohei are the true emblems of shinto: even the ofuda and tha mamori are quite modern. Not only before the household shrine, but also above the house-door of almost every home in Izumo , the shimenawa is suspended.

I perceive that upon the sliding doors, or immediatly above the principal entrance of nearly every house , are pasted oblong white papers bearing ideographic inscriptions ; and overhanging every threshold I see the sacred emblem of Shinto, the litle rice-straw rope with its long fringe of pendent stalks. The white papers at once interest me; for they are ofuda, or holy texts and charms , of which I am a great collector. (....) But by far greater number of the ofuda are Shinto. Upon almost every door there is one ofuda likely to attract the attention of a stranger, because at the foot of the column of ideographs composing its text there are two small figures of foxes, a black and white fox, facing each other in a sitting posture, each with a little bunch of rice-straw in its mouth , insyead of the more emblematic key. These ofuda are from the great Inari temple of Oshiroyami, within the castle grounds , and are charms against fire. They represent indeed the only form of assurrance against fire in Matsue,- so far at least the wooden dwellings are concerned. And although a single spark and a high wind are sufficent in combination to obliterate a larger city in one day, great fires are unknown in Matsue and small ones are of rare occurrence. The charm is peculiar to the city; and of the Inari in question this tradition exists:- When Naomasu the grand son of Iyeyasu, first came to Matsue to rule the province, there entered into his presence a beatiful boy, who said " I came hither from the home of your august father in Echizen to protect you fro all harm. But I have no dwelling place and I an staying therefore at the Buddhist temple of Fu-mom-in. Now if you will make for me a dwelling place within the castle grounds, I will protect from fire the buildings there and the houses of the city and your residence likewise which is in the capital. For I am Inari Shinyemon." With these words he vanished from sight. Therefore Naomasu dedicated to him the great temple which still stands in the castle grounds, surrounded by one thousand foxes of stone.



One more feature of the Setsubun festival is worthy of mention,- the sale of the hitogata (peopleshapes). These are little figures, made of white paper, representing men, women and children. They are cut out with a few clever scissor strokes; and the difference of sex is indicated by varieties in the shape of the sleeves and the obi. Thy are sold in Shinto temples. The purchaser buys one for every member of the family,- the priest writing upon each the age and sex of the person for whom it is intended. These hitogataare then taken home and distributed and each person slightly rubs his or her body with the paper and says a little Shinto prayer. Next day the hitogata are returned to the kannushi, who, after having recited a certain formulae over them , burns them with holy fire. (Or left in a stream) By this ceremony it is hoped that all physical misfurtunes will be averted from the family during a year.
This is a manshape.

So men sometimes pray to Ekibiogami, the God of Pestilence and to Kaze no Kami, the God of Wind and of Bad Colds, and to Hoso no Kami, the God of Smallpox and to divers evil genii. Now when a person is certainly going to get well of smallpox a feast is given to the Hoso no Kami, much as a feast is given to the Fox god when a possessing fox has promised to allow ihimself to be cast out. Upon a sandowara, or small straw mat, such as is used to close the end of a rice-bale, one or more kawarake, or small earthenware vessels, are placed. These are filled with a preparation of rice and red beans, called adzukimeshi, whereof both Inari-Sama and Hosoke-no-kami are supposed to be very found of. Little bamboo wands with gohei (paper cuttings) fastened to them are then planted either in the mat or in the adzukimesh, and the color of these gohei must be red. ( Be it observed that the gohei of other Kami are always white.) This offering is then either suspended to a tree, or set afloat in some running stream at a considerable distance from the home of the convalescent . This is called �gseeing the God off�h



By the power of the gods sometimes s soul may be withdrawn a little while from its body, and be made to utter its most secret thought. But no suffering to the body is then caused. And the wonder is wrought in this wise:- A man loves a girl, whom he is at liberty to marry, but he doubts whether he can hope to make her love in return. He seeks the kannushi of a certain Shinto temple and tells of his doubts, and asks the gods to solve it. Then the priests demand not his name, but his age and the year and day and hour of his birth, which they write down for the gods to know, and they bid the man to return to the temple after the span of seven days. And during those seven days the priests offer prayer to the gods that the doubt maybe solved, and one of them each morning bathes all his body in cold , pure water, and each repast eats only food prepared with holy fire. And on the eighth day the man returns to the temple, and enters an inner chamber where the priests receive him. A ceremony is performed, and certain prayers are said, after which all wait in silence. And then the priest who has performed the rites of purification suddenly begins to tremble violently in all his body, like one trembling with a great fever. And this is because, by the power of the gods, the soul of the girl whose love is doubted, has entered all fearfully, into the body of that priest. She does not know, for at that time , wherever she may be, she is in a deep sleep from which nothing can arouse her. But the soul, having been summoned into the body of the priest, can speak nothing save the truth, and it is made to tell all its thought. And the priest speaks not with his own voice, but with the voice of the soul, and he speaks in the person of the soul, saying:�hI love�hor�h I hate�h according to the truth, and in the language of women. If there is hate the the reason is spoken, but if the answer be of love, there is little to say. And then the trembling of the priest stops, for the soul passes from him, and he falls forward upon his face like one dead and long so remains.

Curse A doll is made from straw, at the hour of the ox it is taken into a shrine ground, and nailed to a tree.