Shinto

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. (#Page_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. (#Page_115)

303

See above, p. 106. (#Page_106)

304

See p. 292. (#Page_292)

305

Nihongi, ii. 82.

306

See above, p. 294. (#Page_206)

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. (#Page_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.