128 



DISCOVERY 



that being to protect the growing rice-crops from the 

 depredations of the crows, and it is its connection with 

 those birds that gives it some of its characteristic 

 features. Into all the details of the weird and signifi- 

 cant ceremonial we have not now time to enter, though 

 they aie the more striking from the fact that they are 

 carried out at the present day quite close to a railway 

 traversing the centre of the mainland of Japan. 



The principal figure of the proceedings is a member 

 of a family of farmers, in which the office of Eri-dane. 

 or " Chosen Seed," has been hereditary for many 

 generations. On July i6 (old style), at midnight, 

 in the precincts of the temple, which are illuminated 

 by huge torches of bamboo, a solemn invocation of the 



Sama, the Buddhist incarnation of the God of Crows, 

 descends and proceeds to reincarnate himself in the 

 person of the Eri-dane. This service lasts about 

 half an hour, and at its conclusion the medium, now 

 "possessed " by the spirit of the god, leaps up and 

 dashes wildly about the enclosure, supported by a 

 priest on either hand to prevent him from hurting 

 himself by falling to the ground, or by colliding with 

 the trees and walls surrounding the temple grounds. 

 These e.xercises, relieved with intervals for rest, are 

 prolonged for about an hour and a half, and the 

 whole proceedings are watched by large crowds of 

 peasantry from the surrounding countryside with 

 mingled amusement and awe. At length the wander- 



FlG. I.— THE OLD AND THE NEW SIDE BY SIDE IN JAPAN. 



The torii (sacred gateway) at the foot of Nantai-san, the holy peak above Lake Chuzenji. dear Nikko, in Central Japan. 



Note the electric light, the telephone wire, and the English translation of the notice. 



god takes place to the accompaniment of the blowing 

 of conch-shells and the shrill rattling of the shakujo — 

 the official staves of the Buddhist priests hung with 

 rings of brass. Presently the Eri-dane, who has pre- 

 viously undergone a period of rigorous ascetic training, 

 accompanied by frequent lustrations at a spring sacred 

 to the genius loci, is led in and placed before the shrine. 

 He is dressed in ceremonial garments and bound about 

 with ropes of straw to prevent injury in the subsequent 

 proceedings, and with his arms outstretched so as to 

 resemble the wings of a hopping crow, is seated on a 

 mat under a canopy of maple boughs. Fifteen young 

 men stand round him and chant the office of the Harai, 

 or service of supplication, in answer to which Fudo 



ing rushes of the Eri-dane lead him to the sacred water 

 once more, this time under the direct guidance of the 

 god, who now prompts him to apply it to his person. 

 No sooner has it touched his face than he is instantly 

 " dispossessed," and the spirit of the god now returns 

 to the gohei — the sacred wand of sakaki wood, hung 

 with strips of white paper, always found in Shinto 

 shrines — in the temple on the mountain top. As the 

 spectators depart they carry away with them frag- 

 ments of the burnt-out torches and set them up in 

 their fields as scarecrows of unique and universal 

 efficacy. . 



Sir James Frazer has kindly pointed out to me the 

 classical parallels to the foregoing in the worship of 



