40 THE INLAND SEA REVISITED. 



largest temple facing you. In a shady grove on the 

 right is a large block of stone, resorted to by married 

 women for the same reason as that vi^hich drew the 

 Athenian ladies to the marble slab on Mars' Hill. To 

 obtain the efficacious help of the Japanese precious 

 stone, a short prayer is addressed to the figure on its 

 surface. An elderly lady, when I was there, toddled 

 up, flung her small coin into the box placed beside the 

 stone — this money oblation goes to the priest, — and 

 went through the usual ceremony. Leaving Kamakura, 

 I passed through Dyboots, where the great bronze 

 figure of Buddha, fifty-three feet high, rests on his 

 haunches. It is made in seven castings, and, being 

 hoUow, the inside of the figure is used as a temple. 

 So much, however, has already been written about this 

 huge bronze figure, I need not stop to describe it. Ten 

 miles from this we came out on the sandy beach of 

 the gulf. In a village opposite Enosima, — an island 

 sacred to Buddha, — I put up for the night. Selecting 

 a clean inviting-looking tea-house, I was at once taken 

 in charge of by two pretty damsels, whose first care 

 was to remove my boots and bathe my tired feet in 

 warm water. I was almost boiled later in the evening 

 when plunging too hastily into the great wooden 

 bath ; and if not for the timely assistance of the two 



