PAST AND PKESENT. 221 



different-coloured paper lanterns ; rice and fruit are at 



the same time placed by the graves, and after dark, or 



rather after the sun has set, thousands of people, all in 



their holiday clothes, visit the resting-places of their 



departed friends and relatives. At midnight little 



straw-made junks, after their own models, are sent out 



on the water. Each junk has a lighted lantern placed 



within her straw sides, also a little rice and fruit, tea or 



saki. The meaning of this latter part of the ceremony 



is, that the spirits of those lost at sea are now supposed 



to return to the surface. Their friends despatch a little 



offering in case the spirit should feel hungry, and 



become unsettled in its wateiy abode. When the 



lanterns are all lighted, ranging over the hills, as they 



do at Nagasaki, in hundreds of thousands, the effect is 



exceedingly pretty ; and those in the junks, looking 



like hundreds of great fire-flies crossing the water, 



dancing about over the tiny waves, have a quaint, 



weird appearance; the whole scene filling the mind 



with strange reflections on the various views taken by 



different races throughout all ages with respect to the 



spirits of the departed, all of which, however, show a 



belief in a future state of some kind. 



The Shinto sects burn their dead. At some places 

 they have buildings erected for the purpose, with 



