120 Japan and the Japanese, 
The god or goddess of a Thousand Hands is exten- 
sively worshipped in Japan. This idol was also at one time 
largely worshipped in India, sometimes as a man, some- 
times as a woman, but always with the enormous number 
of one thousand arms and hands, three eyes, a necklace of 
skulls, and a rosary of finger bones. It will be seen, there- 
fore, that, amid all the multiplicity of sects in Buddhism, 
and in spite of the refinement and partial elevation and 
purity of some of its adherents, the masses of the people 
were buried in deepest, darkest heathenism. Their faiths 
were systems of idolatry, and, as such, blindly followed. 
In 1549, Roman Catholicism was introduced by Francis 
Xavier, and his Jesuits. They obtained a footing in the 
country, and made many thousands of converts. In 1587, 
however, a great persecution broke out against the Roman 
Catholic Christians, and within three years, over 20,000 
were put to death. Forty years later, another great persecu- 
tion broke out, 37,000 Roman Catholics were put to death, 
and the number of converts reduced from 2,000,000 to 
12,000. Still the Jesuits sent fresh missionaries to Japan, 
and braved the anger of the Japanese rulers, who declared 
that, " should the very God of the Christians come, they 
would behead Him." In that persecution, about the year 
1640, was instituted the national festival of Trampling 
upon the Cross," to show the hatred which existed against 
the Cross of Christ. This festival has only very recently 
been abolished, out of deference possibly to the Christian 
nations with whom Japan has relationships. On account of 
this hatred to Christianity, a law was made in 1837, that, 
"So long as the sun shall shine, no foreigner shall touch the 
soil of Japan and live ; that no native shall leave the coun- 
try under pain of death ; that all Japanese who return from 
abroad shall die ; that all persons who propagate the Chris- 
