Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/66

 and the saw when heads were taken off with that instrument; and they executed all the sentences pronounced against Christians. In battle the Hinin were placed in charge of the heads taken from the enemy, and at the last great fight which finally established the Tokugawa sway, the Danzayemon of the time received a gold seal with the significant inscription, "gatherer," in token of the numerous trophies thus entrusted to him. Beside this seal there lies among the heirlooms of the Danzayemon family an autograph copy of the Lotus Scripture, which, when the celebrated Buddhist priest, Nichiren, was led out for execution, he gave to one of the Hinin who commiserated his fate. Had there been in any age a literary Danzayemon, he might have enriched his country with some invaluable memoirs.

The Eta seem to have occasionally enlisted for services connected with criminals, but their general occupation was the tanning of hides and the preserving of skins. It need scarcely be said that men who cremated the bodies of the dead were classed among the Hinin, as also were the guardians of tombs. The pollution of all these is easily understood, but that a similar stigma should attach to plasterers, and makers of writing-brushes and ink, was due to a less evident cause, namely, that their trade obliged them to handle the hair and bones of animals.

The category of degraded persons was largely extended by the inclusion of all who resorted to