Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/224

 ploited by dishonest priests. On the other hand, the superstitious fancy must have existed or it could not have been played upon. There is little hope, apparently, of ascertaining the details of a custom which probably ceased to be practised before the first records of popular life were compiled. What adds to the perplexity of the whole tradition is that the monster at whose shrine these sacrifices (hitomi-goku, literally, offerings of a human body) are said to have been made, is spoken of by some writers as an animal in the service of Shakamuni. The responsibility of the barbarous rite would therefore rest with Buddhism. But the sanctity of life has always been a fundamental tenet of the Buddhist religion. Thus the tradition becomes altogether vague and untrustworthy as to its details. Nothing can be accepted as certain except the fact that human sacrifices were made to propitiate the deity of wild beasts, and that human beasts subsequently turned the superstition to their own villanous uses.

Another form of human sacrifice believed to have been common in early ages and said to have been witnessed by men of the present generation, was called iki-uzume, or burying alive. The prevalent idea about this custom is that, at the inception of some great work, such as the building of a bridge or the erection of a castle, a human being was buried alive near the foundations to secure stability. But facts and fancies