Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/264

 had ridden ten thousand miles when, at sunset, he sought shelter from Kotan, the King of Southern India. But Kotan closed the gates in the face of his uncanny visitor, and when Gozu's honeymoon was over, he slaughtered the whole tribe of the inhospitable king, and divided his body into five sacrifices, to be offered up at the five seasons (go-sekku). According to this legend, the pine decorations at the New Year symbolise Kotan's gate; the charcoal attached to the rice-straw rope indicates his funeral censer; the red and white mirror-cake means his flesh and bones; the seven-leafed congee typifies his seven locks of hair; the cake eaten on the third day of the month represents his ear and tongue; the cake eaten on the 5th of the fifth month, his hair; the vermicelli partaken of on the 7th of the seventh month, his arteries, and the chrysanthemum-saké drunk on the 9th of the ninth month, the blood of his liver. No Japanese concerns himself about this revolting tradition.  —The day is called jo-nichi, or "expulsion day."  —The formula inscribed on this paper is curiously simple: "The 4th of the fourth month is an auspicious day for killing kamisage-mushi" (larv of the meat fly).  —This game, probably more widely played than any other in Japan, depends upon the principle that certain objects, animate or inanimate, correspond to certain combinations of the fingers, and that the objects thus represented have relative values. The players clap and wave their hands in unison with some rhythmic chaunt, and mark the pauses of the rhythm by these digital combinations. There is an almost endless variety of methods, and the graceful dexterity displayed by experts is most charming.  —Sprays of the sweet flag that have thus been exposed are believed to imbibe the medicinal dew of heaven, and are consequently placed in family baths for the invigoration of bathers.  —The feet are little seen in Japanese dancing: their action is subordinate. Probably for that reason there is not a great variety of steps or a rich vocabulary of terms such as the languages of France and Scotland furnish.  —The mimetic dances of Madagascar seem to have some affinity with those of Japan, so far as concerns the 