Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/43

 trary, it is distinguished as the "moon of the gods' presence" (Kami-ari-zuki) by the inhabitants of Izumo. The legend has lost much of its old force, but it still commands the venerable faith of conservative rustics, and many a farmer in Izumo carefully locks the door of his dwelling at sunset and refrains from venturing abroad before dawn during the period of the deities' assembly at Ise. It happened that when this divine parliament was first convened, one ill-starred deity, Miawa Daimyojin, mistook the date or otherwise mismanaged affairs so that the debate had terminated before he reached Ise. The laughing festival is intended to commemorate that accident. Instead of sympathising with the belated god, the people assemble to laugh at him, as the other deities are supposed to have laughed when he presented himself to take part in a finished discussion. The fashion of the festival is as quaint as its conception. All the oldest men in the district and all the children come together and form a procession for marching to the shrine. The elders head the array, carrying two boxes of fixed capacity, filled with persimmons and oranges spitted on bamboo rods. The children follow, grouped round a go-hei and holding in their hands oranges and persimmons similarly spitted. These preliminaries as well as the progress to the shrine are conducted with the utmost solemnity. Arrived at the shrine, the grayest among the elders turns about to face the little ones and orders them to laugh. There is