Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/46

 plunged in breast deep, their burden held aloft, dash back at full speed to the shrine. There refreshment, wine, fish, and a box of rice are served out, and then again, the race is resumed, the goal being the central flag (nobori) among a number set up in a large plain. To this contest the bearers of the cars devote themselves with as much zeal as though they were fighting for their lives. Hundreds run beside each car ready to replace any bearer that is thrown down or exhausted; their feet beat time to a wildly shouted chorus, and as they sweep along, apparently unconscious of everything but their goal, and wholly reckless of obstacles or collisions, it seems incredible that fatal accidents should not occur again and again. Yet no sooner is the struggle ended, than these men who, a moment before, appeared ready to trample upon each other's corpses, may be seen seated in tea-houses, chatting, laughing, circulating the wine-cup, and behaving as if such an incident as a desperate struggle for the favour of the deity had never interrupted the even tenor of their placid existences.

At other fêtes the worshippers seek to gain possession of some sacred object supposed to insure exceptional good fortune to the holder. Five hundred years ago, a merchant's apprentice walking by the seaside near Hakozaki in Chikuzen, found two perfectly spherical balls of wood which had been cast upon the shore by the waves. The shrine of the "god of war" (Hachiman) at