Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/99

 nut, dried persimmons, yew berries, ears of millet, white egg-fruits, gourds, and winter cherries. Over the straw floor are strewn bulrushes and leaves of the cockscomb and lespedeza; within the enclosure stand rods thrust into melons or egg-fruits which are cut into shapes of oxen or horses—spirit vehicles—and around the whole is erected a low belt of cedar leaves. The details are inviolable. Viands are, of course, provided for the use of the ghostly visitors. There are the cakes of welcome (omukae-dango) and the cakes of farewell (okuri-dango); there are rice-balls wrapped in lotus leaves; there is a humble dish called imono-zuki, which consists of potato-stems boiled and seasoned with soy, and there are fruits varying in kind and quantity according to the means of the household. Lanterns are suspended before each house, and at eventide on the 13th tiny fires of hemp are lit to greet the coming spirits, and a vessel of water is placed outside, that they may wash their feet. Again, on the night of the 16th, these feebly flickering lights shed their rays on the path of the departing visitors, and so the fête ends. The preparations are elaborate; the rites and observances of the simplest. It might be supposed that since the aerial visitors are regarded as guardians and assistants of their kinsfolk on earth, this, their one annual visit, would be converted into an occasion for propitiating their favour and enlisting their aid. But hospitality does not suggest that a guest should be impor-