Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/340

300 deities" means literally "two pillars." Historical Shinto has no idols; but is it not possible to trace in this expression a survival from a time when the gods of Japan were wooden posts, hewn at the top into the rude semblance of a human countenance, such as may be seen in many savage countries at the present day, and even in Corea, close to Japan, and nearly allied in race?

Much might be said of the rite of circumambulating the central pillar of the house, whether from left to right (following the sun) or in the contrary direction. That some primitive marriage ceremony is here adumbrated, there can, I think, be little doubt. The erection of a house by Izanagi and Izanami is not simply for practical reasons. It has in reality a ceremonial object. In ancient Japan it was the custom to provide a special nuptial hut, in order to avoid the ritual contamination of the dwelling-house by the consummation of a marriage within it. Child-birth and the presence of a dead body were attended with similar pollution, and special buildings were accordingly erected on these occasions also.

The reed-boat in which the leech-child was sent adrift, recalls the Accadian Sargon's ark of rushes, the casting away of the infant Moses, and other old-world stories.

Izanagi and Izanami then proceeded to procreate the various islands of Japan, the deity of trees, the deity of herbs and grasses, the Sun-Goddess, the Moon-God, the God Susa no wo, the Earth-Goddess, the Water-Goddess, the Wind-Gods, the Food-Goddess, the Fire-God, and others. In giving birth to the last-named deity, Izanami was injured so that she died. Izanagi, in his rage and grief, drew his sword and cut the new-born Fire-God into pieces, a number of other deities being generated by his doing so.

On her death, Izanami went to the land of Yomi or Hades. She was followed thither by her husband. But he was too late to bring her back, as she had already eaten of the cooking furnaces of Yomi. She forbade him to look at her, but