Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/109

Rh The priest who performed the miracle began by douching himself in the bathroom, from which, between the plumps of water, issued uncouth sounds, sputterings of formulæ and grunts as he finger-twisted. He emerged with nothing on but a blue pocket-handkerchief for loin-cloth, the small blue and white rag with which the Japanese dab themselves in lieu of towel. In this attire he sallied forth into the garden, and selecting the side of a hill as a propitious spot, squatted in the ordinary Japanese posture on its slope.

Cradling the pipe between his hands, he prayed over it exhaustively. Then he put it, tilted toward the sun, in front of him, and exorcised it very energetically by finger-charms, one of which strikingly resembled an imaginary burning-glass. There was, however, nothing between his fingers but air. He had spent fifteen minutes thus in digital contortions, when he suddenly stopped, distressed, and, complaining that the ants tickled him by promenading over his bare skin, said he thought he would go upon the roof. So a ladder was brought and tilted against the eaves, and up it he mounted to the tiles, and