Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/148

132 after prayer is intoned, and uta or songs chanted in like cadence between. Shakings of the shakujō, a small crosier with metal rings, emphasize the rhythm, and the pilgrim bells rung at intervals point the swift processional chorus of the whole.

The pyre is then lighted, and as the flames leap into the air, prayers ascend with them to Fudō-sama. Meanwhile, pieces of paper with characters inscribed on them are rapidly passed to and fro through the flame by the maeza an unlimited number of times; yet do they not burn, an immunity due to possession by the gods. Then he holds each for a moment stationary in the flame, upon which it catches fire and is caught upward by the air current, to float away, the shriveled shape of its former self. The paper is in effigy of the disease, and, according as it ascends or fails to do so, will the disease itself depart or stay. Some exorcists, with more wisdom, perhaps, say that the manner of its ascension only is significant. But mark how pitying are the gods. For since the flame makes its own draft, that must indeed be an unlucky wraith of tissue ash that fails of being well caught up with it to heaven.