Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/168

152 now took post for the possession, seating themselves in the prescribed places, facing the gohei; the maeza directly in front of it, the "four heavens" (shiten) at the cardinal points on the side, and the clerk and the deputy maeza flanking the maeza to the left and right.

After a short incantation the maeza removed the wand and gave it to the tōhō, the "eastern heaven," who held it ready in his hand. The nakaza came forward and solemnly seated himself where the gohei had been, facing from the altar. Folding his legs under him, he drew his robe carefully round them, and tied the ends of it together as one would a bundle-handkerchief. The result gave him the look of certain rubber toys of one's extreme childhood, that began as a man and ended in a bulb. After he had thus arranged himself the others did the same.

For such is the conventional Ryōbu-Shintō attitude during possession. Whether this by no means easy pose is modeled after that of the contemplative Buddha, or is merely the exalted seat of old Japan, is doubtful. The two differ in certain technical details of the