Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/209

Rh apparently it does. For though vacuity alone is left to be filled by deity, the form of that vacuity reappears in the god. The mould is still there to shape the new tenant after all that was moulded in it has crumbled away.

So closes my presentation of the phenomena of this strange possession-cult. Before passing on to interpret the noumena behind them, there remains to be given some account of a custom intimately associated with them, the pilgrim clubs. After that properly comes the proof of their essentially Japanese character. But I cannot take my leave of the phenomena themselves without hoping there may linger with the reader some impression, however faint, of the simple beauty of the Shintō faith. For in an emotional sense it is the very essence of what makes far-eastern life so fine. Mere outline of a faith as Shintō at first sight seems to be, on closer study it proves to be something little less than grand in its very simplicity. Truly it needs no formal priesthood, no elaborate service, no costly shrine, for it has as visibly about it something better than all these—its very