Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/220

202 ticket (kansatsu) with the name of the club and of the sub-sect to which it belongs inscribed on its face, and the name of the member and half the stamp of the club seal on its back. The other half remains in the registry books, of which the ticket is a slip. The ticket constitutes a certificate of membership to all whom it may concern, innkeepers principally.

Forgetfulness to discharge one's club dues is the less excusable in the face of their being of the nature of gambling debts. For after the cost of collection and the other running expenses have been deducted, the remainder is raffled for by the members, and pocketed by the lucky winners through the club treasurer, for pilgrimage purposes.

Once a year, about three weeks before the pilgrim band is to start, the lots are drawn, and in the drawing everybody who has paid up participates except the winners of previous pools. They are barred, to give the unlucky a chance, till each shall have had his journey apiece. Thus are the inequalities of fate corrected and all eventually made happy at the club expense.

The dues being so modest, the percentage