Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/82

66 with notches suggestively vacant of rungs led up to a frail plank platform raised astonishingly high into the air. We had somehow assumed that the sword-walking took place on the flat, and not, as it appeared it was to be done, skyward.

When we had sufficiently recovered from our first surprise to examine this startling structure, we found it to consist of four stout poles, planted securely in the earth, and braced by cross-ties, holding two thirds way up the above-mentioned platform, upon which stood a shrine. The height of this upper story above the ground proved to be thirteen feet. Upon a secular ladder at the side some priests were giving a few finishing touches to the work.

Inclosing the scaffold stood four fronded bamboo, one at each corner of a square, connected eight feet up by a straw rope, with sixteen gohei, four on a side, pendent from it. This poetic palisade kept out the evil spirits; a bamboo railing below kept out small boys.

Upon the shrine above, which was simply a deal table, stood, dignifiedly straight, and commandingly lined in a row, three gohei