Page:Shinto, the Way of the Gods - Aston - 1905.djvu/222

212 are made by way of reward for their services or in bargain for future blessings. . Some are expiatory, and are made with the object of absolving the worshipper from ritual impurity. These are called aga-mono, or "ransom things."

Offerings were frequently duplicated, no doubt in order that one set at least of the things offered should be free from chance pollution.

Offerings were sometimes personified, and even deified, as in the Jimmu legend, where the food-offering is styled Idzu-uka no me, sacred-food-female. Most of the shintai were originally nothing more than offerings.

Shinto offerings are of the most varied description. The Gods being conceived of as beings animated by human sentiments, it is inferred that anything which would give pleasure to men is suitable for offering to a God.

Food and Drink.—The primary and most important form of offering is food and drink. The Jimmu legend, a very ancient document, speaks of none but food-offerings. The word nihe, an element in the names of some of the great festivals, means food-offerings. The central feature of the most solemn rite of Shinto, namely, the oho-nihe, was the offering of rice and sake to the Gods by the Mikado on his accession to the throne. The norito add clothing, and the Yengishiki a great variety of other articles. There are several instances in history of the substitution of cloth for an older food-offering. Under food are included rice, in ear and in grain, hulled and in husk, rice cakes, fruit, sea-ear, shell-fish, vegetables, edible seaweed, salt, sake, water, deer, pigs, hare, wild boar, and birds of various kinds. In 642 horses and cattle were sacrificed in order to produce rain. But even at this early period such sacrifices were condemned. They were no doubt a revival in a case of national emergency of a practice which under Buddhist influence had become more or less obsolete. There are