Page:Shinto, the Way of the Gods - Aston - 1905.djvu/223

Rh numerous indications that animal sacrifices were very common in the most ancient times. In the Yengishiki period offerings of four-footed animals or their flesh were confined to four services, namely, that of the Food-Goddess, of the Wind-Gods, of the Road-Gods, and that for driving away maleficent deities.

There is no evidence in the older Shinto records of the use of incense or of burnt-offerings, nor is any special importance attached to the blood of slaughtered animals.

White being considered an auspicious colour, white animals were frequently selected for sacrifice.

At the present time the daily offerings made to the Sun- Goddess and the Food-Goddess at Ise consist of four cups of sake, sixteen saucers of rice and four of salt, besides fish, birds, fruits, seaweed, and vegetables. The annual offerings at the tomb of the first Mikado, Jimmu, are products of mountain, river, and sea, including tahi (a fish), carp, edible sea-weed, salt, water, sake, mochi (rice-cake), fern-flour, pheasants, and wild ducks.

Clothing.—The clothing of the ancient Japanese consisted of hemp, yuju (a fibre made of the inner bark of the paper mulberry), and silk. All these materials are represented in the Shinto offerings enumerated in the Yengishiki. Silk, however, was at this time still somewhat of a novelty, and, therefore, religion being conservative, it takes a less conspicuous place. But hemp and bark-fibre, with the textiles woven from them, are very common offerings. They were more convenient than perishable articles of food for sending to shrines at a distance from the capital, and as cloth was the currency of the day, it was a convenient substitute for unprocurable or objectionable articles. In the Yengishiki so many ounces of fibre or so many pieces of cloth are prescribed, but at a later period a more specialized and conventional form, called oho-nusa (great-offering), came into use. The oho-nusa (p. 214) consists of two wands placed side by side, from the ends of which depend a quantity of