Page:Shinto, the Way of the Gods - Aston - 1905.djvu/274

264 birth of the child, and are worn up to the age of three. It is thought that evil spirits are diverted into these images from the infant. It is an obvious degradation of these practices when they are used merely to procure good luck instead of to remove impurities offensive to the Gods.

Chi no wa (Reed-ring).—In a modern form of the harahi ceremony there is a kind of purification which consists in passing three times through a large ring made of reeds (pp. 266, 267), holding in the hands hemp leaves and reeds, and repeating the verse:—

Or, according to another version:—

The Shinto Miōmoku(1699) says that this ring represents the round of the universe. The same work adds that the object of the ceremony is to avert the dangers connected with the change of summer influences to those of autumn. But these explanations have a tincture of Chinese philosophy. The purification of the heart from evil thoughts is also a conception foreign to the older Shinto. The injunction to cleanse the inside of the cup and the platter belongs to a later stage of religious development.

The chi no wa is subsequently flung into the water.

Another means of purification was to shake a gohei over the person or thing to be purified.