Page:Shinto, the Way of the Gods - Aston - 1905.djvu/378

368 should make their hearts like unto Heaven-and-Earth. Wearisome ceremonies and repetitions (of some Buddhist sects) should be abandoned, and reverence shown to the Gods of the ancestral shrines.

The Mikado Gotoba no In received the following inspiration in a dream from the two shrines of Ise:—

''In the last days the world will be disturbed and all men troubled. The sovereign house will show respect for the military house, and local governors will make friends with wearisome fellows (Buddhist monks). Buddhist priests will take to them, wives, eat flesh, and propagate base doctrines. The land of Ashihara of the fair rice-ears is the rightful property of my descendants.''

An oracle of Hachiman:—

''I refuse the offerings of the impure of heart. Some Gods are great, some small, some good and others bad. My name is Dai jizai wō bosatsu. ''

An inspired poem (A.D. 1204):—

Loving-kindness is of the Buddhas: Uprightness of the Kami: Error of the sons of men. Thus of the same heart there is a triple division.

The Gods of Kamo promise their divine help and the fulfilment of their prayers to their worshippers, especially those who regularly visit the shrine.

Oracle of the Gods of Kasuga:—

''Even though men prepare for us a pure abode and offer there the rare things of the land, though they hang up offerings of the seven precious things, and with anxious hearts pray to us for hundreds of days, yet will we refuse to enter the house of the depraved and miserly. But we will''