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The first feature of Japanese life that prominently presents itself to the notice of the stranger, is the number of festivals and holidays held in honour of the various deities, warriors, and sages, or in accordance with some ancient custom of the county, which is as paramount an authority as the most stringent of its laws.
Whatever things exist in the world of men, whatever things occur in the region of the deities, can all be achieved and acquired with the aid of penances and knowledge and the observance of vows and restraints. I have thus recited to thee, O sinless one, the verses that were sung by Brahma himself.
He should be truthful in speech, and free from pride or arrogance. He should adore the deities in sacrifices, attend with devotion to the study and recitation of the Vedas, and become pure in body and mind. He should keep his senses under subjection, honour the Brahmanas, and seek the welfare of all the orders.
Divine authority alone fulfils that definition, and it is because the throne of Japan had a superhuman foundation that its existence is perennial. Therefore the Jingi-kwan stands above all others in the State." On the day of the coronation the Nakatomi performs service to the deities of heaven and the Imibe makes offerings of three kinds of sacred articles."
Soames, barely understanding this discourse, listened eagerly to every word of it, whilst Gianapolis, waxing eloquent upon his strange thesis, seemed to be addressing, not his solitary auditor, but an invisible concourse. "In common with the lesser deities," he continued, "our Lady of the Poppies is exacting.
Accept their coldness as an omen of grace with the loftier deities, and allow them all their privilege. They are clear in their office, nor could they be thus formidable, without their own merits. But do not measure the importance of this class by their pretension, or imagine that a fop can be the dispenser of honor and shame.
Thus, whatever defects are associated with the principal deities, these are all natural and consistent with the characters they represent, or the duties and business in which they engage. Drunkenness is not associated with Zeus, or unchastity with Hera or Athene. The poets make each deity consistent with himself, and in harmony with the interests he represents.
Let that sacrifice ceaselessly flow from thee as thou givest away. Performed in view of such men, O Yudhishthira, a sacrifice in which the water that is sprinkled for dedicating gifts constitutes the oblations in honour of the Pitris, and devotion and worship rendered unto such superior men, serves to free one of the debts one owes to the deities.
It was thus that the bodies of their fathers, buried at the entrance of the house, consecrated the vestibule to their memory, and gave birth to a host of local deities, who were supposed to hold that part of the dwelling under their peculiar protection. Removed from the dwelling-houses to the highways, the tombs of the departed were still viewed as objects of the highest veneration."
Sprinkling them with sandal-paste, such agreeable flowers should be duly offered according to the ordinances of the scriptures. The deities become gratified with the scent of flowers; the Yakshas and Rakshasas with their sight, the Nagas with their touch; and human beings with all three, viz., scent, sight, and touch. Flowers, when offered to the deities gratify them immediately.
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