Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1891-02-05
RELIGION OF JAPANESE wo-


A Complicated cat, Which Confuses
Even the Priests.
The religion OF the Japanese women
must appear very complicated and con-
fused to their little giddy brains, when
even the most learned priests of the
country lose themselves in their. cos
mogonies, their symbols, their metamor-
phoses of gods in that millenary chaos
upon which the Buddhism of India has
80 strangely foisted itself without de-
stroying anything. Their most serious
cult seems to be that of their defunct
ancestors. These shades or familiar
gods possess in each household per-
fumed altar, before which the living
pray long at morning and night, with
out, however, believing absolutely in
in the immortality of the scul, and in
the persistence of the ego as under
stood by our Occidental religions.
10 the religious contradictions which
battle us must be added susperstitions
as old as the world, the strangest or the
gloomiest, and fearful to listen to at night.
Beings half gods and half ghosts haunt
the black darkness; at crossways in the
woods stand ancient idols gifted with
singular powers; there are miraculous
stones in the depths of forests. And to
have an approximate idea of these
women. with small oblique eyes, one
must reduce to chaos all that have
just said, then try to transpose it into
giddy brains that laughter prevents
most OF the time from thinking, and that
seem at moments to have the needless
ness of the brains of birds.
Withal, they are assiduous in their
attendance at all the pilgrimages, which
are constant, at all the ceremonies and
festivals in the temples. During the
fair season they come in smiling troops
two or three times month, from all
corners of the country to pagodas deli
ciously situated in the country, covering
the little roads, the little bridges, with
the incessant passing of their marine
blue dresses, and with the wide shells
of their black head-dresses.
In big cities, on almost every summer
evening, there is pilgrimage to some
sanctuary or other-sometimes in honor
OF god SO ancient that nobody re-
members exactly his role in the world
After business of all kinds, with its bar
gains and barters, has been suspended,
"t'oh oho nhuuieluUIe pelty traleS nave
stopped their monotonous noise, when
the myriads of little houses and shops
begin to put up their light shutter, the
women dress themselves, ornament their
hair with their most extravagant pins,
and set out, holding at the end of fexi-
BILE sticks great painted lanterns. The
streets are filled to overfowing with
their little persons, ladies or mousmis,
walking slowly in sandals and exchang-
ing charming courtesies. With an i'm
mense msrmur of futtering fans, of
rustling silks and of laughing chatter,
ut dusk, by the light of the moon, or
beneath the starry night, they ascend
to the pagoda, where gigantic gods with
horrible masks await them, half hidden
behind bars of gold, in the Incredible
magnificence of the sanctuaries. They
throw pieces of money to the priests,
they pray prostrated and clapping their
hands with sharp blows, clack, clack as
though their fingers were of wood. But
most of the time they are chattering,
turning around, thinking of something
else, attempting to escape by laughter
from the fear of the supernatural
Pierre Lott. IN HarDers Maoazine