A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

2^6 Japanese Miscellany
ing July day — not a speck of cloud visible ; and
the coarse shingle of the slope, under the blaze of
sun, was radiating heat like slag just raked from
a furnace. But those fisher-folk, tanned to all
tints of bronze, did not mind the sun : they sat
on the scorching stones, and waited. The sea
was at ebb, and gentle, — moving in slow, long,
lazy ripples.
Upon the beach there had been erected a kind
of rude altar, about four feet high ; and on this
had been placed an immense ihai, or mortuary
tablet, of unpainted wood, — the back of the tab-
let being turned to the sea. The ihai bore, in
large Chinese characters, the inscription, Sangai-
Ban-Rei-I, — signifying, " Resting-place [or, seat]
of the myriad [innumerable] spirits of the Three
States of Existence." Various food -offerings had
been set before this tablet, — including a bowl of
cooked rice ; rice-cakes ; eggplants ; pears ; and,
piled upon a fresh lotos leaf, a quantity of what
is called hyahu-mi-no-onjiki. It is really a mix-
ture of rice and sliced eggplant, though the name
implies one hundred different kinds of nourish-
ment. In the bowl of boiled rice tiny sticks were
fixed, with cuttings of colored paper attached to