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44 HONDA THE SAMURAI.
and earth were populous with creatures that no man
ever saw, but which in dreams thrive and increase.
Whenever the one true God is absent, many false
imitations spring up. Take away the idea that
unifies creation, and the fragments multiply.
Let us walk out into the country and hear the
farmer-folk tell some of the local wonders. On
every hill we see some temple to the Buddha some
;
shrine of Inari, the rice-god, whose servant is the
fox; some roofed structure under which are rows
of stone statues of Kuanon, the goddess of mercy ;
of Jizo, the children's protector ; of Kompira, the
revenger of wrong ; of Daikoku or Ebisu, the gods
of daily food, and a crowd of other local deities of
all sorts and grades. Some of the shrines are pretty ;
many have fresh flowers before them at
;
others are
grated boxes for the collection of coins. Here is a
thick jungle, a canebrake of gods. They thrive like
weeds, and connected with nearly every one is a
story, a legend, a fairy tale. Let us hear a few of
the folk-tales that are devoutly believed.
Here is a marshy pond near a temple, and every
year a light arises from it and passes into the temple.
Long, long ago
it was said a childless wife was driven
crazy by her husband's unkindness. When Tenshin,
a Buddhist saint, passed by she begged him to heal
and save her. He bade her to believe what he told
her, and she did so and died happily, and the annual
light rising out of the marsh is a token of her
gratitude.
In another hamlet we see a rich mass of lotus