-into which the economical devotee takes care to
exchange a few sen. We climbed to the shrine when twilight was coming
on. At the point where the series of street steps ended there began a
new series of about a thousand steps belonging to the shrine. A
thousand granite steps may be tiring after a hot day's travel in a
_kuruma_. All the way up to the shrine there were granite pillars
almost brand new, first short ones, then taller, then taller still,
and after these a few which topped the tallest. They were
conspicuously inscribed with the names of donors to the shrine. A
small pillar was priced at 10 yen. What the big, bigger and biggest
cost I do not know. I turned from the pillars to the stone lanterns.
"They burn cedar wood, I believe," said my companion. But soon
afterwards I saw a man working at them with a length of electric-light
wire.

The great shrine was impressive in the twilight. There was a platform
near, and from it we looked down from the tree-covered heights through
the growing darkness. Where the lights of the town twinkled there was
a subsidiary shrine. A bare-headed, kimono-clad sailor stepped forward
near us and bowed his head to some semblance of deity down there.
Various fishermen had brought the anchors of their ships and the oars
of their boats to show forth their thankfulness for safety at sea. In
the murkiness I was just able to pick out the outlines of a bronze
horse which stands at the shrine, "as a sort of scape-goat," my
companion explained. "It is probably Buddhist," he said; "but you can
never be sure; these priests embellish the history of their temples
so."

It was at the inn in the evening that someone told me that in the town
which is dependent on the shrine there were "a hundred prostitutes,
thirty geisha and some waitresses." Late at night I had a visit from a
man in a position of great responsibility in the prefecture. He was at
a loss to know what could be done for morality. "Religion is not
powerful," he said, "the schools do not reach grown-up people, the
young men's societies are weak, many sects and new moralities are
attacking our people, and there are many cheap books of a low class."

Next day I laid this view before a group of landlords. They did not
reply for a little and my skilful interpreter said, "they are thinking
deeply." At length one of them delivered himself to this effect:
"Landowners hereabouts are mostly of a base sort. They always consider
things from a m