defilement, tenderness
and compassion temper the feeling of disgust, and prevail over it.
Horror of uncleanliness was so great that the priests bathed and put on
clean garments before making the sacred offerings or chanting the
liturgies, and were accustomed to bind a slip of paper over their mouths
lest their breath should pollute the offering. Numerous were the special
festivals, observed simply for purification. Salt also was commonly used
to sprinkle over the ground, and those who attended a funeral must free
themselves from contamination by the use of salt.[28] Purification by
water was habitual and in varied forms. The ancient emperors and priests
actually performed the ablution of the people or made public lustration
in their behalf.

Afterwards, and probably because population increased and towns sprang
up, we find it was customary at the festivals of purification to perform
public ablution, vicariously, as it were, by means of paper mannikins
instead of making applications of water to the human cuticle. Twice a
year paper figures representing the people were thrown into the river,
the typical meaning of which was that the nation was thereby cleansed
from the sins, that is, the defilements, of the previous half-year.
Still later, the Mikado made the chief minister of religion at Ki[=o]to
his deputy to perform the symbolical act for the people of the whole
country.

Prayers to Myriads of Gods.

In prayer, the worshipper, approaching the temple but not entering it,
pulls a rope usually made of white material and attached to a
peculiar-shaped bell hung over the shrine, calling the attention of the
deity to his devotions. Having washed his hands and rinsed out his
mouth, he places his hands reverently together and offers his petition.

Concerning the method and words of prayer, Hirata, a famous exponent of
Shint[=o], thus writes:

As the number of the gods who possess different functions is so
great, it will be convenient to worship by name only the most
important and to include the rest in a general petition. Those
whose daily affairs are so multitudinous that they have not time
to go through the whole of the following morning prayers, may
content themselves with adoring the residence of the emperor,
the domestic kami-dana, the spirits of their ancestors, their
local patron god and the deity of their particular calling in
life.

In praying to the gods the blessin