ians, there are fetich-worshippers. Rare is the
Japanese farmer, laborer, mechanic, ward-man, or _hei-min_ of any trade
who does not wear amulet, charm or other object which he regards with
more or less of reverence as having relation to the powers that help or
harm.[17] In most of the Buddhist temples these amulets are sold for the
benefit of the priests or of the shrine or monastery. Not a few even of
the gentry consider it best to be on the safe side and wear in pouch or
purse these protectors against evil.

Of the 7,817,570 houses in the empire, enumerated in the census of 1892,
it is probable that seven millions of them are subjects of insurance by
fetich.[18] They are guaranteed against fire, thieves, lightning, plague
and pestilence. It is because of money paid to the priests that the
wooden policies are duly nailed on the walls, and not on account of the
wise application of mathematical, financial or medical science. Examine
also the paper packages carefully tied and affixed above the transom,
decipher the writing in ink or the brand left by the hot iron on the
little slabs of pine-wood--there may be one or a score of them--and what
will you read? Names of the temples with date of issue and seal of
certificate from the priests, mottoes or titles from sacred books, often
only a Sanskrit letter or monogram, of which the priest-pedler may long
since have forgotten the meaning. To build a house, select a cemetery or
proceed to any of the ordinary events of life without making use of some
sort of material fetich, is unusual, extraordinary and is voted
heterodox.

Long after the brutish stage of thought is past the fetichistic instinct
remains in the sacredness attached to the mere letter or paper or
parchment of the sacred book or writing, when used as amulet, plaster or
medicine. The survivals, even in Buddhism, of ancient and prehistoric
Fetichism are many and often with undenied approval of the religious
authorities, especially in those sects which are themselves reversions
to primitive and lower types of religion.

Among the Ainos of Yezo and Saghalin the medicine-man or shaman is
decorated with fetichistic bric-a-brac of all sorts, and these bits of
shells, metals, and other clinking substances are believed to be media
of communication with mysterious influences and forces. In Korea
thousands of trees bedecked with fluttering rags, clinking scraps of
tin, metal or stone signify the same thing. In Japan these p