in about the road that runs up from the plains below, a
great stone, on which is deeply carved "To the God of the Mountains,"
calls the attention of the traveler to the fact that the supernatural is
a recognized power among the mountaineers. In such regions one finds
the stated offerings at the shrines which stand near the wayside kept
constantly renewed. Nearly every house is protected by some slip of
paper pasted above the door, a charm obtained by toilsome pilgrimage to
some noted temple. Behind or near the village temple one may see rude
wigwams of straw, each sheltering a _gohei_,[45]--witnesses to the vows
of devotees who hope, sooner or later, to erect small wooden shrines and
so win favor from the unknown rulers of human destinies. In places where
pack-horses form a large part of the wealth of the people, stones to the
horses' spirits are erected, and the halters of all the horses that die
are left upon these stones. Prayers, too, are offered to the guardian
spirits of the living horses, before stones on which are carved
sometimes the image of a horse bearing a _gohei_ on his back, sometimes
a rough figure of the horse-headed Kwannon. To such stones or shrines
are brought horses suffering from sickness of any kind, and the hand is
rubbed first on the stone and then on the part of the animal supposed to
be affected. In one district, when a horse epidemic broke out, its rapid
spread was attributed by the authorities to this custom, and all persons
were warned of the danger, with what effect in breaking up the ancient
habit the newspaper reports failed to say. It is in such regions as this
that the _oni_ and the _tengu_[46] still live in the every-day thought
of the people; it is here, too, that the old custom of offering flowers
and fruit to the spirits of the dead at the midsummer festival is most
conscientiously kept up. All possible spirits are included in these
offerings, so that even by the roadside one finds bunches of flowers set
up in the clefts of the rock, to the spirits of travelers who have died
on the way.

[45] _Gohei_, a piece of white paper, cut and folded in a peculiar
manner, one of the sacred symbols of the Shint[=o] faith.

[46] _Tengu_, a winged, long-nosed or beak-mouthed monster, supposed to
inhabit the mountain regions of Japan. It was from a _tengu_ that
Yoshitsune, one of the greatest of Japanese heroes, learned to fence,
and so became a swordsman of almost miraculous expertness. _Oni_, a