I have more than once seen such trees and straw
images upon them, and have observed others in which the large number of
rusted nails and fragments of straw showed how tenaciously the
superstition lingered.[23]
In instances more pleasant to witness, may be seen trees festooned with
the symbolical rice-straw in cords and fringes. With these the people
honor the trees as the abode of the kami, or as evidence of their faith
in the renown accredited in the past.
In common with most human beings the Japanese consider the serpent an
object of mystery and awe, but most of them go further and pay the
ophidian a reverence and awe which is worship. Their oldest literature
shows how large a part the serpent played in the so-called divine age,
how it acted as progenitress of the Mikado's ancestry, and how it
afforded means of incarnation for the kami or gods. Ten species of
ophidia are known in the Japanese islands, but in the larger number of
more or less imaginary varieties which figure in the ancient books we
shall find plenty of material for fetich-worship. In perusing the
"Kojiki" one scarcely knows, when he begins a story, whether the
character which to all appearance is a man or woman is to end as a
snake, or whether the mother after delivering her child will or will not
glide into the marsh or slide away into the sea, leaving behind a trail
of slime.
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