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.
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