“There are secondary deities worshiped there, the chief of whom is the adopted grandson of the sun-goddess and the great-grandfather of the first Mikado, Jimmu Tenno, who commenced his reign in the Japanese year 1. According to the legend, the goddess wished to send her adopted son, Oshi-ho-mimi-no-mikoto, down upon earth to subdue it, but he put forth his own son instead as leader of the expedition. The goddess then presented Ninigi-no-mikoto with various treasures, the most important among which--and here we touch upon the central sacredness alike of the race of Mikados and of the symbols of the Shinto faith--were the mirror, sword and stone, or ball (afterwards the regalia of the Japanese sovereigns). She also attached to his person the other two inferior gods of Geku. With reference to the mirror, she said, ‘Look upon this mirror as my spirit; keep it in the same house and on the same floor with yourself, and worship it as if you were worshiping my actual presence.’ “Passing under another _torii_ of plain, unpainted timber, like all the _torii_ of the Isé shrines, we came to the outer gate of the temple proper, to which alone of three successive gates we and the other pilgrims were allowed to approach. With certain extremely rare exceptions, extending only to the Mikado and commissioners of his, none but priests are allowed to pass this first gate. It was an open gate, however, with a simple white curtain or cloth thrown across it, blowing about as the wind listed. Through this open gate, or past the sides of it, if you preferred to stand there, you could see the next gate, and beyond that again was a third, and then came the temple proper, which could not be seen. This was all! The buildings, as far as seen, were all of the plainest possible kind, not unlike substantial, well-thatched farm-buildings at home. The mirror at this outer temple was not the original mirror, and the priest did not for a moment lead us to suppose that it was. There was, in fact, no pretence of any kind about the place. The ancient buildings and the plain white curtain were left to produce that which is perhaps the deepest and most lasting of all impressions made by religious externals, namely, that of combined simplicity and antiquity. Of this outer temple I need only add, that it is in every respect a sequel and appendage to the inner and more ancient temple, having been built by the desire of the goddess of the older Isé temple, who wished to have the deity Toyouké near her. This, the outer and later temple, dates from the reign of the twenty-second Mikado of the present reigning dynasty, Yuriaku, in the year 479 A.D. [Illustration: INTERIOR OF A SHINTO TEMPLE, SHOWING THE ARRANGEMENTS FOR WORSHIP.]