“Soon afterwards we started for the inner temple, Naiku. Here is kept the original sacred mirror, which is the most precious emblem of the Shinto faith, and which, with the sacred sword and ball, is also the authenticating memorial of the imperial dynasty. So all Japan has regarded it for 2,500 years, even down to 1868, and so most of the people regard it still. This temple came to be built in the following manner: The sacred emblems of the national religion had, up to the time of the great Mikado Sujin, been kept in the imperial palace or temple; but he, as some say to increase their safety, and as others allege because he viewed a rebellion which broke out as a mark of divine disapprobation of their remaining in his custody, gave them into the charge of his daughter, in a temple dedicated to them. They were subsequently removed and carried from place to place, but at length, in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Suinin Tenno, and therefore in the year 3 B.C., it was resolved to fix the mirror at the village of Uji on the River Suzugawa, and there and then the present temple was built. The old building does not exist. On the contrary, a new temple is erected every twenty years, but each new temple is an exact repetition of the original, and therefore the present one is a perfect representation of the architecture of Japan at the time of Christ. The principal deity here worshiped is Amaterasu, the sun-goddess herself. “The gate-way was open, and hung, like that of the other temple, with a long white curtain, and beyond were seen another _torii_ and other gate-ways, but nothing could be seen of the temple itself, and as little, of course, of the heaven-wrought mirror within. As we stood, however, the pilgrims continued to come, of both sexes and all ages, and casting upon the ground a few coins, some wrapped in paper, stooping, clapping their hands, and uttering a few words of prayer, thus attained and completed the object for which their journeyings had been undertaken. I asked if this was all they saw and did, and was told that it was. I inquired if they attended no religious service, saw no dances, heard no music, received no advice; and found that as a rule they did not. Was no blessing pronounced, no simple memorial of some kind presented to them? Nothing; but they all bought little mementos of the place at the stall in the grounds or at the shops in the village. What was it they said during the minute or two that they stooped before the shrine? They no doubt asked for whatever they wanted in particular, and generally for long life, and the means of life and happiness in the years to come.