“Our companions, the priests, suggested that we ought to see one of the ceremonial dances of the temple, and to this we gladly assented on learning that it would not be a repetition of what we had seen at Osaka and Nara, but that it was one of the most ancient description, handed down from generation to generation at these Isé shrines. The room had an altar at the end opposite the entrance, over which was a large mirror. Round the altar and walks were an abundance of _goheis_, and of bands and tassels. At the altar-end of the room a priest sat on one side, and along each of the side walls were the musicians and dancers, all sitting on their heels. The musicians, who were also singers, were all men; the dancers were quite young girls attired in white and red, with frontlets of brass, from each end of which depended a cord and tassel. On the tops of their heads were large bunches of flowers; their back hair was in a queue, with tassels attached, surmounted with gilt bows and ribbons. There were two equally young girls in red and blue with plainer head-dresses, who in a certain way attended on the others. The dance began by a subordinate priest coming in by a side entrance with a wet branch of the sacred _sakaki_ tree in his hand. After bowing to the shrine, he turned to the visitors, and waved it a few times swiftly before them, and then disappeared. Returning again to the same entrance, he handed in to the two blue-and-red attendants, trays of herbs, rice and fruits in succession. These were borne ceremoniously elevated to the six priestesses, who conveyed them in a similar manner to the altar, placing the contents of the first two trays upon an inner altar, and those of the remaining four upon an outer altar, then returning the trays to their two attendants, who passed them out of the building. [Illustration: CEREMONIAL DANCE OF THE SHINTO PRIESTS.]