=Divination by Lots=.--Sticks with numbers inscribed on them, or slips of paper, were much used for divination. The succession to the Imperial throne has been decided in this way. Prayer to the Kami often preceded their use. The following is a form of divination by lot which is used by sailors when they have lost their reckoning. The names of the points of the compass are written on slips of paper, placed in a measure of rice, and the whole mixed up. A _harahi-bako_ of the Great Deity of Ise is put on the top. Prayer is offered and the lot which is found to adhere to the _harahi-bako_ is looked upon as the answer of the Deity. Another form of divination by lots is thus described: "You place three sticks, numbered one, two, three, in a bamboo tube and inquire of the God as to good or ill luck, saying reverently, 'If the thing is lucky, let it be such a number, if unlucky, such another number.'" In what is called _harahi-kuji_ "you write lucky or unlucky, or whatever your prayer may be, on papers which you fold up and roll into a ball. Then having offered reverent prayer to the God, rub the lots with _harahi ko-nusa_,[314] when that which adheres to them is concluded to be the answer. This is common at all shrines." Lots were, and still are, used for all manner of non-religious purposes. If a solitary passenger appears at a jinriksha stand, he is often cast lots for by means of a set of cords of various lengths knotted together at one end which is kept for the purpose. The 'Yih-King,' a Chinese book which sets forth a non-religious system of divination depending partly on drawing lots is much used in Japan. =Divination by Means of the Stars= was first introduced in A.D. 675 by the Korean teachers of Chinese arts. =Kitsune-tsukahi=.--"Amongst the ordinary diviners is one called _Kitsune-tsukahi_, _i.e._, a fox-possessor. The divination is carried on by means of a small image of a fox, made in a very odd way. A fox is buried alive in a hole with its head left free. Food of the sort of which foxes are known to be most fond is placed just beyond the animal's reach. As days pass by the poor beast in its dying agony of hunger makes frantic efforts to reach the food; but in vain. At the moment of death the spirit of the fox is supposed to pass into the food, which is then mixed with a quantity of clay, and shaped into the form of the animal. Armed with this extraordinary object, the _miko_ is supposed to become an infallible guide to foretelling future events of every kind."[315] Augury by various kinds of birds was known. The geomancy practised to some extent in Japan is of Chinese origin. The _Nihongi_ mentions a number of isolated cases of divination invented on the spur of the moment. The following is an example:--