=Animals In Shinto=.--Animals may be worshipped for their own sakes, as wonderful, terrible, or uncanny beings. The tiger, the serpent, and the wolf are for this reason called Kami. But there are no shrines in their honour, and they have no regular cult. A more common reason for honouring animals is their association with some deity as his servants or messengers. Thus the deer is sacred to Take-mika-tsuchi at Kasuga, the monkey is sacred at Hiyoshi, the pigeon to the God Hachiman, the white egret at the shrine of Kebi no Miya, the tortoise at Matsunoö, and the crow at Kumano. The _wani_, or sea-monster, belongs to the sea-God, and the dragon belongs to (or is) Taka okami (the rain-God). There is also mention of a thunder-beast. In later times the rat is sacred to Daikokusama. The pheasant is the messenger of the Gods generally. The best-known case of the worship of an associated animal is that of Inari, the rice-God, whose attendant foxes are mistaken by the ignorant for the God himself, and whose effigies have offerings of food made to them. The mythical _Yatagarasu_, or Sun-Crow, had formerly a shrine in its honour. The stone _Koma-inu_ (Korean dogs), seen in front of many Shinto shrines, are meant not as Gods, but as guardians, like the Buddhist Niō. They are a later introduction. The Gods are sometimes represented as assuming animal form. Kushiyatama no Kami changes into a cormorant, Koto-shiro-nushi into a _wani_ (sea-monster or dragon) eight fathoms long. The God of Ohoyama takes the form of a white deer. The most usual form assumed by deities is that of a snake, serpent, or dragon. Ohonamochi, in his amours with a mortal princess, showed himself to her as a small snake. In the Yamato-dake legend, there is a mountain-deity who takes the shape of a great serpent. At the command of the Mikado Yūriaku, the God of Mimuro was brought to him by one of his courtiers. It was a serpent. Water-Gods are usually serpents or dragons. =Totemism=.--I find no distinct traces of totemism in ancient Japan. Tattooing, which some have associated with this form of belief, existed as a means of distinguishing rank and occupation. The most probable derivation of the tribal name _Kumaso_ is from _kuma_, bear, and _oso_, otter. A very few surnames are taken from names of animals. Dances, in which the performers represented various animals, were common. The piecemeal immigration of the Japanese race from the continent of Asia must have done much to break up their original tribal system and to destroy any institutions associated with it. The law of exogamy, with which totemism is connected, was very narrow in its operation in ancient Japan.[39] FOOTNOTES: [19] "Laotze finit par n'être plus que le principe vital universel existant avant le ciel et la terre et qui s'est plu à chaque époque a se montrer sous les traits d'un personnage quelconque souvent des plus obscurs."--'Religion de la Chine,' De Harlez.