The Shinto priest is probably not so well off as the Buddhist priest. The village makes a small payment to him twice a year. At New Year 3 yen in all may be flung in the collecting box at the shrine, but the priest has presents made to him when he goes to see ailing folk and when he officiates at the building of a new house. Most people when they are ill seem to send for the Shinto priest. But he explained to me that he does not expect a sick man to "worship only." He is accustomed to say to the people, "Doctor first, god second," from which I was to conclude, one who heard told me, that the priest was "rather a civilised man." The Shinto priest had succeeded a relative in his position. The village had found its Buddhist priest in a neighbouring district. The Buddhist priest told me that every year 150 or 160 men and women made a pilgrimage to a famous shrine some few miles off. The custom was for every house to be represented in the pilgrimage. Half a dozen people in the year might go on personal pilgrimages and fifty or so might visit a little shrine on a neighbouring mountain. FOOTNOTES: [195] The village consists of about 270 houses. It is joined administratively to another village, about two miles off, in order to form a _mura_ (commune). The village I am about to describe is an _oaza_ (large hamlet), which is made up in its turn of two _aza_ (small hamlets). These aza are themselves divided into six _kumi_ (companies), which are again sub-divided, in the case of the largest, into four. [196] See Appendix LIV. [197] The horses wear basket-work muzzles to prevent them nibbling the crops. By way of compensation for these encumbrances they have head tassels and belly cloths to keep off the flies. CHAPTER XXXI "BON" SEASON SCENES (NAGANO) As moderns we have no direct affinity; as individuals we have a capacity for personal sympathy.--MATTHEW ARNOLD