In the _Illustrated London News_, January 13, 1872, its correspondent from Yokohama gives a short account of the Japanese religious festivals, in which among other coincidences I note the following: "The most absurd," he says, "is one in which the foul fiend is simultaneously expelled from every house by dint of pelting him with boiled peas. The devil is chased out of the town with a dance of derision, by young fellows in grotesque costumes, for the public mirth." Compare with the scene in the Mandan ceremonies, described by Catlin, _vide supra_, p. 260. Now, compare with the above, and also with the extracts from Burton and Catlin, at p. 254, remembering the prominence of the ox or bull (the ox and bull dance) in the Mandan customs, and the connection of the bull with Nin or Ninip, p. 200, 203, and other mythological figures of which I believe Noah to have been the antitype. The following description of the most curious traditional representation in Japan (Ogilby, p. 279):-- "Moreover, besides the ox temple in Meaco, there is also to be seen the stately chapel dedicated to the Creator of all things (the ox in the above-mentioned temple is represented as breaking the mundane egg, _vide supra_, p. 257), who is represented in a very strange manner. In the middle of the temple is a great pot _full of water_ surrounded with a wall, seven feet high from the ground, in the middle of which appears an _exceeding great tortoise_, whose shell, feet, and head stands in the water; out of its back rises the body of a great tree, on the top of which sits a strange and horrible figure" ... [then follows a good deal which has its explanation, but must be curtailed] ... "the image hath four arms" ... in one "the hand grasps a cruse, _from whence water issues continually_; the other hand _holds a sceptre_.... The tree whereon he sits is of brass, ... about the middle of this tree an exceeding great serpent hath wreathed itself _twice_, whose head and body is on the right side held fast by two horrible shapes, the remaining part thereof to the tail, two kings and one of Japan sages stretch forth" [evidently representing the contending influences (as in Mandan dance), one of the kings having the duplicated Janus head, _supra_, p. 220.][228]