"Oh no!" said Tei. "There have been dozens of presents of rice and silk,
and many other things. And there have been letters of congratulation.
And to-day, when we return from the temple, many, many people will come
to see the baby, because they could not come before."
"What name was given to the baby on the seventh day?" asked Umé
curiously.
"He is to be called Onda," answered Tei.
Before Umé could ask any more questions they had reached the temple.
Everything seemed to go wrong with Tei. She caught her clog as she was
getting out of the jinrikisha and fell upon her nose. It bled a little,
just enough to make her say pitifully, "Oh, how truly sad! It will never
bring good luck to the dear brother."
But Umé was always quick at thinking of a way out of trouble. Near the
entrance to the temple stood a deep basin filled with water. With this
water everybody washes his hands before going in to pray. Umé lifted a
spoonful of the water and rubbed it over her cousin's nose. "That will
make it as well as ever," she told Tei.
"What is that in your other hand?" asked Tei, seeing that Umé was using
only one hand, and that the other was tightly closed.
"It is a rice-cake to feed to the goldfish in the temple lake." One can
always buy rice-cakes at the temple gate, but Umé had thoughtfully
brought one from her home.
Umé would have almost preferred feeding the fish to seeing the ceremony
of placing the new baby under the protecting care of the patron saint of
the temple. Baby Onda's father had chosen the God of Learning to be his
son's patron saint. He wished to have the child become very studious and
know thoroughly all the wisdom of Confucius and the old, old gods of
learning and wisdom.
Before going into the temple everyone slipped out of his clogs, washed
his hands, and made several bows at the entrance.
Tei's father then pulled a rope which rang a bell to attract the
attention of the god. There was a moment when he clapped his hands
together three times to be sure that the god was listening. After that
he asked very earnestly that his little son might be carefully guarded
and guided along the rough path of wisdom. Then he clapped his hands
twice to show that his prayer was ended.
It was so solemn and impressive to little Umé that she forgot her
rice-cake and let it drop to the temple floor as she clasped her own
hands in prayer.
Then followed the gift to the gods, and one to the priest of the temple.
The priest blessed the new baby and he was safely placed under the care
of Sugawara-no-Michizanè, the God of Literature, in the Kameido Temple
in the city of Tokio.
The ceremony was not very long. The moment it was over Umé and Tei stole
as quickly as they could out of the temple, and ran down to the lake
where the goldfish were waiting to be fed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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