practised by the "heathen," the _inaka_ of Japan. "Government law lasts
three days," is an ancient proverb in Nippon. Sharp eyes have, within
three months of the writing of this line, unearthed a phallic shrine
within a stone's-throw of Shint[=o]'s most sacred temples at Isé.
Formerly, however, these implements of worship were seen numerously--in
the cornucopia distributed in the temples, in the _matsuris_ or
religious processions and in representation by various plastic
material--and all this until 1872, to an extent that is absolutely
incredible to all except the eye-witnesses, some of whose written
testimonies we possess. What seems to our mind shocking and revolting
was once a part of our own ancestors' faith, and until very recently was
the perfectly natural and innocent creed of many millions of Japanese
and is yet the same for tens of thousands of them.

We may easily see why and how that which to us is a degrading cult was
not only closely allied to Shint[=o], but directly fostered by and
properly a part of it, as soon as we read the account of the creation of
the world, an contained in the national "Book of Ancient Traditions,"
the "Kojiki." Several of the opening paragraphs of this sacred book of
Shint[=o] are phallic myths explaining cosmogony. Yet the myths and the
cult are older than the writing and are phases of primitive Japanese
faith. The mystery of fatherhood is to the primitive man the mystery of
creation also. To him neither the thought nor the word was at hand to
put difference and transcendental separation between him and what he
worshipped as a god.

Into the details of the former display and carriage of these now obscene
symbols in the popular celebrations; of the behavior of even respectable
citizens during the excitement and frenzy of the festivals; of their
presence in the wayside shrines; of the philosophy, hideousness or