Letters from the Far East . central place we saw many people kneeling. Mostof them were old people; though there were someyoung women with little children. Their prayersseemed to be mostly short. They threw a piece ofmoney into the coffer, prayed, clapped their hands towaken the god, and went away. There was one god of healing that seemed to bemuch worshiped. The people come there with theirailments, rub their hands on the idol, already smoothfrom the oft-repeated friction, and then rub the dis-eased part of their bodies. We saw one girl rubbingher throat, and a woman her leg. There were also
Letters from the Far East . central place we saw many people kneeling. Mostof them were old people; though there were someyoung women with little children. Their prayersseemed to be mostly short. They threw a piece ofmoney into the coffer, prayed, clapped their hands towaken the god, and went away. There was one god of healing that seemed to bemuch worshiped. The people come there with theirailments, rub their hands on the idol, already smoothfrom the oft-repeated friction, and then rub the dis-eased part of their bodies. We saw one girl rubbingher throat, and a woman her leg. There were also paper prayers tied to a wire , we were told, were efficient only when tied onwith the thumb and one finger; which we judged to bequite a difficult task. Before another god, the god of the children, wesaw many little baby garments left there by childlesswives, who were praying for children. We passed out of the temple, by the big bronze in-cense-burner, down the steps into the yard. Here we o •-i o CO o:ro 5^o. LETTERS FROM THE FAR EAST 23 saw a number of beggars. One, a man with a longbeard, was squatting on the ground, with an emaciatedchild across his knees, and was repeating somethingover and over—presumably asking alms. One sight we saw on our way home, which illus-trated the difference between the Christian and theheathen. In the train, a well-dressed man was readinga Japanese Bible. That a man should be seen readingthe Bible in a public place is rather uncommon, even inAmerica, and we thanked God that the light had begunto shine for Japan. LETTER NO. V OCTOBER 14, being Sunday, we attended theUnion Church in the morning. In the after-noon we took a walk and stepped into the CatholicChurch on our way home. Here we saw various kindsof people: Japanese, Chinese, and some of doubtfulnationality. As we came out, we heard the notes of a bugle, andjust before reaching the gate of the hotel, we met along procession of school children, who had been toYokohama Park
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