enormous size, sitting on a magnificent throne, from the canopy of which are suspended several caps. His head is closely shaven on each side of him, in his temple, stand five hundred gods, each having thirty arms, and holding in each hand two arrows. Their heads are adorned with golden. crowns; and the statues, chains, bells, &c. &c., are described as being of massive gold.

Fig. 3 represents the golden Amida. The temples of this idol are stated to be incomparably costly and magnificent. The altar of the figures here shewn is described as being of silver, on which is the idol mounted on a horse with seven heads (the Hindu Surya), each head signifying a hundred thousand years. The head of the idol is that of a dog with long ears. In his mouth he holds a golden hoop, which he supports with his hands. The skirts of his dress are richly embossed. This god is held in high veneration, and is said to be worshipped under various forms.

Fig. 4 is the representation of the god Xaka or Saka. He is described as sitting cross-legged, richly apparelled, and usually surrounded by his forty children; in which manner he appears in the picture. In this work the figure of Xaka is only shewn. Before he was born his mother dreamed that she saw a white elephant come out of her mouth, and enter her left side, which is said to have been the origin of the worship of that animal. Many of the sacred volumes of Japan were written by Xaka, who, that there might be no dispute hereafter concerning their contents, sealed them and indorsed them with this inscription: "Thus I, Xaca, have written the truth."

Fig. 5 represents a bonzi performing a marriage ceremony before the idol of the bride. The temple stands on a hill, one side of which is ascended by the bride, the other by the bridegroom. On arriving at the top the bridegroom takes the bride by the hand, and leads her into the open temple, the roof of which is surmounted by a spire of seven golden balls. Within it, on a magnificent altar, is the idol of the bride with a dog's head; his arms spread out, holding in each hand the end of a copper chain, which passes under his chin. By the head, it is supposed the Japanese intend to represent the faithfulness and constancy that belongs to a married life; and

by the chain the strong tie of marriage. Before the altar is the bonzi or priest, with the bride and bridegroom holding torches in their hands.

Fig. 6 is the Tartar Hans, supposed to have been introduced from China. Fig. 1, plate 38, represents the golden bull of Japan breaking with his horns the mundane egg. This beast, which has a large knob on his back, is said to be of massive gold, and round his neck is a golden collar embossed with precious stones. The Japanese, like the Hindus, in one of their hypotheses of the creation, believe that the world was once enclosed in an immense egg, the shell of which was brass. In this egg the world floated on the surface of the waters, till the moon by her piercing light drew up matter from the bottom of them, which became earth and stone, upon which the brazen egg reposed. The bull finding it, butted against and broke it, and the world came forth. The animal being heated with such hard labour, blowed very much, and his breath entered into a calabash called Pou, which became a man, and is termed Pourang. This reminds me of an observation once made by a negro in the West-Indies, that man came out of a calabash; and here, changing the tortoise for the egg, and the otter for the moon, we have a similar version of the formation of the earth as that related of the Iroquois at the conclusion of the Kurm avatara. Where the serviceable bull and calabash here mentioned came from we are not told.

I find in another place a slight variation in this story of the golden bull and brazen egg, in which a Japanese Eve is made the origin of all the mischief that has since occurred in the world. It would, in this case,

appear, that in the egg were enclosed the four elements, and the four principal colours, red, yellow, blue, and green. These being well shaken together produced the world. Man, however, was wanting; but woman, naturally enough, undertook to remedy the defect. It seems that one of her lovely sex was discovered one day growing in the shell of a calabash, but she had unhappily no soul, on which account God pitied her, and sent a bull to the calabash, which breathed into it the breath of his nostrils, and, by that means, gave her a soul, and a most wicked one it unfortunately turned out to be; for no sooner had she issued from her shell than she became more intimate with the inferior deities than our modern ideas of propriety

W. Clerk. With 1. Dean J Sono.

Fig1 The Golden Bull f Japan breaking the Mundane Egg 2 Lantai 3 The principal Idol in the Temple of Monkey

4. Jene 5 Sequani 647. Canon & Joosie Tiedbak

Published by Parbury, Allen & London 1432

can at all approve of. A wicked and irreligious race of men was, in consequence, produced: so that God determined to destroy the world; mix up the elements and colours again into a chaotic mass, and of it form a round globe. In the destructive part of this operation one pious man and his family, who had duly worshipped God, only were saved by being shut up in a cave, before which a large shell was placed to prevent the water running into it.

He is adorned with a splen

Fig. 2 is the self-deified personage Xantai. did crown, and is richly apparelled. He was formerly a king named Nubunanga, who about 1564 undertook to proclaim himself a god, under the name of Xantai: but his rule as such upon earth was of short duration, as he was slain in 1582 for his cruelty and wickedness. His temples, however, still stand, and his images continue to be worshipped.

Fig. 3 is the principal statue apparently in the temple of monkeys, as it is filled with numerous images of the fraternity of Hanuman.

Fig. 4 and 5 are the idols Siquani and Jene, deities who preside over the dead the Minos and Rhadamanthus of Japan. The first presides over the souls of children, and the latter over those of married or aged persons. The face of the idol Siquani is that of a youth; the hair tied with a string of pearls, with one lock curled and turned up. Adjoining him is a silver parrot. In one arm he holds a child; with another hand he holds a string of beads, and in a third a serpent. His dress is resplendent with sparkling stars. The other idol Jene is held in great adoration. He sits on a lotus cushion; has four heads like Brahma, on which is a crown of seven spires, on each of which is a round ball. Various

gems adorn his person. In one another a rosary; in a third a sort of Those who mourn for fathers, mothers,

hand he holds a radiant sun; in plant; and in a fourth a short staff. wives, husbands, or other near relations, go in great numbers to the temple of this deity to make their offerings for the departed souls of the deceased. Fig. 6 represents the deity Canon, the son of Amida, with thirty arms, having two arrows in each hand. On his breast are seven heads. worshipped under various forms.

He is

Fig. 7 shews him as the ocean god (quere the Hindu Vishnu in the