d to its full value, but, if
it be known, it is accepted only at a small value." She was "content
and quite happy."

This woman and many others in the district had a primitive kind of
religion. They observed the days called "waiting for the sun" and
"waiting for the moon." "The same-minded people gather. The one most
deeply experienced tells something to those assembled and they begin
to be imbued with the same spirit. It is some kind of transformed
worship of the sun god. They feel the mercy of the sun. They do not
worship the heavenly bodies but as the symbol of the merciful
universe. These people take meals together several times in a year.
They talk not only on spiritual but on common things and about the
news in the papers. It may seem to a stranger that what they talk is
foolish, but they have a wonderful power to attract the essential out
of those trifles."

"The fundamental power which made Japan what it is," the speaker went
on with animation, "is not institutions and statesmen, but those
primitive religious acts. The people strongly resembling the old woman
I spoke of may be only 1 per cent., but almost all villagers are
imbued with such religious notions and feel thankfulness, and on rare
occasions a latent sentiment springs from their hearts. Their religion
may be connected with Buddhism or Shintoism; it is not Buddhism or
Shintoism, however, but a primitive belief which in its manifestation
varies much in different villages. For example, in one village the
good deeds of an ancient sage are told. The time when that priest
lived and particulars about him are getting dimmer and dimmer, but his
influence is still considerable. Though many people are worshipped in
national and prefectural shrines the influence of those enshrined is
small compared with the influence of a man or woman of the past who
was not much celebrated but was thought to be good by the rustic
people.

"Think of the way in which the memory of the maid-servant Otake is
worshipped by the peasants through one-half of Japan. That was a pious
and illuminated person who worked very hard. As her _uta_ (poem) says,
'Though hands and feet are very busy at work, still I can praise and
follow God always because my mind and heart are not occupied by
worldly things.' She ate poor food and gave her own food to beggars.
So when a countryman wastes the bounty of nature he is still
reprimanded by the example of that maid-servant. She is more respected
tha