ds. Ten species of
ophidia are known in the Japanese islands, but in the larger number of
more or less imaginary varieties which figure in the ancient books we
shall find plenty of material for fetich-worship. In perusing the
"Kojiki" one scarcely knows, when he begins a story, whether the
character which to all appearance is a man or woman is to end as a
snake, or whether the mother after delivering her child will or will not
glide into the marsh or slide away into the sea, leaving behind a trail
of slime. A dragon is three-fourths serpent, and both the dragon and the
serpent are prominent figures, perhaps the most prominent of the kami or
gods in human or animal form in the "Kojiki" and other early legends of
the gods, though the crocodile, crow, deer, dog, and other animals are
kami.[24] It is therefore no wonder that serpents have been and are
still worshipped by the people, that some of their gods and goddesses
are liable at any time to slip away in scaly form, that famous temples
are built on sites noted as being the abode or visible place of the
actual water or land snake of natural history, and that the spot where a
serpent is seen to-day is usually marked with a sacred emblem or a
shrine.[25] We shall see how this snake-worship became not only a part
of Shint[=o] but even a notable feature in corrupt Buddhism.

Pantheism's Destruction of Boundaries.[26]

In its rudest forms, this pantheism branches out into animism or
shamanism, fetichism and phallicism. In its higher forms, it becomes
polytheism, idolatry and defective philosophy. Having centuries ago
corrupted Buddhism it is the malaria which, unseen and unfelt, is ready
to poison and corrupt Christianity. Indeed, it has already given over to
disease and spiritual death more than one once hopeful Christian
believer, teacher and preacher in the Japan of our decade.

To assault and remove the incubus, to replace and refill the mind, to
lift up and enlighten the Japanese peasant, science as already known and
faith in one God, Creator and Father of all things, must go hand in
hand. Education and civilization will do much for the ignorant _inaka_
or boors, but for the cultured whose minds waver and whose feet
flounder, as well as for the unlearned and priest-ridden, there is no
surer help and healing than that faith in the Heavenly Father which
gives the unifying thought to him who looks into creation.

Keep the boundary line clear between God and his world