itudes for bacchanalian
purposes. Under the auspices of the Goddess Hashihime and the God
Sumiyoshi, free rein was given to lust. Since the beginning of the new
regime such revels have been forbidden and apparently stopped; the
phallic symbols themselves are no longer visible, although it is
asserted by the keeper of the shrine that they are still there,
concealed in the boxes on the pedestals formerly occupied by the
symbols. When I visited the place some years since with a fellow
missionary we were told that multitudes still come there to pray to
the deities; those seeking divorce pray to the female deity, while
those seeking a favorable marriage pray to the male deity; on asking
as to the proportion of the worshipers, we were told that there are
about ten of the former to one of the latter, a significant indication
of the unhappiness of many a home. Prof. Edmund Buckley has made a
special study of the subject of phallic worship in Japan; in his
thesis on the topic he gives a list of thirteen places where these
symbols of phallic worship might be seen a few years since. It is
significant that at Uji, not a stone's throw from the phallic shrine,
is a temple to the God Agata, whose special function is the cure of
venereal diseases.

But though phallic worship and its accompanying immorality have been
extirpated, immorality in connection with religion is still rampant in
certain quarters. Not far from the great temples at Ise, the center of
Shintoism and the goal for half a million pilgrims yearly, are large
and prosperous brothels patronized by and existing for the sake of
the pilgrims. A still more popular resort for pilgrims is that at
Kompira, whither, as we have seen, some 900,000 come each year; here
the best hotels, and presumably the others also, are provided with
prostitutes who also serve as waiting girls; on the arrival of a guest
he is customarily asked whether or not the use of a prostitute shall
be included in his hotel bill. It seems strange, indeed, that the
government should take such pains to suppress phallicism, and allow
such immorality to go on under the eaves of the greatest national
shrines; for these shrines are not private affairs; the government
takes possession of the gifts, and pays the regular salaries of the
attending priests. It would appear from its success in the
extermination of distinctly phallic worship that the government could
put a stop to all public prostitution in connection with