es of worship are over, and the amulet that
rewards the due observance of the day has been received, there are the
dances to be seen, and the _o miyage_ to be purchased, and at last the
happy party returns, feeling that one more milestone on the journey of
life has been passed propitiously.

_Page 30._

The _shir[=o]zake_ (white _sake_) used for this occasion is a curious
drink, thick and white, made from pounded rice, and brewed especially
for this feast. Some antiquarians believe that it is simply the earliest
form of _sake_, the national beverage, which has been preserved in this
ancient observance as the fly is preserved in amber.

_Page 31._

The keeping of a feast on the third day of the third month is a custom
that has come down from very ancient times. At first the day was set
apart for the purification of the people, and a part of the ceremony was
the rubbing of the body with bits of white paper, roughly cut into the
semblance of a white-robed priest. These paper dolls were believed to
take away the sins of the year. When they had been used for
purification, they were inscribed with the sex and birth-year of the
user and thrown into the river. The third month was also, in early
times, the season for cock-fighting among the men, and for doll-playing
among the women. The special name by which the dolls of the Doll Feast
are called is _O Hina Sama_. Now _hina_ in modern Japanese means a
chicken or other young bird, and is never used to mean anything else
except the dolls; thus the dolls are shown to be associated with the
ancient cock-fighting, an amusement which has now almost gone out,
except in the province of Tosa on the island of Shikoku.

The oldest dolls did not represent the Emperor and Empress, but simply a
man and a woman, and were modeled closely after the old white paper
dolls of the religious ceremony. When the Tokugawa Sh[=o]guns had firmly
established their splendid court at Yedo, a decree was issued
designating the five feast days upon which the daimi[=o]s were to
present themselves at the Sh[=o]gun's palace and offer their
congratulations. One of the days thus appointed was the third day of the
third month. It is believed that the giving of the chief place at the
feast to effigies of the Emperor and Empress was a part of the policy of
the Sh[=o]gunate,--a policy which aimed to keep alive the spirit of
loyalty to the throne, while at the same time the occupant of the throne
remained a pup