centuries. One of the gods,
which was in a darkened temple, had a hundred heads, and the only way
one could see it was by a little lantern hung on the end of a string
and pulled up slowly. But even in that dim light we stood awestruck
before that miracle wrought in stone. No one is allowed to walk near
this god with shoes upon his feet. Unbelievers though we were, we were
awed by the colossal grandeur of this great idol. The God of Wind,
the God of War, the God of Peace, "the hundred Gods" all in line,
were, when counted one way, one hundred, but in the reverse order
only ninety-nine. To pray to the One Hundred, it is necessary only
to buy a few characters of Japanese writings and paste them upon any
one of the gods, trusting your cause to him and the Nikko.

The bells, the first tones of which came down through that magnificent
forest of huge trees and echoing from the rocks of that wonderful
ravine, will ever sound in my ears as an instant call to a reverential
mood. The solemn music was unlike any tone I had ever heard before;
now it seemed the peal of the trumpet of the Last Day, now a call
to some festival of angels and arch-angels. As the first thrills
of emotion passed, it seemed a benediction of peace and rest; the
evening's Gloria to the day's Jubilate, for it was the sunset hour.

The next morning we took our guide and three natives to each foreigner
to assist in getting us up the Nikko mountain. It took from 7 o'clock
in the morning until 2 in the afternoon to reach the summit. Every
mountain peak was covered with red, white, and pink azaleas. Our
pathway was over a carpet of the petals of these exquisite blooms. We
used every glowing adjective that we could command at every turn of
these delightful hills, and at last joined in hymns of praise. Each
alluring summit, as soon as reached, dwindled to a speck in comparison
with the grandeur that was still further awaiting us. We stopped often
to let the men rest, who had to work so hard pulling our little carts
up these steep ascents.

There is a great waterfall in the hills, some two hundred fifty
feet high, but none of us dared to make the point that gives an
entire view of it. All we could see added proof of our paucity of
words to express our surprise that the reputed great wonders of
this "Proud" were really true. On returning we were often obliged
to alight and walk over fallen boulders, this being the first trip
after the extreme winter snows. At one p