e official-hour of closing. This
defrauds the church of her dues, so her servants put the clock on, and
Nikko, knowing naught of the value of time, is well content.

When I cursed the temples I did a foolish thing, and one for which this
poor pen can never make fitting reparation. We went up a hill by way of
a flight of grey stone slabs. The _cryptomerias_ of the Nikko road were
as children to the giants that overshadowed us here. Between their
iron-grey boles were flashes of red--the blood-red of the Mikado's
bridge. That great king who killed the beggar at the ford had been well
pleased with the success of his experiment. Passing under a mighty stone
arch we came into a square of splendour alive with the sound of hammers.
Thirty or forty men were tapping the pillars and steps of a carnelian
shrine heavy with gold. "That," said the guide, impassively, "is a
godown. They are renewing the lacquer. First they extract it."

Have you ever "extracted" lacquer from wood? I smote the foot of a
pillar with force, and after half a dozen blows chipped off one small
fragment of the stuff, in texture like red horn. Betraying no surprise,
I demanded the name of a yet more magnificent shrine across the
courtyard. It was red lacquered like the others, but above its main door
were carved in open work three apes--one with his hands to his ears,
another covering his mouth, and a third blinding his eyes.

"That place," said the guide, "used to be a stable when the Daimio kept
his horses there. The monkeys are the three who hear no wrong, say no
wrong, and see no wrong."

"Of course," I said. "What a splendid device for a stable where the
grooms steal the grain!" I was angry because I had grovelled before a
godown and a stable, though the round world cannot hold their equals.

We entered a temple, or a tomb, I do not know which, through a gateway
of carven pillars. Eleven of them bore a running pattern of trefoil--the
apex pointing earthward--the twelfth had its pattern reversed.

"Make 'em all the same--no good," said the guide, emphatically.
"Something sure to come bad by an' by. Make one different all right.
Save him so. Nothing happen then."

Unless I am mistaken, that voluntarily breaking of the set was the one
sacrifice that the designer had made to the great Gods above who are so
jealous of the craft of men. For the rest he had done what he
pleased--even as a god might have done--with the wood in its gleaming
lacquer sheath,