IN DEATH,

Otago Witness, 5 December 1900, Page 42

IN DEATH,

one of the most beautiful beliefs the world has ever known has created Jizo — the god of little children. Rudyard Kipling, in his " Sea to Sea," speaks of the delight with which he came upon the statue of Jizo, and tenderly laid his handful of pebbles on the knees of the children's god. It is, however, Lafcadio Hearn who, in his " Unfamiliar Japan," has given us the story of Japanese children in the spirit world, and this is his account of his first visit to a very ancient Hakaba, or Buddhist cemetery :

" Descending the shadowed steps, I find myself face to face with six little statues about three feet high, standing in a row upon one long pedestal. The first holds a Buddhist incense box; the second, a lotus; the third, a pilgrim's staff; the fourth is telling the beads of a Buddhist rosary; the fifth stands in the attitude of prayer, with hands joined ; the sixth bears in one hand the ' shakujo,' or medicant priest's staff, having six rings attached to the top of it, and in the other hand the mystic jewel ' Nio-i-ho-jiu,' by virtue whereof all desires may be granted. " But the faces of the six are the same. . . . and all are smiling the same faint smile. About the neck of each figure a white cotton bag is suspended, filled with pebbles; and pebbles have been piled high about the feet of the statues, upon their knees, upon their shoulders; and even upon their aureoles of stone little pebbles are balanced. Mysterious, but inexplicably touching, are all these soft, childish faces.

" Roku Jizo — ' the six Jizo ' — these images are called in the speech of the people; and such groups may be seen in many a Japanese cemetery. They are representations of the most beautiful and tender figure in Japanese faith, that charming divinity wjho cares for the souls of little children and consoles them in the place of unrest, and saves them from the demons. ' But why are those little stones piled about the statues? " I ask.

" ' Well, it is because some say the child ghosts build little towers of stones in the Sai-no-Kawara, where all children after death must go. And the Oni, who are demons, come to throw down the little stone piles as fast as the children build. . . . But the little souls run to Jizo, who hides them in the wide sleeves of his robe and comforts them, and makes the Oni go away. And every stone one lays upon the knees or at the feet of Jizo, with a prayer from the heart, helps some child soul in the Sai-no-Kawara."

One calm and lovely day the same writer was able to make the difficult excursion to the Cave of the Children's Ghosts, " Kaka ura." It is reached through an outer beautiful sea cave, pierced by a magnificent natural archway, through which one looks on a green undulating coast gleaming softly beyond the azure sea. The vault of the second cavern is quite forty feet above its floor of gleaming green water, and far up the dark, rocky walls on the right- is a projecting white stone, above which, from an orifice, drips a slow stream, white as the white rock over which it trickles. This is the " Fountain of Jizo," the fountain of milk at which the souls of the dear dead little ones drink ; for though it flows at times more swiftly, and at times more slowly, yet it never ceases, night or day.

The cavern seems full of voices, as though a host of invisible beings murmur softly to one another; but it is farther on, beyond these caves of the Kami, that the especial Cave of the Children's Ghosts is at last reached. The beach slopes sharply up, covered with tiny stone towers, which one must be careful not to overturn, lest the little ghosts who have built them should cry. In the " Wazan," or psalm of

" Jizo," these verses explain the little towers heaped by shadowy hands : Gathering the stones in the bed of the river, Therewith to heap the Tower of Prayers. Saying prayers for the happiness of father, they heap the first tower ; Saying"prayers lor the happim ss of mother, they heap the second tower ; Saying prayers for their brotheis, their sisters, and all whom they loved at home, they heap the third tower.

No wonder, then, that the loving pilgrims who come here and bring their offerings of tiny straw sandals, to keep the little feet of the children's ghosts from being wounded on the stones, are mindful to build two fresh stone towers for every one they have the misfortune to disturb, as they tread softly towards the inner dusk, whence gleams the face of the guardian Jizo, " smiling in pale stone." Along the roads, under the green glooms of ancient pines, bathed in the sunlight by lotus-covered ponds throughout Japan, one finds the shrine of " the children's god," for are not the children everywhere?

(From the Painting by J. Elder Moulteay. Now on View at the Christchurch Jubilee Exhibition.) The incident depicted was painted to enable New Zealanders to realise the perils that beset the early settlers in the sixties, when to the ordinary hardships attendant upon the opening up of a new country were ,dded the horrors of a native rising. In the picture we sec a settler and his family, with their police escort, in a desperate situation, surrounded on their way to the nearest garrison post by a howling mob of .loodthirsty Hauhaus, their progress retarded by the cart-horse having fallen, shot through the leg. The party are seen utilising the doubtful shelter afforded by the cart, striving to ward oft' their assailants until ielp arrives.

Who that has passed through Suez, Port Said, or Cairo, but has been struck by the peculiar garb of the closely-veiled Turkish woman, seated at her stall, serving out viands to her hungry customers.

These gentlemen may be met at the street corners retailing the sweet waters of the Nile, from their goatskin bags, to the thirsty ones.