"Sakusa," he replied with a wave of the hand toward where a tori-i, a high paintless structure, stood, and in another moment they had left their rough stone path to step upon the pavement of the temple's court. Here they waited for the others to come up. Meantime they could observe the fine old trees, the quaint monuments and the gateway itself.
"This is the temple of Yaegaki," Mr. Tamura told them. "It is a very noted shrine, small as it is. We will go to the main temple which is the most interesting."
The group, now complete, went forward and presently, with one accord, stopped short. "What are they?" inquired Eleanor wonderingly looking at myriads of tiny flags inserted in the ground all around the base of the shrine.
"Those," Mr. Tamura said, "are tokens of gratitude. They mean that many lovers' prayers have been answered."
"And those white wisps upon the gratings of the doors?" Eleanor continued to question.
"Those are the prayers of the lovers who have made the pilgrimage."
"So many, so many," murmured Nan.
"And what is that which looks like hair, there with the little knots of paper?" Mary Lee put this question.
"It is hair," she was told, "most of it, though some is seaweed, probably brought from a long distance. These are votive offerings. A maiden making a vow, a wish, a prayer, will often cut off her hair and hang it upon the shrine that she may thus show her strength of desire, her faith, her intention to propitiate the deities of love and marriage who preside over this shrine."