[ [266] The meaning of this clause is doubtful. The object seems to be to provide a brush for brushing away (harahi) offences. Sir E. Satow says, with regard to a different ceremony: "The high priest waves before the company a sort of broom made of grass, to symbolize the sweeping away of their offences."
[ [267] In later times it was thought, without sufficient reason, that the "ritual words" here spoken of were a special form of incantation distinct from the norito itself.
[ [269] Yomi or Hades.
[ [270] Swift-banishment-lady.
[ [271] A horse was one of the expiatory offerings. It seems here to typify the attentive attitude of the audience, or perhaps of the deities concerned.
[ [272] Harahi-zare. There is some confusion here between the offences and the expiatory offerings. The harahi-tsu-mono were then taken away and thrown into some convenient river. I suspect, however, that most of them were not thrown away, but went to provide a fund for the expenses of the ceremony. It is not clear what became of the horse or of the slaves. The harahi-tsu-mono were not gifts to any particular Gods, but rather, like the scape-goat of the Mosaic law, vehicles by which the transgressions of the people were conveyed away. But it is better not to put this too sweepingly. There is reason to think that by some they were thought to be offerings to Se-ori-tsu-hime and the other deities mentioned. At the present day they consist of a few pieces of cloth.
[ [273] See 'Notes of some Minor Japanese Religious Practices,' by Mr. B. H. Chamberlain, in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, May, 1893, and Sir E. Satow's 'Visit to the Shrines of Ise,' T. A. S. J., 1874.
[ [275] That is, "did honour to."