At the bottom of a little lane, close to the entrance of the village, stands an old shrine of the Shinto (the form of hero-worship which existed in Japan before the introduction of Confucianism or of Buddhism), surrounded by lofty Cryptomerias.  The trees around a Shinto shrine are specially under the protection of the god to whom the altar is dedicated; and, in connection with them, there is a kind of magic still respected by the superstitious, which recalls the waxen dolls, through the medium of which sorcerers of the middle ages in Europe, and indeed those of ancient Greece, as Theocritus tells us, pretended to kill the enemies of their clients.  This is called Ushi no toki mairi, or “going to worship at the hour of the ox,"[9] and is practised by jealous women who wish to be revenged upon their faithless lovers.

[Footnote 9:  The Chinese, and the Japanese following them, divide the
day of twenty-four hours into twelve periods, each of which has a sign
something like the signs of the Zodiac:—­
  Midnight until two in the morning is represented by the rat.
    2 a.m. " 4 a.m. " " ox.
    4 a.m. " 6 a.m. " " tiger.
    6 a.m. " 8 a.m. " " hare.
    8 a.m. " 10 a.m. " " dragon.
   10 a.m. " 12 noon " " snake.
   12 noon " 2 p.m. " " horse.
    2 p.m. " 4 p.m. " " ram.
    4 p.m. " 6 p.m. " " ape.
    6 p.m. " 8 p.m. " " cock.
    8 p.m. " 10 p.m. " " hog.
   10 p.m. " Midnight " " fox.]

When the world is at rest, at two in the morning, the hour of which the ox is the symbol, the woman rises; she dons a white robe and high sandals or clogs; her coif is a metal tripod, in which are thrust three lighted candles; around her neck she hangs a mirror, which falls upon her bosom; in her left hand she carries a small straw figure, the effigy of the lover who has abandoned her, and in her right she grasps a hammer and nails, with which she fastens the figure to one of the sacred trees that surround the shrine.  There she prays for the death of the traitor, vowing that, if her petition be heard, she will herself pull out the nails which now offend the god by wounding the mystic tree.  Night after night she comes to the shrine, and each night she strikes in two or more nails, believing that every nail will shorten her lover’s life, for the god, to save his tree, will surely strike him dead.