[Footnote 31:  Jiz[=o] is the compassionate helper of all in trouble, especially of travellers, of mothers, and of children.  His Sanskrit name is Kshiugarbha.  His idol is one of the most common in Japan.  It is usually neck-laced with baby’s bibs, often by the score, while the pedestal is heaped with small stones placed there by sorrowing mothers.—­S. and H., p. 29, 394; Chamberlain’s Handbook of Japan, 29, 101.  Hearn’s Japan, p. 34, and passim.]

[Footnote 32:  Sanskrit arhat or arhan, meaning worthy or deserving, i.e., holy man, the highest rank of Buddhist saintship.  See Century Dictionary.]

[Footnote 33:  M.E., p. 201.  The long inscription on the bell in Wellesley College, which summons the student-maidens to their hourly tasks has been translated by the author and Dr. K. Kurahara and is as follows: 

1.  A prose preface or historical statement.

2.  Two stanzas of Chinese poetry, in four-syllable lines, of four verses each, with an apostrophe in two four-syllable lines.

3.  The chronology.

4.  The names of the composer and calligraphist, and of the bronze-founder.

The characters in vertical lines are read from top to bottom, the order of the columns being from right to left.  There are in all 117 characters.

The first tablet reads: 

Lotus-Lily Temple (of) Law-Grove Mountain; Bell-inscription (and) Preface.

“Although there had been of old a bell hung in the Temple of the Lotus-Lily, yet being of small dimensions its note was quickly exhausted, and no volume of melody followed (after having been struck).  Whereupon, for the purpose of improving upon this state of affairs, we made a subscription, and collected coin to obtain a new bell.  All believers in the doctrine, gods as well as devils, contributed freely.  Thus the enterprise was soon consummated, and this inscription prepared, to wit: 

“’The most exalted Buddha having pitiful compassion upon the people, would, by means of this bell, instead of words, awaken them from earthly illusions, and reveal the darkness of this world.

“’Many of the living hearkening to its voice, and making confession, are freed from the bondage of their sins, and forever released from their disquieting desires.

“’How great is (Buddha’s) merit!  Who can utter it?  Without measure, boundless!’

“Eleventh year of the Era of the Foundation of Literature (and of the male element) Wood (and of the zodiac sign) Dog; Autumn, seventh month, fifteenth day (A.D.  August 30,1814).

“Composition and penmanship by Kameda Koye-sen.  Cast by the artist Sugiwara Kuninobu.”

(The poem in unrhymed metre.)

  Buddha in compassion tender
  With this bell, instead of words,
  Wakens souls from life’s illusions,
  Lightens this world’s darkness drear.

  Many souls its sweet tones heeding,
  From their chains of sin are freed;
  All the mind’s unrest is soothed,
  Sinful yearnings are repressed.