Show 4 CURIOUS IDOL WORSHIP Worshipers Write Their Prayers Prayer and Throw Them as Spit Balls Along the sacred road of Nikko in Japan Is an idol about which centers one of the most curious worships in inthe inthe inthe the world Upon th the tho surface of the statue are seen little pieces of what appears to be dried paper If you stand by the idol for a while and wait for a n. worshipper to come along you will see what these bits of paper are The deVotee halts in front of at the Image then scribbles a prayer on a abit abit abit bit of paper The Thead wad ad he hu then chews up into a ball and hurls at the god If it hits the face and sticks the prayer is sure to be granted and the pious pilgrim goes away happy If the ball sticks to some portion of the body the omen is not quite so propitious and if it falls to the ground there is absolutely no hope Such a mode of prayer is is even more curious than the praying wheels of the Buddhists who set the wheel revolving revolving revolving re re- and reel off prayers by machinery ma- ma chInery As John L. L Stoddard the lecturer says says' One sees of course numberless strange rites connected connect d with religion in traveling tra about the world but Japan is the only land I have ever visited where deities serve as targets for masticated prayers |