Japan and the Japanese

FIGURE-TREADING. 267
domestics, and families ; masters for servants ; children for parents,
each corporation for its individual members ; neighbors
for each
other.* It was naturally a part of this system that no new
inhabitant was admitted into any street, except by consent of all
the h, mse-owners in it, which thus became necessary to every pur-
chase and sale of a house.
Every year, a list was made out by the street officers of all the
inhabitants in each street, with their
religion, shortly after which
came the ceremony of Jejumi, or fiyure-treadiiiy that is, tram-
pling upon the crucifix, an image of the Virgin Mary, and other
saints a ceremony which appears to be observed, at least at Na-
gasaki, down even to the present day. The images used in Ka'mp-
fer's time were about a foot long, cast in brass, and kept in a par-
ticular box for that purpose. The ceremony took place in the presence
of the street officers. Each house was entered by turns, two
messengers carrying the box. The images were laid upon the bare
floor, and, the list of the household being called over, they were
required, one by one, to tread upon them. Young children, not
yet able to walk, were held in their mothers' arms, so as to touch
the images with their feet. It has been asserted that the Dutch
were obliged to submit to this ceremony ;
but the fact was not so.
To prevent smuggling, whenever the foreign ships or junks set
sail, the street gates of Nagasaki were shut, and kept closed till the
ships were out of the harbor, strict searches being made, at uncertain
times, on which occasions every inhabitant of the street was obliged
to report himself. The same thing took place when criminals were
searched for, or other investigations, sometimes very frivolous ones,
were made. On these and other occasions of alarm, no one could
go from one street into another, except with a written pass, and
attended by an officer ;
nor could an inhabitant of Nagasaki at any
time leave the city without a similar pass and an undertaking on
the part of his neighbors for his return within a specified time.
* Caron implies that it was only as to state offences that this mutual re-
sponsibility exists. According to Guysbert, in his account of the persecution
at Nagasaki, If a converted priest was discovered, not only the householder
concealing him was held responsible, but the two nearest householders on
either side, though not only ignorant of the fact, but pagans. This strict
system was v iry effectual for the purposes of the persecution.