ABSTRACT
According to the Nihongi, in ancient Japan, the people, in their crude philosophy, believed that trees and herbs could speak like men (E.T.N. Vol. I, p. 64), and some of the Norito or Shintō Rituals also mention that there was a belief among the primitive Japanese that rocks, trunks of trees, even tiny blades of herbs are endowed with the power of speech (K.A.Florenz, Ancient Japanese Rituals. T.A.S.J., Vol. XXVII, Part I).
