all go out to the well or to the bathroom to bathe, and return clad in the Ontaké pilgrim dress, a single white garment stamped with the names of the Ontaké gods, with the name of the mountain itself, and with the signs of their kō or pilgrim club. For, as we shall see more particularly later, all Ryōbu adepts, whether priests or laymen, are enrolled in some Ontaké pilgrim club. This solitary garment is bound about the waist by a white girdle.
In its full complement the company consists of eight persons. There is, first, the man whom the god is to possess. He is called the nakaza, or seat-in-the-midst. Equal to him in consideration is the man who presides over the function and who is to talk with deity, the exorcist, so to speak, called the maeza, or seat-in-front. Next in religious rank is the wakiza, or side-seat. He is one of the shiten or four heavens, specialized as the tōhō, or eastern side, the hoppō, or northern side, the nambō, or southern side, and the saihō, or western side. Their duty is to ward off evil influences from the four quarters. The two front ones also have the charge of the paraphernalia, and the nambō
