THE AWAKENING OF JAPAN
inexorable customs and_ restrictions, their energy had to vent itself either through the frivolity of life or the sadness of religion. Can we wonder that to the more serious commoners religion consisted in an appeal to the infinite mercy of Amitaba for absorption in that divine love, the expression of which is so marked in the Bhaktas of India? Can we blame the weaker and more frivolous among them for seeking forgetfulness in the idealization of folly?
Below the commoners, and, in fact, ostracized entirely from the social scheme, were the outcasts known as Yettas. They were the descendants of criminals, who, in early times, were not allowed to intermarry with other families, and so formed a distinct caste by themselves. Some of them became
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