The greater number of these are believed by the larger portion of the people particularly in the country. Among these superstitions is the one which forbids the sweeping of the rooms of a house immediately after one of the inmates has started on a journey, or gone away in order to be absent for some time. It is said that, if the rooms are swept, all the luck of the house would be swept out with him. If a person is very ill, and the cup of medicine intended for him is overturned by accident, it is taken as a sure indication of his recovery. This would seem to show as if the Japs believed in the truth of the saying "Throw physic to the dogs." Some curious superstitions are prevalent about the paring of fingernails. There is a standing prohibition against the cutting of finger-nails just before starting on a journey, as it is feared that the disregard of this superstition would entail disgrace upon the person at the place of his destination. The same prohibition extends against the paring of nails at night-time, as it is believed that, if a person does so, cat's nails will grow out of his fingers. If a child cast the clippings of his nails into the brazier or fire, some calamity is sure to befall him. If anybody is cutting his nails, and a piece of the clipping happens, by accident, to be cast into the fire, he will die soon. This danger is, however, averted by burning some salt in the fire. This mysterious preservative power of salt has given rise to several other household superstitions. A housewife will not, for all the world, buy salt during night-time. When it is, however, purchased during the day-time, a small part of it must first be thrown into the fire to avert all impending dangers, especially familyquarrels This useful article of seasoning is also scattered about the threshold and within the house, just after a funeral, in order to purify the same from uncleanness. If a person loses a tooth, either artificially at the hands of a dentist, or by forceps, or by accident, he, in order to ensure the growth of another tooth in the empty socket, buries it, if it is from the upper jaw, under the foundation of the house, and, if from the lower jaw, throws it on to the roof of the house. If a person, while eating, happens to bite his tongue, it is taken as a sign that somebody else is begrudging him his food.* When smallpox rages in an epidemic form in a neighbourhood, the people thereof, who do not wish that their children should get attacked by this fell disease, write a notice on the front of their houses to the effect that their youngsters are absent therefrom; and doing so, is said to keep off the disease. This is similar to the custom that prevails among the Hindus of Northern India, according to which parents, whose children die in infancy, give to the latter opprobrious names, or, if the children be girls, dress them as boys and vice versa, in order to cheat death or the diseasedemon of his intended victims. Many Japanese superstitions are connected with death. A Jap will never sleep with his head placed northwards and his feet pointing to the south, because the corpse of a Japanese is always placed in that position. So deeply engrained is this superstition that printed diagrams showing the cardinal points of the compass are posted up in the sleeping-rooms of private houses and hotels for the benefit of the superstitious sleepers. Mr. W. E. Griffis says: "I have often noticed, in the sleeping-rooms of private houses, where I was a guest, and in many of the hotels, a diagram of the cardinal points of the compass printed on paper, and * On. cit., pp. 466-470. pasted on the ceiling of the room, for the benefit of timid sleepers Some Japanese, in travelling carry a compass, to avoid this really natural and scientific position in sleep. I have often surprised people, especially students, in Japan, by telling them that to lie with the head to the north was the true position in harmony with the electric currents in the atmosphere. I used to shock them by invariably sleeping in that position myself.”* The plaintive howling of a dog. during the night, portends, to the Japanese, a death in some family living in the vicinity of that animal.† This superstitious belief also prevails among the Hindus of Bengal. The primitive but touching custom of calling the name of the dead immediately after death prevails among the Japanese of Oki and Izumo. It is believed that the call may be heard by the fleeting soul which might sometimes be thus induced to return. Therefore, when a mother dies, the youngest child (always the pet one) should first call her, and then the other children Thereafter the husband and all those who loved her cry to her in turn.§ It is also the custom to call loudly the name of one who faints, or becomes insensible from any cause whatever. It is, however, said that, of those who swoon from pain or grief especially, many approach very nearly to death and always undergo the same experiences || Japanese Folklore about the Hair.-The Greek myth about Medusa has many an analogue in Japanese Griffis's The Mikado's Empire, p. 468. + Op. cit, p. 468. Vide the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, Vol II., pp. 13-14. § Hearn's Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Vol. II, p. 611. Op. cit., p. 611. folklore. There are many Japanese folk-tales, of which the heroines are uncommonly beautiful girls, whose hair, however, turn to snakes at night and who are ultimately discovered to be either dragons or dragons' daughters. But, in olden times, it was believed in Japan that the hair of any young woman might, under certain trying circumstances, as, for instance, under the influence of longrepressed jealousy, transform themselves into serpents. In ancient times, Japanese noblemen used to keep their concubines (makaké or aishō) under the same roof with their lawfully-wedded wives (okusama). Although these ladies lived in perfect seeming amity by daytime, their secret hatred for each other would manifest itself at night by their respective long black tresses uncoiling themselves and hissing and striving to devour those of the other. Their hatred for each other went to such a length that, even, the mirrors of the sleeping ladies. would dash themselves against each other, for an ancient Japanese proverb says that "a mirror is the soul of a woman." There is a well-known tradition about one Kato Sayemon Shigenji, who beheld, in the night, the hair of his wife and that of his concubine, changed into vipers, writhing together and hissing at and biting each other. Then Kato Sayemon felt sorely sorry for that bitter hatred which existed among the women of his household on account of his own fault. He thereafter shaved his head and became a priest.* Japanese superstition about the left side.-In ancient Japanese philosophy, the left side is considered as the "pure" or fortunate one-a theory, perhaps, based on the old belief, which is common enough among the uneducated people in Europe even at the present day, that the heart lies to the left. Op. cit., Vol. II.. pp. 425-427. The modern Japs, accordingly, twist the shimenawa, of whatever thickness it may be, to the left so that the direction of the twist might be in that way.' Some Curious Japanese Superstitions-They also entertain superstitious beliefs about using only one light in the house at once ; about breaking off the teeth of a comb in the night time; about the destination of the first arrow shot in battle, and a host of others. Impurity is superstitiously attached to the mother at the birth of a child, and to the house and those associated with it, in which a death has occurred In former times, a mother, when about to be confined, was required to retire alone into a separate dwelling or hut without windows. The custom also prevailed, in ancient times, of abandoning a dwelling house in which a death had occurred. This custom gave rise to the practice, so often referred to in ancient Japanese documents, of each new Emperor occupying a different palace from that of his predecessor The Japanese have also a curious superstition about fighting with the back to the sun. This practice is said to have originated from the fact that, at a battle, the Japanese Prince Itsu-se was hit in his hand by an arrow shot by Prince Nagasune. Thereupon the former exclaimed :-"It is not right for me, an august child of the Sun Goddess, to fight facing the sun. It is for this reason that I am stricken by the wretched villain's hurtful hand" The wounded The wounded prince died from the effects of the wound after a few days.t SECTION V-DOMESTIC MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Japanese Manners and Customs.-The Japanese have curious manners and customs Mr. Douglas Sladen says:—“You may see a Japanese do almost anything • Hearn's Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Vol. II., p. 495. + Murray's Japan, pp. 84-5; p. 54. |