Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/266

 exceptional attention is paid to religious exercises of all kinds. There are also years to which the epithet "closed" (happō-fusagari) is applied in the sense that no change of residence must be made or journey undertaken during the twelvemonth. These years are the same for both sexes, — the sixteenth, twenty-fifth, thirty-fourth, forty-third, fifty-second, and sixty-first.

It need scarcely be said that a prophetic import attaches to some of the commonest incidents. The loud cawing of rooks or the prolonged barking of dogs is considered ominous of evil, whereas a visit from a spider at daylight, sneezing on New Year's morn, or a glowing lamp-wick portends good fortune.

There are also various devices for enlisting the benevolent interest of the deities. Some ladies never cut out material for a costume without uttering a set formula of invocation, or placing three pinches of rice on the shoulder gusset, and nearly all eschew the "monkey" days of the calendar and choose the "bird" days for such operations, the belief being that burns and rents will result if the former precaution be neglected, and that in the latter case the garment will be as durable as the plumage of a bird.

Many superstitions are connected with children. Thus, when a little one's tooth falls out, it is thrown under the eaves or the floor with a wish, in the former case, that it may be replaced by a demon's tooth, and, in the latter case, by a rat's.