Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/267

 The word "puppy" written on the forehead averts nightmares; blood taken from a cock's comb cures an indigestion resulting from a surfeit of rice dumplings, and an eruption on the head is driven away by twice reciting the sentence, "In the long days of spring weeds may be removed, but those in the garden must be cut down at once." A baby's crying is stopped by tying on its back a red cotton bag containing dog's hair; by putting under its bed straw taken from a pig-sty; by rubbing the powder of an herb on the soles of the feet or the palms of the hands, or by writing certain ideographs on paper and placing it under the pillow. The bone of a mole's head thrust into a child's pillow charms it to sleep, and loss of sight from smallpox is prevented by throwing seven peas into a well, saying seven prayers over them, and then drawing all the water from the well. Food bought with sixteen cash on the 16th of June and given to a child of sixteen guarantees it against penury throughout life. Pieces of straw taken from under the bed of a newly born infant's mother and fastened to the little one's head, ensure it against aversion to bathing, and if the placenta is buried with a pen, a cake of ink, and a needle, the baby will ultimately distinguish itself in calligraphy and sewing. There are numerous devices for facilitating childbirth, — the woman swallows a piece of paper on which the name of the province of Ise is written; or a petal of lotus having the ideograph for