Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/270

 ward-pointing finger, two crossed triangles, and outlines the ideograph "grow" inside them, reserving one stroke to be added on the following morning. There are formulæ to be repeated when an unexpected guest arrives, or when, by going abroad at night, one has to run the risk of encountering demons, or when one meets a funeral. In time of an epidemic, straw puppets are thrown into a river with ringing of bells and beating of drums, or an amulet showing the emaciated face of the saint Ganzan Daishi is fastened above the entrance. A very common practice is to protect children from whooping-cough by tracing impressions of their hands on paper which is posted over the lintel, and on the same position may often be seen rude sketches of the Guardian Deities (the Deva Kings), or of a wolf, satellite of the "God of the Three Peaks" (Mitsumine), these being a charm against infectious diseases in general. Similar security is obtained by carrying copper in the pocket, or by holding in the hand a red cotton bag containing the bone of a horse, or by throwing into a well on the 1st of January twenty red beans or seven pieces of Sesamum orientalis, and then drinking some of the water. The shell of a crab nailed over the entrances serves the purpose assigned to a horse-shoe in the Occident, and when fever is abroad folks write over their doors "Hisamatsu not at home," because the common appellation for contagious fever is osome-kaze, and Osome and