Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/438

 384 Reviews.

many examples of domestic or household magic as practised in Japan at the present day. They include the safeguarding of houses, their contents, and their inmates. Amulets are put up in the houses to protect them against fire, thieves, and especially demons. In Yokohama a house is safeguarded against fire in this way, — " a cup of water having been offered before the picture of a certain Fire-God, sparks are struck, by means of a flint and steel, so as to fall into the water, after which the latter is thrown upon the roof of the house" (p. 142). To keep vermin, such as insects, rats, mice, snails, or snakes, out of the house, there are numerous charms, most of which take the form of printed or written papers. One, quoted by Mr. Aston, is a written notice, to be pasted up on the route used by ants to enter the house, " Admittance, one cash each person," on which he comments, " The economical ant goes no further." Mr. Hildburgh says, — " In Japan, just as elsewhere, a considerable portion of the household magic, both ceremonial and amuletic, is centred about the children of the family" (p. 144); numerous interesting examples illustrate this statement. " Of love charms, pure and simple, a multitude exist, despite the infrequency of love-marriages in Japan." There are many methods of divina- tion, and " last of all, we have baneful magic, used for the satis- faction of private revenge or of jealousy, as an aid to justice, or even, in a diluted and almost innocuous form, to secure such minor ends as the relief of momentary annoyance" (p. 155). It would take too much space to give examples of all these various practices, and they are here alluded to merely in order to turn the attention of students to this excellent paper.

A. C. Haddon.

Books for Review should be addressed to

The Editor of Folk-Lore,

cj'o David Nutt,

57-59 Long Acre, London, W.C.