Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/213

Rh To prevent frogs from croaking. Take powder of the flowers of wild chrysanthemum, and scatter it down the wind. This will stop their croaking for several days.

How to wake up at any hour you wish. Think steadily of the hour you want to awake. Go into your chamber, and, if a man, write on the palm of your left hand, or, if a woman, on the palm of your right hand, the Chinese character for "great." Then lick it off. Do this three times. Also repeat the following verse,—"If I should sleep too soundly, do thou, O my Pillow-God, wake me up." [There are several things here worth noting. First we have a rational piece of advice. Many, perhaps most, people can wake up when they please, in order to catch an early train or on another emergency. Then magic comes in. The virtue of the number three is widely recognised in the occult world. The preference of the left over the right is a Chinese trait. Both in China and Japan the Premier of the Left (Sadaijin) takes precedence of the Premier of the Right (Udaijin). Note also the virtue of the Chinese character, which may be compared with the use of Latin for conjuration in Europe. European precedent might also be quoted for the swallowing of written magical formulae. Lastly, the aid of religion is invoked. The Makura-gami (pillow-god) is not one of the greater gods of Japan. He has no temples, and is not mentioned in the older Shinto records. But he is, nevertheless, as genuine a deity as Morpheus. While the effective part of this process is, no doubt, the fixing of the mind steadily on the hour of waking, it may be admitted that the superadded magical and religious devices are well calculated to confirm that condition of the subliminal mind on which the desired result depends.]

How to keep away an unwelcome visitor. Take a clean bit of earthenware. Inscribe it with the name of the person and the Chinese character for "stop." Put it up in yellow paper, tie it crosswise, and bury it in the ground three feet deep at the place by which the person usually approaches.

How to avoid being thrown by a horse. Write on your hand three times the Chinese character for "south." Let no one see you do so.

How to avoid poisonous influences of all kinds when on a