seems to be of ancient standing in Japan, for Brinkley records[1] that "The house of a person who had set out upon a journey must not be swept, nor must hair be combed there, for the space of three days." That the taboo is one connected with the welfare of the absent person rather than with that of the persons remaining at home is suggested by its bracketing with the taboo against combing the hair, a widespread prohibition applying to persons whose friends or dear ones are away from home. Dr. John Steele, discussing the Japanese taboos against sweeping when a person has left his house, and using Chinese beliefs as the basis of his proposition, says[2] that "a man who leaves his house and goes abroad does not leave the house entirely. Behind him remain some of his influences. The relatives … believe that a man's spirit remains in the home to which he is accustomed, and are unwilling to disturb it by sweeping." This explanation
- ↑ F. Brinkley, Japan and China, vol. i. p. 177. The note appears to refer to the Heian epoch, which covered from about the end of the eighth century to the beginning of the twelfth.
- ↑ Trans. Japan Soc. (London), vol. xiv. p. 122, in "Discussion" following "Some Japanese Minor Magical or Religious Practices connected with Travelling."
and floors must not immediately be swept out, lest ill-fortune be thereby brought upon the traveller (ibid. loc. cit.). Samter suggests that these taboos against sweeping too soon after a person has left the house may be based upon a belief "das die Geister, die etwa im Hause weilen," are allowed to be swept out of the house only when the person is already so far distant that they can no longer harm him. Compare also Kunze, op. cit. p. 155. A Bulgarian belief quoted by Kunze (loc. cit. footnote 13) is to the effect that a house must not be swept on the day that the head of the house sets out on a journey, lest he never return home, or lest ill-luck befall him. One is led to speculate as to whether the custom, found in some parts of England, of a husband's hanging a broom from the window when his wife is away for a few days (V. S. Lean, Lean's Collectanea, Bristol, 1903, vol. ii. p. 70, quoting Notes and Queries, i. ), and the Surrey custom of the neighbours' setting the broom inverted in the top of the chimney when the housewife is away (Folk-Lore, vol. xxi. p. 3^^) are connected with conceptions of a like nature, or whether they are perhaps merely intended to signify that the broom is a woman's implement.
