opinion that the idea of the necessity of counting is an accretion masking the conception originally underlying the use of the broom in the case cited, there seems to me room for a possibility that a similar association of the broom with indefiniteness, and thus with immunity from the attack of a supernatural being, may occur in Japan and as a factor in the employment there of the broom for the laying of reanimated corpses.
We have observed above that if a living person be struck with a bamboo-broom, the striking is thought to be exceedingly insulting, and serious harm of some kind to that person the possible consequence of it [Yokohama].[1] Death within three years is sometimes specified as the result of being struck with a broom,[2] but the menace is probably not intended to be taken too literally, because death within the same period is threatened to one who is besprinkled with chōzu-mizu[3] (the water standing near
- ↑ The striking of children with old birch-brooms, or with twigs from such brooms, is thought in various parts of Central Europe to be exceedingly injurious to them, and to be followed by consumption, withering, failure to continue growth, and the like; Kunze, who records (op. cit. pp. 131, 149, 150) examples of this, ascribes the beliefs to symbolism attached to the dryness of the broom-twigs, and points out (p. 130) that there is still a belief in some places (e.g. in Bavaria) that whipping a child with switches of fresh birch is good for its health, while in W. Prussia a horse must not be driven with a dry birch switch lest it "dry up" (p. 131). He recognizes, however, that his theory based on a sympathetic action does not cover all his examples. He mentions, also (pp. 156, 157), that brushing a person with a broom is considered harmful in Moravia and elsewhere. Samter mentions (op. cit. p. 33, footnote 6) that if men or animals be struck with a broom they will become deteriorated ("bekommen sie den Schwund"), and ascribes the belief to the idea of the action of spirits clinging to the brush (see p. 171, supra). With the above there should be compared the Salop taboo against chastisement with "the low-growing broom," lest it should "stunt the victim's growth" (C. S. Burne, in Folk-Lore, vol. xxii. p. 18). Also, the North Carolina Negro belief that "To whip any one with a broom makes him lazy" (W. G. Black, in "Folk-Lore from the United Stales," in Folk-Lore Record, vol. iv. p. 95).
- ↑ Ehman, op. cit. p. 338.
- ↑ Ibid. loc. cit. Other penalties for such sprinkling are sometimes cited in place of the above.
