magical operations in which a passing-over occurs. The following may be taken as such examples:
Objects which have been magically treated are placed where persons whose injury is desired, or whom the operator wishes to control, will pass over them.[1] When a girl menstruates for the first time, she may, with the intention of securing regular and efficient menstrual periods in the future, step three times over the privy—which appears in many of the majinai for the regulation or control of menstruation—singing a certain verse while so doing.[2] If a person (especially a woman) step over a whetstone, it will become broken;[3] if a person step over one of the paper cords used for tying the hair, the cord will break easily;[4] if a woman step over a razor, it will become dull;[5] and if any part (but more especially the upper portion) of a person's body be stepped over, his growth will be interfered with, unless the transgressor steps back again over the prospective victim[6] [Chikuzen province]. If a measuring-stick, an instrument to which (as to needles and to certain other implements) a degree of sanctity is attributed, be stepped over, it will cause trouble to the person who has stepped over it, and has thus acted disrespectfully towards it [Chikuzen province]; and a person is warned not to step over a cutting instrument, such as a knife or a pair of scissors, lest it thus be caused to wound him at some future time.[7]
We are now able to perceive what appears to be a sound basis for the taboo forbidding a woman to step over a
- ↑ For a couple of examples of this, see de Visser, op. cit. p. 18, and Aston, "Japanese Magic," in Folk-Lore, vol. xxiii. p. 191.
- ↑ ten Kate, op. cit. p. 113.
- ↑ Ehman, op. cit. p. 339. Griffis, op. cit. p. 469, gives this, but only in connection with women.
- ↑ Ehman, loc. cit.
- ↑ Griffis, loc. cit.
- ↑ Compare with this the Bavarian practice, noted supra (p. 200), for counteracting the effect of stepping over a broom.
- ↑ ten Kate, loc. cit.
