=Bakin on Magic=.--I have before me a collection of "vulgar magical practices" (_majinahi_) made early in the last century by the famous novelist Bakin.[289] It illustrates the confusion, even with highly educated men, between science and magic on the one hand, and between non-religious and religious magic on the other. A good many of Bakin's so-called _majinahi_ turn out to be merely recipes, such as how to remove oil stains from books by an application of lime; to cure costiveness in fowls by doses of saltpetre; to kill the parasites of gold-fish by means of a preparation of human excrement; to keep away bookworms by exposing the books in the sun: "If a pot-tree withers in the middle and seems likely to die, take it out, shake the earth from its roots, and expose it to the sun for one day. Then steep its roots in a drain for one night. When replanted it will thrive." The scrapings of a copper ladle mixed with fish will cure disease in cats. We approach true magic more nearly in the following: "When stung by a wasp, take up a pebble which is half sunk in the ground, turn it over, and replace it, when the pain will at once leave you." The cure of illness from eating poisonous fish by swallowing the ashes of an old almanac seems also to belong rather to magic than to medicine. There are traces of a religious element in the following: "To cure toothache, apply to the tooth the ashes of a sardine which has been set up over the door on the last day of the year."[290] Another plan is: "Inscribe on a slip of wood certain incantations (given) in the ordinary Chinese character, in the seal character, and in Sanskrit. Beside the inscription make two circles. If the toothache is in the upper jaw, knock a new nail with a purified hammer into the upper circle; if in the lower jaw, into the lower circle. If the pain does not go away, continue knocking the nail with the hammer. The slip of wood should be afterwards thrown away into a stream."[291] Bakin tried this plan and found it effectual. He attributes his immunity from conflagration to his respect for fire. He always avoided stamping it out with his foot, and enjoins on his descendants to follow his example. If the master of a house before going to bed goes round calling out, "Be careful of fire: fasten well the doors," the spirit (of his words) will fill the house, and it will be preserved against fire and robbery. On the last night of the year, and on other festival occasions, water should be drawn from the well at sunset, placed in a clean vessel, and offered without a drop being spilled to the God of the kitchen furnace. It should be returned to the well the next morning. This will prevent danger of fire.