=The Symbol in Magic=.--In Japan, as in other countries, magic makes great use of the Symbol, the Talisman, and the Formula, spoken or written. This seems to depend on the more general notion that things which are associated in thought must have also a direct physical influence on each other, of which a familiar example among ourselves is the objection to receive a knife as a present, because it might cut the friendship between the giver and receiver. Possibly this association of the subjective with the objective (in Dr. Tylor's words "mistaking an ideal for a real connexion")[299] was in Hirata's mind when he used the somewhat cryptic phrase, "Magic (_majinahi_, or magic, means etymologically mixture) is so called because it mixes the spirit (_tama_) of that which is here with the body of that which is there." We have seen[300] that the phallus, as a symbol of robust animal life, was used to exorcise evil things, whether demons or diseases. Roof-tiles impressed with a symbol (bubbles) which is indicative of water, are used at the present day as a charm to protect houses from fire. The deification of the gourd, the clay and the water-plant, no doubt, points to a previous magical use as preventives of conflagration. Rice, perhaps as a representative of the kteis, is used for several magical purposes. In one of the _Fudoki_, unhulled rice is scattered broadcast by Tsuchigumo,[301] to disperse a strange darkness which turned day into night. =The Talisman=.--When the meaning of the symbol is altogether obliterated or unknown, we have the Talisman. It is not clear what was meant by the "tide-ebbing" and "tide-flowing" jewels given by the Sea-God to Hohodemi,[302] or even that they had any meaning at all. A sort of scarf (_hire_) was much used as a talisman. In the _Kojiki_ we are told of a scarf, which, when waved thrice, quieted snakes. Another kind gave protection against wasps and centipedes.[303] The _Nihongi_ has the following account of magical practices, suggested apparently by some acquaintance with the art of acupuncture:-- _"Summer, 4th month, 1st day. The Koryö student-priests said that their fellow-student Kura-tsukuri no Tokushi had made friends with a tiger, and had learnt from him his arts, such as to make a barren mountain change into a green mountain, or to cause yellow earth to become clear water, and all manner of wonderful arts too many to enumerate. Moreover, the tiger bestowed on him his needle, saying: 'Be watchful! be watchful, and let no one know! Treated with this, there is no disease which may not be cured.' Truly, as the tiger had said, there was no disease which was not cured when treated by it. Tokushi always kept the needle concealed in a pillar. Afterwards the tiger broke the pillar and ran away, taking the needle with him._"