"In Japan, as with us, each baby is the most remarkable child ever seen, and wondrous are the legends rehearsed concerning each one; but it is a great day in a Japanese home when the baby, of his own accord, walks before his first birthday, and mochi (rice pastry) must be made to celebrate the auspicious event. "Young girls do not like to pour tea or hot water into a cup of _kawaméshi_ (red rice), lest their wedding-night should be rainy. "Little boys, tempted to devour too much candy, are frightened, not with prophecies of pain or threats of nauseous medicines, but by the fear of a hideous worm that will surely be produced by indulgence in sweets."[127] A peculiar superstition was in connection with the sacred trees, which were found quite numerous in both city and country. The patron gods of these trees were thought to inflict great injury upon those who might desecrate the trees. Believing this, sometimes a young woman whose affections had been stirred and then set aside used these sacred trees as a means of avenging herself. Making a rude image of straw to represent her former lover, at the "hour of the ox," two o'clock in the morning, she carried this straw man to one of these trees. Having on her feet the high clogs, worn in Japan, her hair disheveled, dressed in a loose flowing white night-dress, carrying in her hand nails and hammer, she proceeded to the tree and crucified on it the straw image of her lover. Then she beseeched the gods to whom the tree was dedicated to bring down affliction and even death upon him who mutilated the tree. These visits were repeated and the same things gone over till her recreant lover sickened and died. It is not told whether this always occurred or not. "The wonderful story of 'Raiko and the Oni' is one of the most famous in the collection of Japanese grandmothers. Its power to open the mouths and distend the oblique eyes of the youngsters long after bedtime, is unlimited. I have before me a little stitched book of seven leaves, which I bought among a lot of two dozen or more in one of the colored print and book shops in Tōkio. It is four inches long and three wide. On the gaudy cover, which is printed in seven colors, is a picture of Raiko, the hero, in helmet and armor, grasping in both hands the faithful sword with which he slays the ghoul whose frightful face glowers above him. The _hiragana_ text and wood-cuts within the covers are greatly worn, showing that many thousand copies have been printed from the original and oft-retouched face of the cherry-wood blocks. The story, thus illustrated with fourteen engravings, is as follows: