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CHAPTER III.
THE BEGINNING OF ART.
NOW that we have had our view and expressed
our opinion about a house in Fukui, let us
look upon the family during an afternoon and evening
in midsummer. We should not have to watch
the fat and red-cheeked maid long before we should
see that she was well-wedded to superstitions. See
her, before broiling fish for dinner, holding up the
gridiron over her head and twirling
it three times
around so as to charm it, and thus prevent the fish
from sticking to the iron bars. She would be nearly
scared out of her wits if she accidentally stepped
over an egg-shell, for then she would go crazy, as
she thinks. Do you ever catch her, even at house-
cleaning time, sweeping
out a room with another
woman ? Never ! There must be either three or
one, else one will see a ghost at night. When salt
is brought, she throws a pinch in the fire to prevent
quarreling in the family. When Mr. Rai, her mas-
ter, started for his journey south, he hoped for fair
weather ; and to bring it she went back to the customs
of her childhood's days, and, cutting out paper
figures of a priest, hung them by a thread on the
kitchen door. Every day she drops a bean in the
well to save her master from having sore feet. Taka,