IV USES—CUSTOMS—SUPERSTITIONS 37 
calamity. After the Bamboo in the spring had flowered to an 
abnormal degree it was confidently predicted by the superstitious 
native that much evil was about to fall upon us. Unfortunately, 
only too true was the presentiment, for during many decades no more 
serious blow has fallen on the prosperity and happiness of the colony 
than the plague which manifested itself just as the swaying Bamboos 
burst into verdancy. Of course, it is quite possible that there is 
more in the belief that the flowering cane means ill than we might 
at first imagine. Such a phenomenon is doubtless due to abnormal 
atmospheric and climatic conditions, which, while causing the Bamboos 
to flower, may be also fertile to the development of various diseases. 
The index may therefore be more or less reliable, as reliable indeed 
as the data on which we foretell the weather. 
The editor of the Hong-Kong paper might have added 
the Chinese-Japanese war as another disastrous sequel to 
the portent. 
In the gay decorations with which the holiday-loving 
Japanese brighten their houses and streets in honour of the 
new year the Bamboo is a conspicuous feature. On the 
28th or 29th day of the twelfth month the work of decoration 
begins. A Fir tree and a stem of Bamboo are planted on 
either side of the principal door of the house, and between 
them is hung a cord of straw. To this cord are suspended 
a boiled lobster, a piece of charcoal, a large Orange, a dried 
Persimmon,! a frond of Bracken, a leaf of the evergreen Oak, 
and a piece of seaweed, all tied together into a sort of 
bouquet. The Fir and the Bamboo are evergreen emblems 
of long life; the lobster, strong in spite of its crooked back, 
is an emblem of bent, but hale old age; the charcoal, which 
does not decay, represents imperishability ; the Orange, from 
its name, Dai-dai, which by a pun means “from generation 
to generation,” and from the fact of its being supposed to 
1 The fruit of Diospyrus Kaki. 
