ceeded to Kume, where he dwelt in Taka-miya."[1] Now the Emperor took his noon-day sleep with the Empress's knees as his pillow. Up to this time the Empress had accomplished nothing, but thought vainly to herself:—"This would be the time to do that which the Prince, my elder brother, plotted." And she wept tears which fell on the Emperor's face. The Emperor woke up and addressed the Empress, saying:—"To-day We have had a dream. A small brocade-coloured snake coiled itself round Our neck and a great rain arose from Saho, which coming hither wet Our face. What does this portend?" The Empress thereupon, knowing that she could not conceal the plot, in fear and awe bowed herself to the earth, and informed the Emperor fully of the circumstances of the Prince, her elder brother's, treason. Accordingly she addressed him, saying:—"Thy handmaiden was unable to resist the purpose of the Prince, her elder brother, and yet could not be false to the gratitude due to the Emperor. If I confessed I destroyed the Prince, my elder brother. If I said nothing, I overturned the temples of the earth and of grain,[2] so that on the one hand there was fear, and on the other there was (VI. 9.) grief. Whether I looked up or down there was lamentation, whether I advanced or retired there was weeping and wailing. Night and day I was disturbed in mind, and could find no way to give information. Only to-day when Your Majesty went to sleep with his handmaiden's knee as a pillow, she thought—'If I were mad enough to accomplish the purpose of my elder brother, at this very time the deed could be done without difficulty.' With this thought still in my mind, the tears flowed spontaneously. So I raised my sleeve to wipe away the tears, and they overflowed from the sleeve and moistened Your Majesty's face. Therefore the dream of to-day must have been an effect of this thing. The small brocade-coloured snake is nothing else than the dagger which was given me: the great rain which arose suddenly is nothing else than thy handmaiden's tears." Then the Emperor addressed the Empress, saying:—"This is not thy crime," and raising a force from the neighbouring district, he commanded Yatsunada, the
