there can be no harm in accepting them as of equal authority with it. Some are, no doubt, of still greater antiquity.
An institution which must have contributed substantially, though perhaps indirectly, to the collection and conservation of the materials for the more legendary part of the Nihongi was the Katari Be, or hereditary corporation of reciters. Unfortunately we know very little about it. Hirata, in his Koshichō, states, on what authority does not appear, that the Katari Be came forward and recited "ancient words" before the Emperor at the festival of Ohonihe when he inaugurated his reign by sacrifices to the Gods. It is not probable that their services were confined to this occasion.
Character and Contents of the Nihongi.—The Nihongi consists of very heterogeneous elements which by no means all answer to our ideas of history. The earlier part furnishes a very complete assortment of all the forms of the Untrue of which the human mind is capable, whether myth, legend, fable, romance, gossip, mere blundering, or downright fiction. The first two books are manifestly mythological. They are followed by an account of Jimmu's Conquest of Yamato, which has probably a basis of truth, though the legendary character obviously predominates.
Most of the meagre details given us of the reigns of the next eight Emperors have a Chinese stamp, and must, I fear, be pronounced simply fictitious. Nor need this greatly surprise us. There are other countries where
Mortal men are ever wont to lie,
Whene'er they speak of sceptre-bearing kings.
A portrait gallery in Holyrood Palace illustrates the same principle, though in a different way.
Then we have a series of legendary stories full of miraculous incidents, but in which grains of truth may here and there be discerned. The value of this early part of the work is enhanced by the numerous poems of great antiquity which have been incorporated into it, and which have considerable antiquarian and philological interest.
The narrative becomes more and more real as it goes on, until about the 5th century we find ourselves in what, without too violent a departure from the truth, may be called genuine
