Page:Nihongi by Aston.djvu/80

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The Age of the Gods.
49

made horses lie down in the rice-fields. Notwithstanding all these wicked doings, which went on incessantly, the Sun-Goddess was not indignant, but treated him always with calmness and forbearance, etc., etc.

(I. 46.) When the Sun-Goddess came to shut herself up in the Rock-cave of Heaven, all the Gods sent the child of Kogoto Musubi, Ama no Koyane no Mikoto, the ancestor of the Nakatomi no Muraji, and made him recite a liturgy. Hereupon Ama no Koyane no Mikoto rooted up a true Sakaki tree of the Heavenly Mount Kagu and hung upon its upper branches a mirror of eight hands, made by the ancestor of the mirror-makers, Ono-kori-dome, a child of Ama no Nukado; on the middle branches he hung curved[1] jewels of Yasaka gem made by the ancestor of the jewel-makers, Ama no Akaru-dama, a child of Izanagi no Mikoto. On the lower branches he hung tree-fibre[2] made by Ama-no Hi-washi, the ancestor of the Imbe of the province of Aha. Futo-dama no Mikoto, ancestor of the Imbe no Obito, was thereupon made to take these things in his hand, and, with lavish and earnest words of praise, to recite a liturgy.

When the Sun-Goddess heard this, she said:—'Though of late many prayers have been addressed to me, of none has the language been so beautiful as this.' So she opened a little the Rock-door and peeped out. Thereupon the God Ama no Tajikara-wo no Kami, who was waiting beside the Rock-door, forthwith pulled it open, and the radiance of the Sun-Goddess filled the universe. Therefore all the Gods rejoiced greatly, and imposed on Sosa no wo no (I. 47.) Mikoto a fine of a thousand tables of (articles of) purification.[3] Of the nails of his hands they made things abhorrent

    words of incantation, so that if anyone wrongly claimed the fields he might be destroyed. "The present custom of setting up combs in rice-fields whose ownership is disputed arose perhaps from this."

  1. The curved jewels are the well-known maga-tama, numbers of which have been preserved. They are made of chalcedony, jasper, nephrite, chrysophrase, serpentine, steatite, crystal, etc. Some of these materials are not found in Japan.
  2. Made of the bark of the paper-mulberry.
  3. The word harahi or harahe not only means purification, but an in-