Vol. V.]
Vol. I. Sect. V.
21
forthwith to Heaven and enquired of Their Augustnesses the Heavenly Deities. Then the Heavenly Deities commanded and found out by grand divination,[1] and ordered them, saying: “They were not good because the woman spoke first. Descend back again and amend your words.” So thereupon descending back, they again went round the heavenly august pillar as before. Thereupon his Augustness the Male-Who-Invites spoke first: “Ah! what a fair and lovely maiden!” Afterwards his younger sister Her Augustness the Female-Who-Invites spoke: “Ah! what a fair and lovely youth!” Tali modo quum orationi finem fecerant, auguste coierunt et pepererunt a child, the Island of Ahaji, Ho-no-sa-wake.[2] Next they gave birth to the Island of Futa-na in Iyo.[3] This
- ↑ For an elaborate account of the various methods of divination practised by the Ancient Japanese see Note 5 to Mr. Satow’s translation of the “Service of the Gods of Wind at Tatsuta” in the “Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan,” Vol. VII, Pt. IV, p. 425 et seq. “The most important mode of divination practised by the primitive Japanese was that of scorching the shoulder-blade of a deer over a clear fire, and finding omens in the cracks produced by the heat.”
- ↑ Aha-ji signifies “foam-way,” i.e., “the way to Foam (Aha)-Island,” on account, it is said, of its intermediate position between the mainland and the province of Aha in what is in modern parlance the Island of Shikoku. The author of the “Chronicles of Old Affairs” fancifully derives the name from a haji “my shame.” The etymology of Ho-no-sa-wake is disputed; but Hirata, who in the body of Vol. III of his “Exposition of the Ancient Histories” had already expended much ingenuity in discussing it, gives the most satisfactory interpretation that has yet been proposed in a postscript to that volume, where he explains it to signify “Rice-ear-True-Youth.” Wake (sometimes waki or waku) is a word of frequent occurrence in the names of gods and heroes. Whether it really signifies “youth,” as Hirata believes and as it is most natural to suppose, or whether Motowori’s guess that it is an Honorific title corrupted from waga kimi ye (lit. “my prince elder brother,” more freely “lord”) remains undecided. When it is used as a “gentile name,” the translator renders it by “lord,” as that in such cases is its import apart from the question of derivation. Sa, rendered “true,” may almost be considered to have dwindled down to a simple Honorific.—It is this little island which is said by the author of the “Chronicles” to have been the caul with which the great island of Yamato was born. Ahaji and Ho-no-sa-wake must be understood to be alternative names, the latter being what in other cases is prefaced by the phrase “another name for whom.”
- ↑ Futa-na is written with characters signifying “two names,” and Motowori’s derivation from futa-narabi, “two abreast,” does not carry conviction. The
