pillow, and as he crept round her august feet and wept, there was born from his august tears the Deity that dwells at Konomoto near Unewo on Mount Kagu,[1] and whose name is the Crying-Weeping-Female-Deity.[2] So he buried the divinely retired[3] Deity the Female-Who-Invites on Mount Hiba[4] at the boundary of the Land of Idzumo[5] and the Land of Hahaki.[6]
[Sect. VIII.—The Slaying of the Fire-Deity.]
Then His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites, drawing the ten-grasp
- ↑ This rendering is but tentative; for it is not certain that Hirata, whose view has been here adopted, is right in regarding Konomoto and Unewo as names of places. If we followed the older authorities, we should have to translate thus: “The Deity that dwells at the foot of the trees on the slope of the spur of Mount Kagu.” The etymology of the name of this celebrated mountain (known also as Ame-no-kagu-yama or Ama-no-kagu-yama, i.e. “Heavenly Mount Kagu”) is disputed. But Hirata’s view, according to which it should be connected with kago, “deer,” is the most plausible. If it were established we should be tempted to follow him in rendering by “deer-possessor” the name of the deity Kagu-tsu-chi, of whom were born the eight gods of mountains, and whose slaying forms the title of the next section. That the fire-deity should be connected with the mountain-deities, and thereby with the deer who roam about the mountains and furnish the hunter with a motive fur penetrating into their recesses, is of course but natural. The character 香 with which Kagu is written signifies “fragrant”; but it has been suggested that the Japanese word may be connected with an expression signifying “heaven-descended,” in allusion to the supposed origin of the mountain as related in an old geographical work (now lost) treating of the Province of Iyo.
- ↑ Naki-saha-me-no-kami. The sense of the second word of the compound is “marsh” or “stream”; but Motowori seems right in considering the character 澤 to be here used phonetically as an abbreviation of isaha from isatsu, “to weep.”
- ↑ I.e., dead.
- ↑ Etymology uncertain.
- ↑ For this name see Sect. XIX. Note 6.
- ↑ Etymology uncertain.
its natural sense as an “Auxiliary Numeral” for gods and for men of exalted rank. This seems to the translator the better view to follow, and it is supported by the use of 桂, hashira, as the regular “Auxiliary Numeral” for divine personages. The parallel passage in the “Chronicles” has simply 一兒, “one infant.”
