Male-Who-Invites spoke, saying: “Thine Augustness my lovely younger sister! the lands that I and thou made are not yet finished making; so come back!” Then Her Augustness the Female-Who-Invites answered, saying: “Lamentable indeed that thou camest not sooner! I have eaten of the furnace of Hades.[1] Nevertheless, as I reverence[2] the entry here of Thine Augustness my lovely elder brother, I wish to return.[3] Moreover[4] I will discuss it particularly with the Deities of Hades.[5] Look not at me!” Having thus spoken, she went back inside the palace; and as she tarried there very long, he could not wait. So having taken and broken off one of the end-teeth[6] of the multitudinous and close-toothed comb stuck in the august left bunch [of his hair], he lit one light[7] and went in and looked. Maggots were swarming, and [she
- ↑ I.e. “of the food of Hades.” It would be more obvious (following the text) to translate “I have eaten in the doors [i.e. in the house] of Hades”; but the character 戸 in this place stands almost certainly for 竃, “a place for cooking,” “a furnace.”
- ↑ The word kashikoshi (恐), here translated “reverence,” exactly corresponds to the modem polite idiom osore-iri-mashita, for which there is no precise equivalent in English, but which conveys some such sentiment as “I am overpowered by the honour you do me,” “I am sorry you should have taken the trouble.”
- ↑ Q.d. “with thee to the land of the living.”
- ↑ The original here has the character 且 which signifies “moreover” as in the translation, and Motowori’s proposed emendation to 旦 has for it the authority of no manuscript or earlier printed edition. In his “Records of Ancient Matters with the Ancient Reading” he actually substitutes this very new reading, accompanying it in kana with the Japanese words ashita ni, “in the morning.” But what is to become of the text if we are at liberty to alter it to suit our convenience,—for there is more than one other passage where 且 is similarly used?
- ↑ Yomo-tsu-kami. Both Motowori and Hirata take the word “Deities” in the Plural, and the translator therefore renders it in that number, though the Singular would be at least equally suitable to the text as it stands. Of the Deities of Hades little or nothing is known. Conf. Note 23 to this Section.
- ↑ Literally “the male pillar,” i.e. the large tooth of which there is one at each end of the comb.
- ↑ The use of the expression “lit one light,” where it would have been more natural to say simply “lit [a] light,” is explained by a gloss in the “Chronicles,” which informs us that “at the present day” the lighting of a single light is considered unlucky, as is also the throwing away of a comb at night-time. It is allowed that the gloss is a late addition, and its statement might perhaps be
