Page:Kojiki by Chamberlain.djvu/127

were born from the bracelet of his august right hand which he next threw down were: the Deity Shore-Distant, next the Deity Wash-Prince-of-the-Shore, next the Deity Intermediate-Direction-of-the-Shore.

The twelve Deities mentioned in the foregoing^[1] list from the Deity Come-Not-Place down to the Deity Intermediate-Direction-of-the-Shore are Deities that were born from his taking off the things that were on his person.

Thereupon saying: “The water in the upper reach is [too] rapid; the water in the lower reach is [too] sluggish,” he went down and plunged in the middle reach; and, as he washed, there was first born the Wondrous-Deity-of-Eighty-Evils, and next the Wondrous-Deity-of-Great-Evils.^[2] These two Deities are the Deities that were born from the filth [he contracted] when he went to that polluted, hideous land.^[3] The names of the Deities that were next born to rectify those evils were: the Divine-Rectifying-Wondrous Deity, next the Great-Rectifying-Wondrous-Deity,^[4] next the Female-Deity-Idzu.^[5] The names of the Deities that were next born, as he bathed at the bottom of the water, were: the Deity Possessor-of-the-Ocean-Bottom,^[6] and next His August-

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1. Lit. “right.” In Chinese and Japanese compositions the lines follow each other from right to left instead of from top to bottom as with us. “Right” therefore signifies “foregoing,” and “left,” “following.”
2. The names of these two deities in the original are Ya-so-maga-tsu-bi-no-kami and Oho-maga-tsu-bi-no-kami.
3. Viz. to Hades.
4. The names of these two deities in the original are Kamu-naho-bi-no-kami and Oho-naho-bi-no-kami.
5. Idzu-no-me-no-kami. The word Idzu is incomprehensible, unless indeed, following Motowori, we identify this goddess with the god and goddess Haya-aki dzu-hiko and Haya-aki-dzu-hime mentioned in Sect. VI, Note 10, and consider idzu as standing by apheresis for aki-dzu.
6. The original names of this deity and the five who follow are Soko-tsu-wata-tsu-mi-no-kami, Soko-dzutsu-no-wo-no-mikoto, Naka-tsu-wata-tsu-mi-no-kami, Naka-dzutsu-no-wo-no-mikoto, Uha-tsu-wata-tsu-mi-no-kami, and Uha-dzutsu-no-wo-no-mikoto. There is the usual doubt as to the (signification to be assigned to the syllable tsu in the second, fourth and last of these names. If it really means, not “elder” but “possessor,” we should be obliged to translate by “the Bottom-Possessing-Male,” etc.