at whose sight the women weaving the heavenly garments were so much alarmed that impegerunt privatas partes adversis radiis et obierunt.[1]
[Sect. XVI.—The Door of the Heavenly Rock-Dwelling.]
So thereupon the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity, terrified at the sight, closed [behind her] the door of the Heavenly Rock-Dwelling,[2] made it fast,[3] and retired. Then the whole Plain of High Heaven was obscured and all the Central Land of Reed-Plains darkened. Owing to this, eternal[4] night prevailed. Hereupon the voices of the myriad[5] Deities were like unto the flies in the fifth moon as they swarmed, and a myriad portents of woe all arose. Therefore did the eight hundred myriad[6] Deities assemble in a divine assembly in the bed[7] of the Tranquil River of Heaven, and bid the Deity Thought-Includer,[8] child of the High-August-Producing-Wondrous-Deity think of a plan, assembling the long-singing birds of eternal night[9] and making them sing, taking the hard rocks of Heaven from the river-bed of the Tranquil River of
- ↑ In the parallel passage of the “Chronicles” it is the goddess who injures herself with her shuttle, but without dying of the effects of the accident.
- ↑ Motowori says that the word “rock” need not here be taken literally. But it is always (and the translator thinks rightly) so understood, and the compound considered to mean a cave in the rocks, which is also the expression found in the “Chronicles” (岩窟).
- ↑ The word sasu, which is here used, implies that the goddess made the door fast either by sticking something against it or by bolting it,—perhaps with one of the metal hooks of which mentioned is made in Sect. LXV (Note 7).
- ↑ Toko-yo, here properly written 常夜, and a few lines lower down semi-phonetically 常世.
- ↑ Motowori supposes “myriad” to be a copyist’s error for “evil.” This clause is a repetition of one in Sect. XII.
- ↑ The parallel passage in the “Chronicles” has “eighty myriads.”
- ↑ The Japanese word kahara, translated “bed,” is thus defined in Dr. Hepburn’s Dictionary, 2nd Edit. s.v. Kawara: “That part of the stony bed of a river which is dry except in high water.”
- ↑ Omohi-kane-no-kami. “He included in his single mind the thoughts and contrivances of many,” says Motowori.
- ↑ I.e., as is generally believed, the barndoor fowl.
