in her head were born silkworms, in her two eyes were born rice-seeds, in her two ears was born millet,[1] in her nose were born small beans,[2] in her private parts was born barley,[3] in her fundament were born large beans.[4] So His Augustness the Deity-Producing-Wondrous-Ancestor[5] caused them to be taken and used as seeds.
[Sect. XVIII.—The Eight-Forked Serpent.]
So, having been expelled, [His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness] descended to a place [called] Tori-kami[6] at the head-waters of the River Hi[7] in the Land of Idzumo. At this time some chopsticks[8] came floating down the stream. So His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness, thinking that there must be people at the head-waters of the river, went up it in quest of them, when he came upon an old man and an old woman,—two of them,—who had a young girl between them,[9] and were weeping. Then he deigned to ask: “Who are ye?” So the old man replied, saying: “I[10] am an Earthly Deity,[11] child of the Deity Great-Mountain-Possessor.[12] I am called by the name of Foot-Stroking-Elder,[13] my wife
- ↑ Panicum Italicum.
- ↑ Phaselous Radiatus.
- ↑ Or less probably “wheat.”
- ↑ Soja Glycine.
- ↑ Kami-musu-bi-mi-oya-no-mikoto, the same deity as the one mentioned at the beginning of these “Records” under the shorter title of Kami-musu-bi-no-kami. (See Sect. I. Note 6.)
- ↑ Written with the characters 鳥髪, “bird’s hair,” but these must surely be phonetic. In the “Chronicles” the same name is written 鳥止.
- ↑ Or Hii, the chief river in Idzumo. The name is supposed by some to have been derived from the name of the god Hi-hayabi (see Section VIII. Note 6).
- ↑ Or in the Singular, “a chopstick.”
- ↑ Literally “had placed a young girl between them,” a similar construction to that in Section XIII. (Note 12).
- ↑ The humble character 僕 “servant” is used by the old man for the First Personal Pronoun.
- ↑ 國神. Being generally use antithetically to 天神, “Heavenly Deity,” it seems better to translate the characters thus than by “Country Deity” or “Deity of the Land.” (See Section I. Note 11).
- ↑ Oho-yama-tsu-mi-no-kami, first mentioned in Sect. VI. (Note 17).
- ↑ Ashi-nadzu-chi, the wife’s name being Te-nadzu-chi. “One account” in the
