Producing-Wondrous-Deity and the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity again asked all the Deities, [saying]: “The Heavenly-Young-Prince is long of bringing back a report.[1] Which Deity shall we send on a fresh mission to enquire the cause of the Heavenly-Young-Prince’s long tarrying?” Thereupon all the Deities and likewise the Deity Thought-Includer replied, saying: “The pheasant the Name-Crying-Female[2] should be sent,” upon which [the High-August-Producing-Wondrous-Deity and the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity] charged [the pheasant], saying: “What thou shalt go and ask the Heavenly-Young-Prince is this: ‘The reason for which thou wast sent to the Central Land of Reed-Plains was to subdue and pacify the savage Deities of that land. Why for eight years bringest thou back no report?’ ” So then the Crying-Female, descending from Heaven, and perching on the multitudinous [ly-branching] cassia-tree[3] at the Heavenly-Young-Prince’s gate, told him everything according to the mandate of the Heavenly Deities. Then the Heavenly-Spying-Woman,[4] having heard the bird’s words, spoke to the Heavenly-Young-Prince, saying: “The sound of this bird’s cry is very bad. So thou shouldest shoot it to death.” On her [thus] urging him, the Heavenly-Young-Prince at
- ↑ Literally, “long brings back no report.”
- ↑ Na-naki-me. If the view here taken of the meaning of the Japanese expression be correct (it is that preferred by Motowori and Hivata), the pheasant would seem to have been supposed to cry out its own name,—in Archaic Japanese kigishi. The syllables na naki me, however, lend themselves equally well to the interpretation of “nameless female,” and are in the “Chronicles” found written with characters having that signification. Another reasonable opinion is that the name should be connected with the tradition mentioned further on of the pheasant having been the mourner (lit. “crying female,” naki-me) at the funeral of the Heavenly-Young-Prince. In this case the word na, “name,” would have to be considered redundant, and it will be observed that, the next time the name is mentioned, we find simply naki-me, “crying female,” without the syllable in question.
- ↑ Katsura-no-ki, variously written 桂, 楓, 香木, 杜木, and phonetically 加都羅. Though it is not absolutely certain what tree is intended, the weight of authority and of probability is in favour of its being the cassia, which plays a part in Chinese mythology. In modern parlance the katsura is a tree whose Latin name is Cercidiphyllum japonicum.
- ↑ Ama-no-sagu-me.
