name for whom is His Augustness Heaven’s-Sun-Height-Prince-Great-Rice-ears-Lord-Ears[1] (three Deities[2] [in all]).
[Sect. XXXIX.—The August Exchange of Luck.]
So His Augustness Fire-Shine was a prince who got his luck[3] on the sea, and caught things broad of fin and things narrow of fin. His Augustness Fire-Subside was a prince who got his luck on the mountains, and caught things rough of hair and things soft of hair. Then His Augustness Fire-Subside said to his elder brother His Augustness Fire-Shine: “Let us mutually exchange, and use each other’s luck.” [Nevertheless,] though he thrice made the request, [his elder brother] would not accede [to it]; but at last with difficulty the mutual exchange was obtained. Then His Augustness Fire-Subside, undertaking the sea-luck, angled for fish, but never got a single fish; and moreover he lost the fish-hook in the sea. Thereupon his elder brother His Augustness Fire-Shine asked him for the fish-hook, saying: “A mountain-luck is a luck of its own, and a sea-luck is a luck of its own. Let each of us now restore [to the other] his luck.”[4] To which the younger brother His Augustness Fire-Subside replied, saying: “As for thy
- ↑ Ama-tsu-hi-daka-hiko-ho-ho-de-mi-no-mikoto. The interpretation of the last four members of this compound name is extremely doubtful.
- ↑ The actual word in the text is not kami, “deity,” but its Auxiliary Numeral hashira.
- ↑ For the archaic Japanese word sachi, here rendered “luck,” there is no satisfactory English equivalent. Its original and most usual signification is “luck,” “happiness;” then that which a man is lucky in or skilful at,—his “forte;” and finally that which he procures by his luck or skill and the implements which he uses in procuring it. The exchange negociated below was doubtless that of the bow and arrows of one deity for the other deity’s fish-hook.
- ↑ I.e., “Some men are naturally good hunters, and others naturally good fishermen. Let us therefore restore to each other the implements necessary to the successful following of our respective avocations.”—The clause rendered “Let each of us now restore to the other his luck” is a little confused in the original; but the kana readings both old and new agree in interpreting it as has here been done.
third must be something very like what Motowori suggests, even it his guess at the original form of the word be not quite correct. The names of all three brethren differ more or less in the parallel passage of the “Chronicles.”
