fish-hook, I did not get a single fish by angling with it; and at last I lost it in the sea.” But the elder brother required it of him [the more] urgently. So the younger brother, breaking his ten grasp sabre[1] that was augustly girded on him, made [of the fragments] five hundred fish hooks as compensation; but he would not take them. Again he made a thousand fish-hooks as compensation; but he would not receive them, saying: “I still want the real original fish-hook.”
[Sect. XL.—The Palace of the Ocean-Possessor.]
Hereupon, as the younger brother was weeping and lamenting by the sea-shore, the Deity Salt-Possessor[2] came and asked him, saying: “What is the cause of the Sky’s-Sun-Height’s[3] weeping and lamentation?” He replied, saying: “I had exchanged a fish-hook with my elder brother,[4] and have lost that fish-hook; and as he asks me for it, I have given him many fish-hooks as compensation; but
- ↑ See Sect. VIII, Note 1.
- ↑ Shiho-tsuchi no kami. The view of the meaning of this name which has here been taken is founded on the persistent use in all documents of the character 鹽, “salt,” to write the first element of the compound, and of varying characters to write the syllables tsu and chi, an indication that the latter are to be taken phonetically and may therefore be interpreted to signify tsu mochi, “possessor of,” as in numerous other instances. The fact that this god is known as the god of salt-manufacturers (see Tanigaha Shisei’s “Perpetual Commentary on the Chronicles of Japan” Vol. VII, p. 3) adds another reason for rejecting both Motowori’s far-fetched derivation of the name from Shiri-oho-tsu-mochi, “Great Possessor of Knowledge,” and his assertion that it denotes no individual deity, but any one gifted with superior wisdom.
- ↑ Sora-tsu-hi-daka. It will be remembered that Ama-tsu-hi-daka, “Heaven’s-Sun-Height,” was the first part of Prince Fire-Subside’s alternative name (see Sect. XXXVIII, Note 15). The distinction between these two almost identical appellations would seem to be that the former is used of the Heir Apparent, the latter of the reigning sovereign. Both were therefore equally applicable to Prince Fire-Subside; and while that which he eventually bore is mentioned where his names are first given, he is naturally spoken of in this place, when his father may be supposed to have been still living, by that variation of the name properly marking the Heir Apparent. These names, Ama-tsu-hi-duka and Sora-tsu-hi-daka, will be met with again below applied to other personages.
- ↑ I.e., “I had received a fish-hook from my elder brother in exchange for a bow.” The text is here concise to obscurity.
