were evidently obsolescent or unintelligible at the time when the legends crystallized into their present shape, and stories are told purporting to give their origin. Thus we learn either in the “Records” or in the “Chronicles,” or in both works, why it is unlucky to use only one light, to break off the teeth of a comb at night-time, and to enter the house with straw hat and rain-coat on. The world-wide dread of going against the sun is connected with the Jim-mu legend, and recurs elsewhere.[1] We also hear of charms,—for instance, of the wondrous “Herb-Quelling Sabre” found by Susa-no-Wo (the “Impetuous Male Deity”) inside a serpent’s tail, and still preserved as one of the Imperial regalia. Other such charms were the “tide-flowing jewel” and “tide-ebbing jewel,” that obtained for Jim-mu’s grandfather the victory over his elder brother, together with the fish-hook which figures so largely in the same legend.[2] Divination by means of the shoulder-blade of a stag was a favourite means of ascertaining the will of the gods. Sometimes also human beings seem to have been credited in a vague manner with the power of prophetic utterance. Earthenware pots were buried at the point of his departure by an intending traveller. In a fight the initial arrow was regarded with superstitious awe. The great precautions with which the Empress Jin-gō is said to have set out on her expedition to Korea have already been alluded to, and indeed the commencement of any action or enterprise seems to have had special importance attributed to it.
To conclude this survey of the religious beliefs of the Early Japanese by referring, as was done in the case of the arts of life, to certain notable features which are conspicuous by their absence, attention may
- ↑ In the Jim-mu legend we have the more usual form of the superstition, that, viz., which makes it unlucky to go from West to East, which is the contrary of the course pursued by the sun. In Sect. CLIII, on the other hand, the Emperor Yū-riaku is found fault with for acting in precisely the reverse manner, viz., for going from East to West, i.e. with his back to the sun. The idea is the same, though its practical application may thus diametrically differ, the fundamental objection being to going against the sun, in whatever manner the word against, or some kindred expression, may be interpreted.
- ↑ See Sects. XXXIX to XLI. For the “Herb-Quelling Sabre” see Sects. XVIII and LXXXII, et. seq.
