Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/281

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THE GOHEI.
259

Empress, who seems to have been a pious person, was much grieved at the Emperor's sudden taking off for doubting the divine word, and resolved, woman-like, to know about those jewels, a resolve she carried out as follows: "Choosing a lucky day, she went into the purification shrine and became possessed (kannushi to naritamo). And this was the manner of it: Giving orders to Take-no-uchi-no-sukune, she caused him to play upon the august harp, and calling Nakatomi-on-ikatsu, the August Attendant, she made him the inquirer of the god (saniwa to su). Whereupon he placed a thousand cloths and rich cloths upon the top and bottom of the harp, and besought the god, saying: 'The god that spake on a former day to the Emperor, instructing him; what god was it? I would fain know his name.' Then when seven days and seven nights had passed the god answered, saying"—first what his abode was, and then what was his name, and then, in reply to further questionings of the saniwa, Nakatomi, gave instructions for conquering Korea, which had been his object from the beginning. The Empress being a very devout body, and