together to the banks of the river Shiki and performed the ordeal (kugadachi su); and Take-no-uchi-no-sukune was justified by the gods. Then Take-no-uchi-no-sukune, taking his sword, struck down Umashi-uchi-no-sukune, and would have slain him, but the Emperor commanded that he should be pardoned and handed over to the Arae family in Kii."
The next example occurred in the reign of the Emperor Inkyō. "In the fourth year, in the autumn, in the ninth month, being the year of the snake, on the first day of the month, being the day of the bull, the Emperor gave instructions and commanded, saying: 'Anciently were the people ruled in peace, and family names were never confounded, but now in this, the fourth year of our reign, do the lower and the higher among the people contend with one another in the matter, and the people know no peace; either, peradventure, making mistake, have they lost their proper family names, or else, taking of forethought names above their station, they have turned them to their own use; and there is no law in the land. Now, perchance, it is we who are lacking in wis-
