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child of so poor a consistency, that he was unable to stand on his legs when he had reached the age of three years. They put him into a boat woven of rushes, which were the only available materials then existing, and abandoned him to his fate on the wide ocean. Another child which they begot, named Awa no shima, was also a failure, and they were driven to ask the advice of the Celestial Gods. The Celestial Gods had recourse to divination, which is explained to be a means of obtaining knowledge or information from divine beings, without their being aware of it. It seems strange that the three gods who hold the highest rank among their race, should not have been able to give a direct answer without applying to some one else, but Hirata explains this apparent anomaly by the analogy of a prince who charges each of his servants with some branch of affairs, and in answer to a request for information on any point refers the inquirer to the servant who knows all about it. The answer to Izanagi and his consort was that they should try over again, and as they carefully avoided the error which they had committed on the previous occassion, they were very successful. The first of the series of children which they now begot was Oho-yamato Akitsushima, the main island of Japan, and it was born with a caul, which is the present island of Awaji. Both of the names Yamato and Akitsu-shima originally belonged to the present province of Yamato, the former dating from a late period of the so-called Divine Age, the latter from the reign of Jimmu Tennô.[1] They were afterwards extended to the whole
- ↑ The Chinese posthumous names of the early mikados are supposed to have been determined in the reign of Kuammu (782-806). The ear-
poris eum qui superfluus crevit locum, corporis tui in eum locum inserere qui non continuus crevit, et terram generare.” Izanami respondit, “Commodum erit.” Tunc Izanagi, “Ego et tu, quin circumeuntes cœlestem hanc columnam, thalamo jucunde coimus.” Hac pactione facta, “Tu sinistra,” inquit Izanagi, “ego autem dextra, circumeuntes occurremus.” Hac pactione facte ubi circumeuntes faciem facei opposuerunt, Izanami primum “O adolescens venuste,” deinde Izanagi, “O virgo venusta.” Postquam hæc locuti sunt, Izanagi, nullo modo gaudens, dixit sorori, “Me decebat primum loqui, quia vir sum; non est foeminæ primum verba facere.” Sed ubi incipientes (sc. opus procreationis) coierunt in thalamo, artem ignorabant. Tunc advolavit motacilla, qui caput caudamque movebat. Dii hoc imitantes, coitionis viam cognoverunt, et filium hirudini similem pepererunt.
