gave birth to was the deity Bird's-Rock-Camphor-tree-Boat, another name for whom is the Heavenly-Bird-Boat. Next, they gave birth to the deity Princess-of-Great-Food. Next, they gave birth to the Fire-Burning-Swift-Male deity, another name for whom is the deity Fire-Shining-Prince, and another name is the deity Fire-Shining-Elder.
RETIREMENT OF HER AUGUSTNESS THE PRINCESS-WHO-INVITES
Through giving birth to this child her august private parts were burned, and she sickened and lay down.[1] The names of the deities born from her vomit were the deity Metal-Mountain-Prince and, next, the deity Metal-Mountain-Princess. The names of the deities that were born from her fæces were the deity Clay-Viscid-Prince and, next, the deity Clay-Viscid-Princess. The names of the deities that were next born from her urine were the deity Mitsuhanome and, next, the Young-Wondrous-Producing deity. The child of this deity was called the deity Luxuriant-Food-Princess. So the deity the Female-Who-Invites, through giving birth to the deity of Fire, at length divinely retired. (Eight deities in all from the Heavenly-Bird-Boat to the deity Luxuriant-Food-Princess.) The total number of islands given birth to jointly by the two deities the Male-Who-Invites and the Female-Who-Invites was fourteen, and of deities thirty-five. (These are such as were given birth to before the deity the Princess-Who-Invites divinely retired. Only the Island of Onogoro was not given birth to,[2] and, moreover, the Leech-Child[3] and the Island of Aha are not reckoned among the children.)
So then His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites said: "Oh! Thine Augustness my lovely younger sister! Oh! that I
- ↑ "Lying down" (koyasu) is a term often used in the archaic language in the sense of "dying." But here it must be taken literally, the death ("divine retirement") of the goddess being narrated a few lines further on.
- ↑ This island was not born, but arose spontaneously from drops of brine.
- ↑ Hiru-go was not counted among the children of these deities for the reason that the latter abandoned him as soon as he was born, he being a failure. The reason for omitting Aha from the computation is not so clear.
