my lovely elder brother, I wish to return.[1] Moreover, I will discuss it particularly with the deities of Hades.[2] Look not at me!" Having thus spoken, she went back inside the palace; and as she tarried there very long, he could not wait. So having taken and broken off one of the end-teeth[3] of the multitudinous and close-toothed comb stuck in the august left bunch of his hair, he lit one light[4] and went in and looked. Maggots were swarming, and she was rotting, and in her head dwelt the Great-Thunder, in her breast dwelt the Fire-Thunder, in her left hand dwelt the Young-Thunder, in her right hand dwelt the Earth-Thunder, in her left foot dwelt the Rumbling-Thunder, in her right foot dwelt the Couchant-Thunder—altogether eight Thunder-deities had been born and dwelt there. Hereupon His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites, overawed at the sight, fled back, whereupon his younger sister, Her Augustness the Female-Who-Invites, said: "Thou hast put me to shame," and at once sent the Ugly-Female-of-Hades to pursue him. So His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites took his black august head-dress[5] and cast it down, and
- ↑ Return "with thee to the land of the living."
- ↑ Yomo-tsu-kami. Both Motowori and Hirata take the word "deities" in the plural, and the translator therefore renders it in that number, though the singular would be at least equally suitable to the text as it stands. Of the deities of Hades little or nothing is known.
- ↑ Literally, "the male pillar," i.e., the large tooth of which there is one at each end of the comb.
- ↑ The use of the expression "lit one light," where it would have been more natural to say simply "lit a light," is explained by a gloss in the "Chronicles," which informs us that "at the present day" the lighting of a single light is considered unlucky, as is also the throwing away of a comb at night-time. It is allowed that the gloss is a late addition, and its statement might perhaps be considered a mere invention made to account for the peculiar expression in the text. Motowori tells us, however, that "it is said by the natives" that these actions are still (latter part of 18th century) considered unlucky in the province of Ihami, and the same superstition also survives, as the translator is assured, in Yedo itself. It is to be understood that it was the large tooth broken off from the comb which the god lighted.
- ↑ We might perhaps with equal propriety render by "wreath" the word here translated head-dress—leaves and flowers having been the earliest ornaments for the hair. In later times, however, it has been used to designate any sort of head-dress, and that is also the dictionary meaning of the Chinese character with which it is written. The Japanese words
