Heaven, and entreated His Divine-Producing-Wondrous-Augustness, who at once sent Princess Cockle-Shell and Princess Clam to bring him to life. Then Princess Cockle-Shell triturated and scorched her shell, and Princess Clam carried water and smeared him as with mother's[1] milk, whereupon he became a beautiful young man, and wandered off. Hereupon the eighty deities, seeing this, again deceived him, taking him with them into the mountains, where they cut down a large tree, inserted a wedge in the tree and made him stand in the middle, whereupon they took away the wedge and tortured him to death. Then on Her Augustness his august parent again seeking him with cries, she perceived him, and at once cleaving the tree, took him out and brought him to life, and said to him: "If thou remain here, thou wilt at last be destroyed by the eighty deities." Then she sent him swiftly off to the august place of the deity Great-House-Prince in the land of Ki. Then when the eighty deities searched and pursued till they came up to him, and fixed their arrows in their bows, he escaped by dipping under the fork of a tree, and disappeared.
THE NETHER-DISTANT-LAND
The deity Great-House-Prince spoke to him, saying: "Thou must set off to the Nether-Distant-Land where dwells His Impetuous-Male-Augustness. That great deity will certainly-counsel thee." So on his obeying her commands and arriving at the august place of His Impetuous-Male-Augustness, the latter's daughter the Forward-Princess[2] came out and saw him, and they exchanged glances and were married, and she went in again, and told her father, saying: "A very
- ↑ Or "nurses." The meaning is that a paste like milk was made of the triturated and calcined shell mixed with water. There is in this passage a play upon words which it is impossible to reproduce in English, the Japanese term for "triturating," kisage (which the author has taken care to write phonetically) resembling the name of Princess Kisagahi (Cockle-Shell), while omo, "mother" or "nurse," similarly recalls that of Princess Umugi (Clam). Motowori traces the names of the shell-fish in question to this exploit of the two goddesses.
- ↑ This is Motowori's view of the import of the original name Suseribime, which he connects with susumu, "to advance," "to press forward,"
