mato-take's Empress,[1] whose name was Her Augustness Princess Oto-tachibana, said: "I[2] will enter the sea instead of the august child.[3] The august child must complete the service[4] on which he has been sent, and take back a report to the Heavenly Sovereign." When she was about to enter the sea, she spread eight thicknesses of sedge rugs, eight thicknesses of skin rugs, and eight thicknesses of silk rugs on the top of the waves, and sat down on the top of them. Thereupon the violent waves at once went down, and the august ship was able to proceed. Then the Empress sang, saying:
"Ah! thou whom I inquired of, standing in the midst of the flames of the fire burning on the little moor of Sagamu, where the true peak pierces!"[5]
So seven days afterward the Empress's august comb drifted on to the sea-beach which comb was forthwith taken and placed in an august mausoleum which was made.
YAMATO-TAKE SLAYS THE DEITY OF THE ASHIGARA PASS
When, having thence penetrated on and subdued all the savage Yemish[6] and likewise pacified all the savage deities
- ↑ I.e., his consort.
- ↑ As written, literally, "concubine."
- ↑ I.e., "instead of thee, the Prince."
- ↑ More literally, "finish the government."
- ↑ The general purport of the poem is, of course, to allude to Yamato-take's adventure on the burning moor, and at the same time to the love which bound him and his consort together; almost each individual line offers matter for doubt. Finally Moribe points out that the song does not suit the context in which it is found, and has probably been erroneously inserted here instead of in an earlier portion of the text.
- ↑ This is the traditional ancient reading of what is, according to the modern pronunciation, Yezo, while the Chinese characters with which the name is written signify "Prawn Barbarians," in allusion (if Motowori may be trusted) to the long beards which make their faces resemble a prawn's head. The hairy barbarians known to English readers as Ainos, and whose name of Yezo is applied by the Japanese to the northernmost large island of the Japanese archipelago, which is still chiefly tenanted by them, are almost certainly here referred to. In ancient times they inhabited a great part of the main island of Japan. The translator may add that the genuineness of the so-called ancient reading "Yemishi" appears to him doubtful. The name known to the people themselves, and which apparently can be traced as far as Kamschatka, is Yezo.
