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Hereupon Ama-terasu-ô-mi-kami spake unto Kamu-haya-susanoö-no-mikoto and said: “I have heard that there is a god named Ukemochi-no-kami in the central country of luxuriant reedy moors (Japan). Go thou and see.” Then Haya-susanoö-no mikoto, obeying the most august command, descended from heaven, and coming to the august abode of Ukémochi-no-kami, asked for food from that Ukémochi-no-kami. When Ukémochi-no-kami hereupon brought forth from nose, mouth and hinder parts various kinds of food, and arranging them in various forms on a banqueting-table, entertained him, Haya-susanoö-no-mikoto stood and watched the proceedings, and thinking that she was offering foul things, was angry and grew hot, and spake, saying:—“Foul indeed, despicable indeed. Why feed me with foul things?” Having spoken, he drew his sword, and having struck that Ukémochi-no-kami dead, reported, and when he told the matter in detail, Amaterasu-ô-mi-kame was very angry, and having said: “Thou art a wicked god, I do not desire to meet thee,” remained secluded from him one day and one night.
Then when Amaterasu-ô-mi-kami afterwards a second time sent Amé-kuma-no-ushi and caused him to see, Ukémochi-no-kami was really dead. As to the things which grew on the body of the goddess whom he (Susanoö-no-mikoto) had killed, awa[1] grew on the forehead, a silk-worm and mulberry tree grew on the eyebrows, hiyé[2] grew on the eye, a rice-seed grew on the belly, barley, a large bean and a small bean on the private parts, and the head changed into a cow and horse. When Amé-kuma-no-ushi then took them all and presented them, Amaterasu-ô-mi-kami rejoiced and spake, saying: “These things are things on which the beautiful green-human-herb eating may live.” Then she constituted awa, hiyé, barley and beans seeds of the dry-fields, and constituted rice seed of the watery-fields. Also she appointed lords of the villages of heaven, and for the first time made them plant those rice-seeds in the narrow fields and long fields of heaven, so that in the
