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palace, in which these records were kept, was burnt. Only the history of the country was saved. From this work as well as from what the old men of the whole empire remembered, a new compilation was made under the Emperor Temmu (672–686) and in order that it might not be lost again it was read to a peasant girl, of the name of Are, said never to forget any thing she had once heard. From this record and from what Are still remembered, the first historical record of Japan, known to us, the Kojiki, was compiled about thirty years later.
