— 48 —
Hidari-no-Otomohi-no-Tsukasa or Left-scribe, issued a verbal order, in the Emperor’s name, saying that “From now on the members of the Nakatomi Family alone, and not those of other families, should be appointed Imperial envoys to convey the divine offerings to the Ise Shrine.” It is true that this Imperial Ordinance has never come into practice (139), but it did appear once in a government document, and has not yet been cancelled. This is indeed most regrettable.
On one occasion in the Divine Age, when cultivating rice in the paddy field, Otokonushi-no-Kami (140) served his men with beef, while the son of the Rice-God Mitoshi-no-Kami (141), when visiting that field, spat in disgust upon the dainty offered to him, and returning home, reported the matter to his father. Then Mitoshi-no-Kami in wrath sent a number of noxious insects, or locusts, to Otokonushi-no-Kami’s paddy field to kill the young rice-plants and in consequence the leafless rice-plants appeared like “shino” or short bamboo grass.
When Otokonushi-no-Kami tried to ascertain the true cause of the incomprehensible disaster, he bade a “katakannai”[errata 1] or “kata-augur” (142) (by means of Temminck’s Japanese bunting) and a “hiji-kannagi” or “hiji-augur” (by means of rice grains or a domestic cooking furnace ring now popular among us) ascertain the divine will. The augury ran thus: “Mitoshi-no-Kami has sent a curse, which makes the young rice plants die, so that you should not fail to appease the offended God with offerings of a white boar (143), 2[errata 2] white horse, and a pair of white domestic fowl[errata 3].” The conditions revealed in the divination
