Vol. IV.]
Vol. I. Sect. IV.
19
Bridge of Heaven,[1] pushed down the jewelled spear and stirred with it, whereupon, when they had stirred the brine till it went curdle-curdle[2], and drew [the spear] up, the brine that dripped down from the end of the spear was piled up and became an island. This is the Island of Onogoro[3].
[Sect. IV.—Courtship of the Deities the Male-Who-Invites and the Female-Who-Invites.]
Having descended from Heaven onto this island, they saw to the erection[4] of an heavenly august pillar, they saw to the erection of an hall of eight fathoms[5]. Tunc quæsivit [Augustus Mas-Qui-Invitat] a
- ↑ Ama-no-uki-hashi or Ame-no-uki-hashi. The best authorities are at variance as to the nature of this bridge uniting Heaven with Earth. Hirata identifies it with the Heavenly-Rock-Boat (Ame-no-iha-fune) mentioned in some ancient writings, whereas Motowori takes it to have been a real bridge, and finds traces of it and of similar bridges in the so-called “Heavenly Stairs” (Ama-no-hashi-date) which are found on several points of the coast, forming a kind of natural breakwater just above water-level.
- ↑ I.e., “till it became thick and glutinous.” It is not easy to find in English a word which will aptly render the original Japanese onomatopoeia koworo-koworo. The meaning may also be “till it made a curdling sound.” But though the character 鳴, “to make a noise,” sanctions this view, it is not the view approved by the commentators, and 鳴 is probably only written phonetically for a homonymous word signifying “to become,” which we find in the parallel passage of the “Chronicles.”
- ↑ I.e., “Self-Curdling,” “Self-Condensed.” It is supposed to have been one of the islets off the coast of the larger island of Ahaji.
- ↑ The original of this quasi-causative phrase, of which there is no other example in Japanese literature so far as the translator’s reading goes, is interpreted by Motowori in the sense of the English locution to which it literally corresponds, and it has here been rendered accordingly, though with considerable hesitation. Hirata does not approve of Motowori’s view; but then the different text which he here adopts imposes on him the necessity of another interpretation. (See his “Exposition of the Ancient Histories,” Vol. II, pp. 39–40.)
- ↑ The original word hiro (written 尋) is defined as the distance between the hands when the arms are outstretched. The word rendered “hall” may also be translated “palace.”—The text of the parallel passage of the “Chronicles” is “they made the Island of Onogoro the central pillar of the land,”—a statement which seems more rational and more in accordance with general tradition than that of these “Records.”
