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Vol. IX.]

Vol. I. Sect. XIX.

63

truly as [the old man] had said, and immediately dipped a head into each vat, and drank the liquor. Thereupon it was intoxicated with drinking, and all [the heads] lay down and slept. Then His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness drew the ten-grasp sabre,^[1] that was augustly girded on him, and cut the serpent in pieces, so that the River Hi flowed on changed into a river of blood. So when he cut the middle tail, the edge of his august sword broke. Then, thinking it strange, he thrust into and split [the flesh] with the point of his august sword and looked, and there was a sharp great sword [within]. So he took this great sword, and, thinking it a strange thing, he respectfully informed the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity.^[2] This is the Herb-Quelling Great Sword.^[3]

[Sect. XIX.—The Palace of Suga.]

So thereupon His Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness sought in the land of Idzumo for a place where he might build a palace. Then he arrived at a place [called] Suga, and said: “On coming to this place my august heart is pure,”^[4]—and in that place he built a palace to

↑ See Section VIII, Note 1.
↑ The text is not quite clear, but the above gives the interpretation to which the words most naturally lend themselves. Motowori, influenced by the parallel passage in the “Chronicles,” which says explicitly that the sword itself was sent up to the Sun-Goddess, reads the passage thus: “thinking it a strange thing, he sent it up with a message to the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity”; and Mr. Satow follows him in thus translating (see Note 4 to Ritual 8, Vol. IX. Pt. II. pp. 198–200 of these “Transactions,” where the whole of this legend is translated with one or two slight verbal differences from the version here given). In the opinion of the present writer, Hirata’s arguments in favour of the view here taken are conclusive (see his “Sources of the Ancient Histories,” Section LXXII, in the second part of Vol. III. pp. 66–67). That the sword afterwards appears at the temple of the Sun-Goddess in Ise (see end of Section LXXXII), by the high-priestess of which it is bestowed on the legendary hero Yamato-take, is not to the point in this connection, as it is not necessary that all the parts of a myth should be perfectly consistent.
↑ Kusa-nagi no tachi. For the applicability of this name see Sect. LXXXIII.
↑ I.e., “I feel refreshed.” The Japanese term used is suga-sugashi, whence the origin ascribed to the name of the place Suga. But more probably the name gave rise to this detail of the legend.

[1] See Section VIII, Note 1.

[2] The text is not quite clear, but the above gives the interpretation to which the words most naturally lend themselves. Motowori, influenced by the parallel passage in the “Chronicles,” which says explicitly that the sword itself was sent up to the Sun-Goddess, reads the passage thus: “thinking it a strange thing, he sent it up with a message to the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity”; and Mr. Satow follows him in thus translating (see Note 4 to Ritual 8, Vol. IX. Pt. II. pp. 198–200 of these “Transactions,” where the whole of this legend is translated with one or two slight verbal differences from the version here given). In the opinion of the present writer, Hirata’s arguments in favour of the view here taken are conclusive (see his “Sources of the Ancient Histories,” Section LXXII, in the second part of Vol. III. pp. 66–67). That the sword afterwards appears at the temple of the Sun-Goddess in Ise (see end of Section LXXXII), by the high-priestess of which it is bestowed on the legendary hero Yamato-take, is not to the point in this connection, as it is not necessary that all the parts of a myth should be perfectly consistent.

[3] Kusa-nagi no tachi. For the applicability of this name see Sect. LXXXIII.

[4] I.e., “I feel refreshed.” The Japanese term used is suga-sugashi, whence the origin ascribed to the name of the place Suga. But more probably the name gave rise to this detail of the legend.

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