Male-Augustness. That Great Deity will certainly counsel thee.” So on his obeying her commands and arriving at the august place[1] of His Impetuous-Male-Augustness, the latter’s daughter the Forward-Princess[2] came out and saw him, and they exchanged glances and were married, and [she] went in again, and told her father, saying: “A very beautiful Deity has come.” Then the Great Deity went out and looked, and said: “This is the Ugly-Male-Deity-of-the-Reed-Plains,”[3] and at once calling him in, made him sleep in the snake-house. Hereupon his wife, Her Augustness the Forward-Princess, gave her husband a snake-scarf,[4] saying: “When the snakes are about to bite thee, drive them away by waving this scarf thrice.” So, on his doing as she had instructed, the snakes became quiet, so that he came forth after calm slumbers. Again on the night of the next day [the Impetuous-Male-Deity] put him into the centipede and wasp-house;[5] but as she again gave him a centipede and wasp-scarf, and instructed him as before, he came forth calmly. Again [the Impetuous-Male-Deity] shot a whizzing barb[6] into the middle of a large moor, and sent him to fetch the arrow, and, when
- ↑ I.e., the Palace.
- ↑ This is Motowori’s view of the import of the original name Suseri-bime, which he connects with susumu, “to advance,” “to press forward,” and explains by reference to the bold, forward conduct of the young goddess.
- ↑ One of the alternative names of this Deity, who is mostly mentioned by one of his other four designations, for a list of which see Sect. XX. (Notes 17 to 21).
- ↑ I.e., “a scarf by waving which he might keep off the snakes.” Similarly the “centipede and wasp-scarf” mentioned a little farther on must be understood to mean “a scarf to ward off centipedes and wasps with.”
- ↑ The word hachi, translated “wasp,” is a general name including other insects of the family of Vespidæ.
- ↑ I.e., “arrow.” The original expression is nari-kabura (鳴鏑), which has survived in the modern language under the modified form of kabura-ya, defined in Dr. Hepburn’s Dictionary as “an arrow with a head shaped like turnip, having a hole in it, which causes it to hum as it flies.” It was used in China in the time of the Han dynasty.
to be found in either of the early printed editions, are supplied in accordance with a suggestion of Moribe’s contained in his Critique of Motowori’s Commentary. Motowori himself had supplied the words “Her Augustness his august parent spoke to him,” which seem less appropriate. It is true that one MS. is quoted by Motowori as favouring his view; but such authority is insufficient, and the mistake, moreover, peculiarly easy for a copyist to make (mi oya for oho-ya).
