Vol. XII.]
Vol. I. Sect. XXVII.
85
Hibara-Great-Long-Wind-Wealth.[1] This Deity wedded the Deity Toho-tsu-ma-chi-ne,[2] daughter of the Deity Heavenly-Pass Boundary,[3] and begot a child: the Deity Toho-tsu-yama-zaki-tarashi.[4]
From the above-mentioned Deity Eight-Island-Ruler down to the Deity Toho-tsu-yama-zaki-tarashi are called the Deities of seventeen generations.[5]
[Sect. XXVII.—The Little-Prince-the-Renowned-Deity.]
So when the Deity Master-of-the-Great-Land dwelt at the august cape of Miho[6] in Idzumo, there came riding on the crest[7] of the waves in a boat of heavenly Kagami[8] a Deity dressed in skins of geese[9] flayed
- ↑ Ame-no-hibara-oho-shi-na-domi-no-kami. Motowori supposes Hibara to be the name of a place, a view which the translator has adopted for want of a better.
- ↑ Toho-tsu-ma-chi-ne-no-kami. Motowori supposes Tohotsu to be the name of a place, and the remaining syllables to be Honorifics.
- ↑ See Sect. VI. Note 20.
- ↑ Toho-tsu-yama-zaki-tarashi-no-kami. Toho-tsu (lit. “distant”) and yama-zaki (“mountain-cape”) are both considered by Motowori to be names of places. Tarashi signifies “perfect” or “perfection.” We might perhaps render the name thus: “Perfection-of-the-Distant-Mountain-Cape.”
- ↑ I.e. “seventeen generations of Deities.” But the construction is curious. Motowori points out that there is here an error in the computation, as the text enumerates but fifteen generations. The names of the gods and goddesses mentioned in this section offer unusual difficulties. Motowori says that it is with hesitation that he proposes many of his interpretations, and it is with still greater hesitation that the translator has accepted them.
- ↑ Not to be confounded with the better known Miho in Suruga. The derivation of the name seems uncertain.
- ↑ The character used is 穂, which properly denotes an ear of rice or other grain.
- ↑ What plant the author intends by this name is not quite certain. The characters 蘿藦 and 薟 are variously used to write it in the native works of reference, where also we learn that it probably corresponds to the plant known in different provinces of modern Japan as chichi-gusa, tombo-no-chichi, kagarahi and gaga-imo. We may best understand the Ampelopais serianæfolia to have been intended, as the plant is described as having a berry three or four inches long shaped like a towel-gourd (hechima), so that, if scooped out, it would fairly resemble a boat in miniature.
- ↑ All the authorities are agreed in considering the character 鵝, “goose,” to
