(VII. 21.) wish it, shall We insist on sending thee? Why all this alarm, whilst thou hast not yet confronted the enemy?" Accordingly he eventually granted him Mino as a fief, and so he went to his government. He was the first ancestor of the two houses of the Kimi of Muketsu and the Kimi of Mori. Upon this Yamato-dake no Mikoto, striking a martial attitude, said:—"Not many years have passed since I subdued the Kumaso. Now the Yemishi of the East have made a fresh rebellion. When shall we arrive at a universal peace? Thy servant, notwithstanding that it is a labour to him, will speedily quell this disturbance." So the Emperor took a battle-axe,[1] and giving it to Yamato-dake no Mikoto, said:—"We hear that the Eastern savages are of a violent disposition, and are much given to oppression: their hamlets have no chiefs, their villages no leaders, each is greedy of territory, and they plunder one another. Moreover, there are in the mountains malignant Deities, on the moors there are malicious demons, who beset the highways and bar the roads, causing men much annoyance. Amongst these Eastern savages the Yemishi are the most powerful, their men and women live together promiscuously, there is no distinction of father and child. In winter they dwell in holes, in summer they live in nests. Their clothing consists of furs, and they drink blood.[2] Brothers are suspicious of one another. In ascending mountains they are like flying birds; in going through the grass they are like fleet quadrupeds. When they receive a favour, they forget it, but if an injury is done them they never fail to revenge it. Therefore (VII. 22.) they keep arrows in their top-knots and carry swords within their clothing. Sometimes they draw together their fellows and make inroads on the frontier. At other times they take the opportunity of the harvest to plunder the people. If attacked, they conceal themselves in the herbage; if pursued, they flee into the mountains. Therefore ever since antiquity they have not been steeped in the kingly civilizing influences.
- ↑ Motoöri points out this as an instance where the desire to imitate his Chinese models has caused the author of the "Nihongi" to introduce Chinese things which have no business in a Japanese narrative. The "Kojiki" says it was a spear of holly eight fathoms long.
- ↑ The "Liki" speaks of the ancient Chinese living on fruits and the flesh of wild beasts and drinking their blood.
