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Nihongi.

had belled, and he accordingly addressed the Empress, saying:—"We have been soothed in the anxious thoughts which have of late possessed us by listening to the belling of a deer. Now when the day or night, and the mountain or moor of the deer which has been caught are considered, they correspond to the deer which belled. It is true that that man was not aware of our feelings of affection, and that it was by chance that he came to take it. We nevertheless cannot resist a feeling of resentment. It is therefore our wish that the Saheki Be shall not approach the Imperial Palace." So he made the officials remove his residence to Nuta in Aki. He was the ancestor of the present Saheki Be of Nuta in Aki.

There is a popular story that a long time ago there was a man who went to Toga, and spent the night on the moor. Now there were two deer which lay down beside him. When it was on the point of cock-crow, the male deer addressed the female, saying:—"This night I had a dream in which I saw a white mist come down copiously and cover my body. What (XI. 23.) may this portend?" The female deer answered and said:—"If thou goest out, thou wilt certainly be shot by men and die, and so thy body will be smeared with white salt to correspond with the whiteness of the mist." Now the man who was spending the night there wondered at this in his heart. Before it was yet dawn, there came a hunter, who shot the male deer, and killed it. Hence the proverbial saying of the men of that day—"Even the belling male deer follows the interpretation of a dream."

A.D. 352. 40th year, Spring, 3rd month. The Emperor wished to take to himself the Imperial Princess Medori[1] as concubine, and made the Imperial Prince Hayabusa wake[2] his middle man. Now the Imperial Prince Hayabusa secretly wedded her himself, and for a long time made no report of his mission. Hereupon the Emperor, not knowing that she had a husband, went in person to the Imperial Princess Medori's chamber. At

  1. Princess Medori was half-sister of the Emperor by a different mother, and full sister of the Empress.
  2. Hayabusa wake was half-brother to both Princess Medori and the Emperor by a different mother.