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338
Nihongi.

crossed the courtyard. Me, the Ohomuraji, looking round, said to the Ministers:—"What a pretty girl! There is a saying of the men of old, 'Thou art like thy mother.'[1] [This ancient saying is not clear.] Whose little girl is she said to be who is walking with leisurely pace in the pure court?" The Emperor said:—"Why dost thou ask?" Me no Ohomuraji answered and said:—"When thy servant looks at this little girl walking, she appears to him strongly to resemble the Emperor." The Emperor said:—"Every one who sees her makes the same remark. Sed insolitum est, quum ei unam solum noctem dederim, eam concepisse et filiam peperisse. Quam ob rem suspiciones mihi excitatae sunt." Ohomuraji dixit:—"Sed in hac unâ nocte quoties cum eâ rem habuisti?" "Septies," inquit (XIV. 8.) Imperator. Ohomuraji loquitur:—"Si haec femina puro corpore et purâ mente recepit unam noctem quam ei dedisti, cur tam facile concipis suspiciones et nolis fidere alterius castitati? Servus tuus audivit feminas quae facile praegnantes fiant vel tactu braccarum concipere. Multo magis, quum totam noctem dederis, sine justâ ratione non debes suspiciones concipere."

The Emperor, by order to the Ohomuraji, made the little girl an Imperial Princess, and appointed her mother to be a concubine.

This year was the year Hinoto Tori (34th) of the Cycle.

A.D. 458. 2nd year, Autumn, 7th month. Iketsu hime of Pèkché,[2] in despite of the Emperor's intention to favour[3] her, had an amour with Tate of Ishikaha.

In an old book it is said:—"Tate, the ancestor of the Obito of Momoahi in Ishikaha."

The Emperor was greatly enraged, and giving his commands to the Ohomuraji Muruya, of the Ohotomo House, sent some Kume Be who stretched the four limbs of the woman on a tree. The tree was placed over a cupboard, which was set fire to, and she was burnt to death.

The "Shinsen"[4] of Pèkché says:—"In the 6th year of
  1. These words are in Japanese.
  2. Corea has been hardly mentioned for fifty years or so. Probably some of the events allotted to the previous period really belong to this interval.
  3. i.e. wed.
  4. i.e. new compilation, the name of a book.