This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Kōgyoku.
187

3rd day. It was reported from the district of Shiki no Kami:—"There was a man on Mount Miwa who, seeing a monkey having its noonday sleep, stealthily took it by the elbow, but without doing it bodily harm. The monkey kept its eyes closed, and sang a song, saying:—

It can be none but the soft hand
Of a friend who stands
On the opposite hill
That has taken my hand:
Whose happy hand is it
—Oh happy, happy hand!—
That hath taken my hand?[1]

The man was amazed at the monkey's song. He set it free and came away. This was a portent, indicating, after many years had passed, the siege of the Kamutsumiya Princes on Mount Ikoma by Soga no Kura-tsukuri."

6th day. Among the lotuses in the Tsurugi pond, there was one which had two flowers on one stem. Toyora no Oho-omi inferred without sufficient reason that this portended the future (XXIV. 19.) prosperity of Soga no Omi. So he made a picture[2] with golden ink, and presented it to the sixteen feet high Buddha of Great Hōkōji.

In this month the witches and wizards[3] of the whole country, breaking off leafy branches and hanging them with tree fibre,[4] watched the time when the Oho-omi was crossing a bridge and vied with one another in addressing to him subtle interpretations of divine words. They were in great numbers, so that they could not be distinctly heard. Old people said

  1. The metre belongs to no recognized standard. The text of this song is probably corrupt. As it stands it is very obscure, though, perhaps, not more so than we should expect from a drowsy monkey. The Japanese commentators vary widely in its interpretation. Dr. Florenz's version will be found to differ from the one given above. I should be sorry to say that mine is any improvement.
  2. Or writing.
  3. The interlinear Kana has Kamunai (for Kamunagi), which Yamada renders by miko. See Vol. I. p. 79, Note.
  4. In the manner of offerings to the Gods. The Chinese characters for tree-fibre now mean cotton, which is a much later introduction into Japan. The fibre was probably that of the inner bark of the paper mulberry.