man after the lapse of ten or twenty years and becomes his spouse, or an unmarried girl is married for the first time. Upon this, people, out of envy of the married pair, have made them perform purgation.[1]
Again, there are cases in which women, who have become men's wives and who, being put away owing to their husbands' dislike of them, have, in their mortification at this injury, compelled themselves to become blemished[2] slaves.
Again, there are cases in which the husband, having frequent occasion to be jealous of his wife's illicit intercourse with others, voluntarily appeals to the authorities to decide the matter. Let such persons not lay their information until they have obtained, let us say, three credible witnesses to join with them in making a declaration. Why should they bring forward ill-considered plaints.
Again, there have been cases of men employed on forced labour in border lands who, when the work was over and they were returning to their village, have fallen suddenly ill and (XXV. 33.) lain down to die by the roadside. Upon this the (inmates of the) houses by the roadside say:—'Why should people be
- ↑ Harahi, clearing away, purgation, is properly a religious ceremony. The Oho-harahi, or "Great Purgation," was performed every year by the Nakatomi as a general purification of the sins of the people. The ritual used on this occasion has come down to us, and is perhaps the most interesting of the Norito. When harahi was performed in the case of individual offences the necessary offerings to the Gods were provided by the guilty person (see above, Vol. I. p. 49). From this to a penalty the transition is easy, and has parallels in other countries. In the present passage the harahi was evidently what we should now call a "squeeze." The "Tsūshō" commentator quotes here a statement by one Kurokaha, to the following effect:—"During the first month of the year following the marriage of a newly-united couple, their friends assemble at the house bearing pails of water, with which they souse the husband liberally. This is called harahi." It may not be out of place to point out that marriage is in many uncivilized countries considered as an infringement of the rights of the community which calls for some sort of compensation.
- ↑ The meaning of this term—rendered kotosaka in the "Original Commentary"—is not very clear. It perhaps applies to persons who were made slaves on account of some offence or vice.
Dr. Florenz and some Japanese scholars whom he consulted take this view of this paragraph. I am not sure, however, that the real meaning is not that the husband, mortified that his wife has left him from dislike, sells her as a slave.
