the country of fresh spikes, which flourishes in the midst of the reed-moor as a peaceful country, what god shall we send first to divinely sweep away, sweep away and subdue the gods who are turbulent in the country of fresh spikes"; all the gods pondered and declared: "You shall send Amenohohi's 8 augustness, and subdue them," declared they. Wherefore they sent him down from Heaven, but he did not declare an answer; and having next sent Takemikuma's augustness, he also, obeying his father's words, did not declare an answer. Ame-no-waka-hiko also, whom they sent, did not declare an answer, but immediately perished by the calamity of a bird on high. Wherefore they pondered afresh by the word of the Heavenly gods, and having deigned to send down from Heaven the two pillars of gods, Futsunushi and Takemika-dzuchi's augustness, who having deigned divinely to sweep away, and sweep away, and deigned divinely to soften, and soften the gods who were turbulent, and silenced the rocks, trees, and the least leaf of herbs likewise that had spoken, they caused the Sovereign Grandchild's augustness to descend from Heaven.

I fulfil your praises, saying: As to the Offerings set up, so that the sovereign gods who come into the heavenly house of the Sovereign Grandchild's augustness, which, after he

8 According to the legend in the "Kojiki," Ame-no-ho-hi was the brother of Ame-no-oshi-ho-mimi, and, like him, produced from the mist which the Sun-goddess's younger brother Susanowo blew from his mouth, after chewing the chaplet of beads which he had taken from her hair. From the elder of the pair, adopted as her child by the Sun-goddess, the Mikado were fabled to be descended, while from the younger came the chieftains of the province of Idzumo, who were the first occupants of the land before the advent of the present race of Japanese monarchs.

› Concerning Ame-waka-hiko the legend continues to say that he shot the pheasant whom the gods had sent to look after him, and the arrow passing upward into Heaven, fell at the feet of the Sun-goddess and the Lofty-Producer as they were sitting in the peaceful river-bed of Heaven, by which name the Milky Way is spoken of in the myths. The LoftyProducer lifted up the arrow, and saying, "If this arrow has been discharged by Ame-waka-hiko in slaying the evil gods, let it not strike him; but if he has a filthy heart, let this arrow be his death," flung it back through the hole in the sky by which it had entered. The shaft pierced the bosom of the faithless messenger as he was lying in his lair, and slew him.

had fixed upon as a peaceful country- the country of great Yamato where the sun is high, as the center of the countries of the four quarters bestowed upon him when he was thus sent down from Heaven - stoutly planting the house-pillars on the bottom-most rocks, and exalting the cross-beams to the plain of high Heaven, the builders had made for his shade from the Heavens and shade from the sun, and wherein he will tranquilly rule the country as a peaceful country — may, without deigning to be turbulent, deigning to be fierce, and deigning to hurt, knowing, by virtue of their divinity, the things which were begun in the plain of high Heaven, deigning to correct with Divine-correcting and Great-correcting, remove hence out to the clean places of the mountainstreams which look far away over the four quarters, and rule them as their own place. Let the sovereign gods tranquilly take with clear hearts, as peaceful offerings and sufficient offerings the great offerings which I set up, piling them upon the tables like a range of hills, providing bright cloth, glittering cloth, soft cloth, and coarse cloth, as a thing to see plain in a mirror: as things to play with-beads: as things to shoot off with a bow and arrows: as things to strike and cut with a sword: as a thing which gallops out -a horse; as to liquor-raising high the beer-jars, filling and ranging in rows the bellies of the beer-jars, with grains of rice and ears; as to the things which dwell in the hills— things soft of hair, and things rough of hair; as to the things which grow in the great field plain sweet herbs and bitter herbs; as to the things which dwell in the blue sea plain things broad of fin and things narrow of fin, down to weeds of the offing and weeds of the short, and without deigning to be turbulent, deigning to be fierce, and deigning to hurt, remove out to the wide and clean places of the mountainstreams, and by virtue of their divinity be tranquil.

THE ROAD-GODS' RITUAL

He (the priest) says: "I declare in the presence of the sovereign gods, who like innumerable piles of rocks, sit clos

ing up the way in the multitudinous road-forkings 10. .. I fulfil your praises by declaring your names, Youth and Maiden of the Many Road-forkings and Come-no-further Gate, and say: for the offerings set up so that you may prevent the servants of the monarch from being poisoned by and agreeing with the things which shall come roughly acting and hating from the Root-country, the Bottom-country, that you may guard the bottom of the gate when they come from the bottom, guard the top when they come from the top, guarding with nightly guard and with daily guard, and may praise them— peacefully take the great offerings which are set up by piling them up like a range of hills that is to say, providing bright cloth, etc., and sitting closing-up the way like innumerable piles of rock in the multitudinous roadforkings, deign to praise the Sovereign Grandchild's augustness eternally and unchangingly, and to bless his age as a luxuriant age."

RITUALS TO THE SUN-GODDESS 11

I

He (the priest envoy) 12 says: "Hear all of you, ministers of the gods and sanctifiers of offerings, the great ritual, the Heavenly ritual, declared in the great presence of the From

10 The Road-gods' function was to guard the highways, and keep out the demons who were supposed to be constantly attempting to force their way in from the infernal regions. Two of these gods, named Youth and Maiden of the Many Road-forkings, originated, according to the myth, from the rock with which Izanagi, when returning from the nether world, blocked up the road, in order to prevent the demons from following him, and the third, who is called Come-no-further Gate, was the staff Izanagi threw so that it stuck in the ground, and changing into a gate, protecting him from his pursuers.

11 In the earliest ages the shrine of the Sun-goddess stood in the Mikado's residence, as one of his family gods, and her emblem was the mirror, which is to the present day one of the sacred treasures of Japanese sovereigns. The occurrence of a great national calamity at some period during the prehistoric age was the cause of her worship being removed to a separate temple; and it was finally established at Watarahi, in the province of Isé.

12 This was the ritual used by the Mikado's envoy sent to worship at Watarahi in the sixth month.

Heaven-shining-great deity, whose praises are fulfilled by setting up the stout pillars of the great house, and exalting the cross-beams to the plain of high Heaven at the sources of the Isuzu river at Udji in Watarahi.”

He says: "It is the Sovereign's great Word. Hear all of you, ministers of the gods and sanctifiers of offerings, the fulfilling of praises on this seventeenth day of the sixth moon of this year, as the morning sun goes up in glory, of the Oho-Nakatomi, who having abundantly piled up like a range of hills the tribute thread and sanctified liquor and food presented as of usage by the people of the deity's houses attributed to her in the three departments and in various countries and places, so that she deign to bless his (the Mikado's) life as a long life and his age as a luxuriant age eternally and unchangingly as multitudinous piles of rock; may deign to bless the children who are born to him, and deigning to cause to flourish the five kinds of grain which the men of a hundred functions and the peasants of the countries in the four quarters of the region under Heaven long and peacefully cultivate and eat, and guarding and benefiting them deign to bless them is hidden by the great offering-wands."

of the From-HeavenBecause the Sovereign

I declare in the great presence shining-great deity who sits in Isé. great goddess bestows on him the countries of the four quarters over which her glance extends, as far as the limit where Heaven stands up like a wall, as far as the bounds where the country stands up distant, as far as the limit where the blue clouds spread flat, as far as the bounds where the white clouds lie away fallen- the blue sea plain as far as the limit whither come the prows of the ships without drying poles or paddles, the ships which continuously crowd on the great sea plain, and the roads which men travel by land, as far as the limit whither come the horses' hoofs, with the baggage-cords tied tightly, treading the uneven rocks and

13 This is the harvest ritual,

tree-roots and standing up continuously in a long path without a break-making the narrow countries wide and the hilly countries plain, and as it were drawing together the distant countries by throwing many tens of ropes over them - he will pile up the first-fruits like a range of hills in the great presence of the Sovereign great goddess, and will peacefully enjoy the remainder.

THE PURIFICATION RITUAL 14

[The ritual opens by calling upon the assembled princes of tht Mikado's family, the ministers of State, and all other officials, to listen, in words which are a modern addition after the establishment of a form of administration modeled on that of the Chinese. To this succeeds a second enumeration of the Sovereign's servants, according to the old division, into scarf-wearing companies (women attendants), sashwearing companies (cooks), quiver-bearing and sword-bearing companies (guards), with which begins the genuine ancient text. The nature of the Mikado's title to rule over the land is then stated, as in the ritual of the gods of pestilence, already quoted, after which we have a list of the offenses of which the nation is to be purged.]

Amongst the various sorts of offenses which may be committed in ignorance or out of negligence by Heaven's increasing people, who shall come into being in the country, which the Sovereign Grandchild's augustness, hiding in the fresh residence, built by stoutly planting the house-pillars on the bottom-most rocks, and exalting the cross-beams to the plain of high Heaven, as his shade from the Heavens and shade from the sun, shall tranquilly rule as a peaceful country,

14 By treating a murderous assault on another member of the community as a blood-pollution, it first became possible to punish such acts. When injuries to the person had been thus recognized as offenses, the original idea had become already considerably extended, and the tendency thus set up enabled injuries to the crops planted by another, or to the animals used in carrying on the agricultural pursuits on which life was dependent, to be included under the term. We see here distinctly the germ of a criminal law; that was, however, not destined to come to maturity.