Page:Nihongi by Aston.djvu/129

'When thou givest the fish-hook to thy elder brother, thou must use this imprecation: "The origin of poverty: the beginning of starvation: the root of wretchedness." Give it not to him until thou hast said this. Again, if thy brother cross the sea, I will then assuredly stir up the blasts and billows, and make them overwhelm and vex him.' Thereupon he placed Hoho-demi no Mikoto on the back of a great sea-monster, and so sent him back to his own country.

At another time, before this, Toyo-tama-hime spoke in an easy, familiar way, and said:—'Thy handmaid is with child. Some day, when the winds and waves are boisterous, I will come forth to the sea-shore, and I pray thee to construct for me a parturition-house, and to await me there.'

After this, Toyo-tama-hime fulfilled her promise to come, and spake to Hoho-demi no Mikoto, saying:—'To-night thy handmaiden will be delivered. I pray thee, look not on her.' Hoho-demi no Mikoto would not hearken to her, but with a comb^[1] he made a light, and looked at her. At this time Toyo-tama-hime had become changed into an enormous sea-monster of eight fathoms, and was wriggling about on her belly. She at last was angry that she was put to shame, and forthwith went straight back again to her native sea, leaving behind her younger sister Tama-yori-hime (II. 39.) as nurse to her infant. The child was called Hiko-nagisa-take-u-gaya-fuki-ayezu no Mikoto, because the parturition-house by the sea-shore was all thatched with cormorants' feathers, and the child was born before the tiles had met. It was for this reason that he received this name."^[2]

One version says:—"Before the gate there was a beautiful well, and over the well there grew a cassia-tree with an hundred branches. Accordingly Hiko-hoho-demi no Mikoto sprang up into that tree and stood there. At this time, Toyo-tama-hime, the daughter of the God of the Sea, came with a jewel-bowl in her hand and was about to draw water, when she saw in the well the reflection of a

1. See above, p. 24.
2. There is a superstition that a woman in childbirth gained relief by holding a cormorant's feather in her hand. A cowrie (ko-yasu-gai) is used for the same purpose, no doubt on account of its shape. See above, p. 95.