man. She looked up and was startled, so that she let fall the bowl, which was broken to pieces. But without regard for it, she returned within and told her parents, saying:—'I have seen a man on the tree which is beside the well. His countenance is very beautiful, and his form comely. He is surely no ordinary person.' When the God, her father, heard this, he wondered. Having prepared an eight-fold cushion, he went to meet him, and brought him in. When they were seated, he asked the reason of his coming, upon which he answered and told him all his case. Now the God of the Sea at once conceived pity for him, and summoning all the broad of fin and narrow of fin, made inquiry of them. They all said:—"We know not. Only the Red-woman has an ailment of the mouth and has not come.' [Another version is:—'The Kuchi-me[1] has an ailment of the mouth.'] So she was sent for in all haste, and on searching her mouth, the lost fish-hook was at once found. Upon this the God of the Sea chid her, saying:—'Thou Kuchime! Henceforward thou shalt not be able to swallow a bait, nor shalt thou be allowed to have a place at the table of the Heavenly Grandchild.' This is the reason why the fish kuchime is not among the articles of food set before the Emperor.
When the time came for Hiko-hoho-demi no Mikoto to take his departure, the God of the Sea spake to him, saying:—'I am rejoiced in my inmost heart that the Heavenly Grandchild has now been graciously pleased to visit me. (II. 40.) When shall I ever forget it?' So he took the jewel which when thought of makes the tide to flow, and the jewel which when thought of makes the tide to ebb, and joining them to the fish-hook, presented them, saying:—'Though the Heavenly Grandchild may be divided from me by eight-fold windings (of road), I hope that we shall think of each other from time to time. Do not therefore throw them away.' And he taught him, saying:—'When thou givest this fish-hook to thy elder brother, call it thus:—'A hook of poverty, a hook of ruin, a hook of downfall.' When thou hast said all this, fling it away to him with thy back turned, and deliver it not to him face to face. If thy elder
- ↑ Kuchi-me means "mouth-female."
