knowledge, what would the late Emperor think of me?" So the Prince Imperial addressed the Prince his elder brother, saying:—"It is the command of Heaven. Who may stay it? If I should go to the place where the Emperor is, I will tell him of all the Prince, my elder brother's wisdom, and also of my abdication. But the sage Prince must surely be fatigued after the long and hurried journey which he undertook on hearing of my death." So he presented to him the Imperial Princess Yata,[1] his younger sister by the same mother, saying:—"Though she is unworthy of thy nuptials, she may in some small measure serve to be entered in the number of the side Courts." So he lay down again in his coffin and died.
Hereupon Oho-sazaki no Mikoto put on plain unbleached garments and began mourning for him, and his lamentation was exceedingly pathetic. He was buried on the top of the hill of Uji.
A.D. 313. 1st year, Spring, 1st month, 3rd day. Oho-sazaki no Mikoto assumed the Imperial Dignity. The Empress was honoured with the title of Grand Empress. He made his capital at Naniha. It was called the Palace of Takatsu. The Palace (XI. 7.) enclosure and buildings were not plastered, the gable rafters and ridgepoles, the posts and pillars were devoid of ornament; the covering of thatch was not evenly trimmed.[2] This was that he might not delay the season of agricultural operations for the sake of his own personal caprices.
Before this time, on the day that the Emperor was born, an owl entered the parturition house. The next morning the Emperor Homuda called to him the Prime Minister Takechi no Sukune, and addressed him, saying:—"What may this portend?" The Prime Minister answered and said:—"It is a lucky omen. Moreover yesterday when thy servant's wife was in labour, a wren entered the parturition house. This also is strange!" Hereupon the Emperor said:—"Now our child and the Prime Minister's child have been born on the same day.
- ↑ She was also a daughter of the late Emperor. This shows that marriages of sisters by the father's side only were allowed. The Prince Imperial was able to give his sister by the mother's side in marriage. He would have had no control over his sisters by the father's side only.
- ↑ It should be remembered that at this period every Mikado built himself a new palace in a new locality.
