disaster. He exercised arbitrary authority, and squandered the official property. Hereupon Ohotomo no Muruya no Ohomuraji spake to Yamato no Aya no Tsuka no Atahe, saying:—"The time has now come when the dying injunctions of the Emperor Ohohatsuse are to be fulfilled. It is meet that we should comply with them and do service to the Prince Imperial." So they raised an armed force and besieged the Treasury. They blockaded it from without, and setting fire to it, roasted to death the Imperial Prince Hoshikaha. At this time Kibi no Waka-hime, the Imperial Prince Ihaki, Ani-kimi,[1] his elder brother by a different father, and Ki no Okazaki no Kume[2] were roasted to death along with him. Then Wone, the Agata-nushi of Mino in Kahachi, in trepidation and alarm, burst away from the fire and made his escape. He embraced the legs of Ayahiko, Kishi of Kusakabe, and through him begged his life of the Ohomuraji, Ohotomo no Muruya, saying:—"Thy slave Wone, the Agata-nushi, was the faithful servant of the Imperial Prince Hoshikaha, but yet he was not rebellious towards the Prince Imperial. He prays that a generous mercy be accorded him, and a human life spared." Accordingly Ayahiko represented this fully to Ohotomo, the Ohomuraji, on his behalf, and he was not entered in the rank of those who were executed. Wone thereupon made representation to the Ohomuraji through Ayahiko, saying:—"My Lord Ohotomo the Ohomuraji, owing to thy great mercy bestowed on me, my life, which was in imminent danger, has been continued and lengthened so that I can see the light of day." So he hastened to present to the Ohomuraji ten chō of (XV. 3.) rice-land at Ohowido in the village of Kume in Naniha. He also presented rice-land to Ayahiko as a return for the favour shown him.
In this month, the Omi of the upper province of Kibi, hearing of the disturbances at the Court, wished to aid their uterine brother, the Imperial Prince Hoshikaha, and came floating over the sea with a fleet of forty war vessels. When they arrived they heard of the roasting to death, and went away again without landing. The Emperor straightway sent
