masculinity to thy source of femineity." Having thus spoken, they prepared to go round the pillar of Heaven, and made a promise, saying:—"Do thou, my younger sister, go round from the left, while I will go round from the right." Having done so, they went round separately and met, when the female Deity spoke first, and said:—"How pretty! a lovely youth!" The male Deity then answered and said:—"How pretty! a lovely maiden!" Finally they became husband and wife. Their first child was the
The Leech Child as Yebisu.
leech, whom they straightway placed in a reed-boat and sent (I. 9.) adrift.[1] Their next was the Island of Ahaji. This also was not included in the number of their children. Wherefore they returned up again to Heaven, and fully reported the circumstances. Then the Heavenly Gods divined this by the greater divination. Upon which they instructed them, saying:—"It was by reason of the woman's having spoken first; ye had best return thither again." Thereupon having divined a time, they went down. The two deities
↑The leech was identified in after times with the God Yebisu. See Anderson's Catalogue of Paintings in the British Museum, p. 36. Hirata attempts to show that he was the same as Sukuna-bikona, but is not convincing. The reed boat recalls the Accadian legend of Sargon and his ark of rushes, the Biblical story of Moses as an infant and many more, for which the curious reader may consult the late John O'Neill's "Night of the Gods," p. 410.
