forthwith took the hand of the male Deity, and they at length became husband and wife. There was born to (I. 11.) them the island of Ahaji, and next the leech-child."
They next produced the sea, then the rivers, and then the mountains. Then they produced Ku-ku-no-chi, the ancestor of the trees, and next the ancestor of herbs, Kaya no hime.[1] Also called Nudzuchi.
After this Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto consulted together, saying:—"We have now produced the Great-eight-island country, with the mountains, rivers, herbs, and trees. Why should we not produce someone who shall be lord of the universe?[2] They then together produced the Sun-Goddess, who was called Oho-hiru-me no muchi.[3]
The resplendent lustre of this child shone throughout all the six quarters.[6] Therefore the two Deities rejoiced, saying:—"We have had many children, but none of them have been equal to this wondrous infant. She ought not to be kept long in this land, but we ought of our own accord to send her at once to Heaven, and entrust to her the affairs of Heaven."
At this time Heaven and Earth were still not far separated,[7] and therefore they sent her up to Heaven by the ladder of Heaven.
They next produced the Moon-god.
- ↑ Ku-ku is evidently for ki-ki, trees. Chi is the same root which we have in the modern chichi, father, and kaya is the name of a kind of rush used for thatching. Nu-dzu-chi, moor-of-father.
- ↑ Universe. In the original, tenka, i.e. that which is under Heaven, subsequently the usual word for the Empire.
- ↑ Oho-hiru-me no muchi. Great-noon-female-of- possessor.
- ↑ Heaven-illumine-of-great-deity.
- ↑ Heaven-illumine-great-noon-female-of-augustness.
- ↑ North, South, East, West, Above, Below.
- ↑ "In the beginning the Heaven, Rangi, and the Earth, Papa, were the father and mother of all things. In those days the Heaven lay upon the Earth, and all was darkness. They had never been separated." Maori myth, quoted by Lang, "Custom and Myth," p. 45.
