be addressed to it.' They therefore proceeded to appoint Ishi-kori-dome[1] as artisan, who, taking copper of the Mt. Kagu of Heaven, made therefrom a Sun-spear. Moreover, he stripped off in one piece the hide of a true stag, and made of it Heavenly bellows. The Goddess which he fashioned by this means is the Goddess Hi no mahe no Kami, who dwells in the province of Kiï."
In one writing it is said:—"The august Sun Goddess took an enclosed rice-field and made it her Imperial rice-field. Now Sosa no wo no Mikoto, in spring, filled up the channels and broke down the divisions, and in autumn, when the grain was formed, he forthwith stretched round them division ropes.[2] Again when the Sun-Goddess was in her Weaving-Hall, he flayed alive a piebald colt and flung it into the Hall. In all these various matters his conduct was rude in the highest degree. Nevertheless, the Sun-Goddess, out of her friendship for him, was not indignant or (I. 43.) resentful, but took everything calmly and with forbearance.
When the time came for the Sun-Goddess to celebrate the feast of first-fruits, Sosa no wo no Mikoto secretly voided excrement under her august seat in the New Palace.[3] The Sun-Goddess, not knowing this, went straight there and took her seat. Accordingly the Sun-Goddess drew herself up, and was sickened. She therefore was enraged, and straightway took up her abode in the Rock-cave of Heaven, and fastened its Rock-door.
Then all the Gods were grieved at this, and forthwith caused Ama no nuka-do no Kami, the ancestor of the Be of mirror-makers, to make a mirror, Futo-dama, the ancestor of the Imibe, to make offerings,[4] and Toyo-tama,[5] the ancestor of the Be of jewel-makers, to make jewels. They also caused Yama-tsuchi[6] to procure eighty precious combs of the five-hundred-branched true sakaki tree, and Nu-dzuchi[7] to procure eighty precious combs of the five-hundred-branched suzuki grass. When all these various
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The Age of the Gods.
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