ship of the Peerless Jewel maiden. In the meantime the fishes of the sea were ordered to assemble for examination, but no tidings came of the lost hook. The mutual love of the young couple caused the hook to be forgotten, and they were united, and for three years lived happily, Hi-ko having no desire to return. At length Hi-ko desired to revisit for a short time his own country, and wished another effort to be made to find the hook, so the fishes were once more ordered to assemble.
The red-fish sent excuses, pleading indisposition, but a lobster was heard to say, that, peering out of a crevice, he saw that the red-fish had a sore mouth, as if something extraordinary was the matter. This gave a clue, and true enough there was the long-sought-for hook in the truant's mouth. Peerless Jewel had not, as heretofore, when she feared to lose her handsome lover, discouraged the search: her happy state made her anxious to see the land of her husband's race, and he being of Imperial birth it was advisable she should go.
Hi-ko, happy in the recovery of the lost hook, and with a parting gift from Wada Zumi of two jewels, the possession of which gave him control over the flowing and receding tide, set out to prepare a fitting place to receive Peerless Jewel; and Wada Zumi told him it would be pleasing to the eight hundred million divine spirits, that he should build a roof of cormorant's wings, beneath which his child should first see the sun, for he would be the ancestor of the future emperors. Hi-ko then departed on a crocodile, and landed safe.
When he met his brother and returned the hook, his reception proved that the loss of the hook was not the real cause of anger, and, when his brother attacked him and would have slain him, he remembered the tide jewels, and touching them commanded the tide to rise. Touching the other jewel Hi-ko caused the water to recede again, and he set to work to build the roof of cormorant's wings. Before this was finished Peerless Jewel had landed, bringing with her a lady more beautiful than a jewel, her youngest sister. Peerless Jewel's time of travail had approached unexpectedly, and she enjoined Hi-ko not to approach her, for dire would be the consequences. He in his anxiety could not desist, but he was punished by seeing his beautiful Peerless Jewel transformed
