into a crocodile that disappeared in the sea, leaving her child wrapped in sea-grass in the arms of her sister. The child was named U-ga-ya-fuki-awa-sedzu No Mikoto, "the royal child born beneath the unfinished canopy of cormorant's wings."
Henceforth the sea became inaccessible to man, and the jewels lost their virtue to control the tides, for the fault of Hi-ko.
U-ga-ya wedded the sister of Peerless Jewel, and lived 836,042 years. He was the first whose end was mortal, the first to die, and was interred (the first burial) at Wagashuayama in the province of Hinga.
TAMA MONO MAYE.
The Fox with the White Face and Nine Tails.
UNEHITO, the 74th of the Emperors (A.D. 1108 to 1123), now known by his posthumous title of Toba-no-In, became ill, but the doctors could not discover the cause or nature of the malady. At length Abe, the court astrologer, was consulted. He had heard some time previously that one night, when the Emperor was feasting, a sudden gust of wind had extinguished the lights, and, to the great amazement and terror of the company, the favourite mistress of the emperor, the lovely Tama Mono Maye, was noticed to emit a strange coloured luminous halo, which seemed to fill the air. This woman's origin was a mystery, but she seemed to have power to charm all who approached her. Abe suspected the emperor was bewitched by Tama, whom he considered to be no common mortal; and now he gave this as his opinion of the cause of the illness of the emperor. The favourite soon became aware that Abe had denounced her, and had him summoned to the royal presence, where she with great craftiness completely overbore him in argument. She obtained an imperial order for his disgrace and confinement within his own gates. Now Abe's wife had formerly been an inmate of the chief minister's household, and by her influence through this channel obtained a further hearing for her husband. Abe then erected an altar within the palace grounds, at which to pray for the
