Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/351

Rh exchange; so Ho no Susori gave back to his brother the bow and arrows, and demanded from him the fish-hook. Hohodemi, however, had in the meantime lost it in the sea. He took his sword and forged from it a number of new fish-hooks, which he piled up in a winnowing tray and offered to his brother by way of compensation. But the latter would have none but his own, and demanded it so vehemently of Hohodemi as to grieve him bitterly. Hohodemi went down to the sea-shore and stood there lamenting, when there appeared to him the Old Man of the Sea, by whose advice he descended into the sea-depths to the abode of the God of the Sea, a stately palace with lofty towers and battlements. Before the gate there was a well, and over the well grew a thick-branching cassia-tree, into which Hohodemi climbed. The Sea-God's daughter, Toyo-tama-hime (rich-jewel-maiden), then came out from the palace to draw water. She saw Hohodemi's face reflected in the well, and, returning within, reported to her father that she had seen a beautiful youth in the tree which grew by the well. Hohodemi was courteously received by the Sea-God, Toyo-tama-hiko (rich-jewel-prince), who, when he heard his errand, summoned before him all the fishes of the sea and made inquiry of them for the lost fish hook, which was eventually discovered in the mouth of the Tai. Toyo-tama-hiko delivered it to Hohodemi, telling him when he gave it back to his brother to say "a hook of poverty, a hook of ruin, a hook of downfall," to spit twice, and to hand it over with averted face.

Hohodemi married the Sea-God's daughter, Toyo-tama-hime, and remained with her for three years. He then became home-sick and returned to the upper world. On the beach where he came to land, he built for his wife, who was soon to follow, a parturition-house which he thatched with cormorant's feathers. The roofing was still unfinished when she arrived, riding on a great tortoise. She went straight into the hut, begging her husband not to look at