Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/426

388 of the work; and it need not be said that they are replete with interest. Moreover, the Shūkai or standard text (which is here translated) incorporates as "Original Commentary" and as quotations from other works a number of variants of the traditional stories related, thus greatly enhancing its value. Unfortunately, however, at the time the Nihongi was written Chinese influence was already in the ascendant; and it has left large and indelible marks upon the compilation, which no doubt contributed materially to its great reputation. If they were confined to style they would be annoying enough; but they penetrate too often into the substance of the narrative, making it difficult at times to distinguish the real native tradition, and occasionally, we may believe, replacing it altogether. But this notwithstanding, the stories of the "Divine Beings" are of first-rate importance for the student of tradition. Many of them belong to the common stock. Here, for example, we find the story of Atalanta's Race combined with the Magical Flight in a way hardly known to European folklore. And if the Rescue of Andromeda really travelled to the East from Europe, it must have done so long enough before the eighth century to have become accepted as a national legend.

Coming down to a later date, when genuine history may be deemed to have mingled with the legends, we have stories of apparitions of gods in various forms; of supernatural beings who become united in marriage with men or women; of spirits of the dead appearing as doves, serpents, dogs; of miraculous stones, swords, idols; stories told to account for strange practices or special cults—in short, just the kind of tales familiar to us in the writings of classical historians, and monkish chroniclers and thaumatographers, and in the local traditions of Europe, though in the Nihongi disguised, of course, in the garb of the Far East.

The incidental notices of customs and institutions are also numerous and of much interest. The archaic rites of marriage and burial, the hereditary corporations or Be, the human and other sacrifices, the forms of worship, the organisation of society, &€., &c., are repeatedly and richly illustrated.

It is impossible within our limits to do justice to the traditional wealth collected in the Nihongi; but enough has been said to commend it to the attention of students. So far as one unacquainted with the original can judge, the translation seems to be executed in a thoroughly scholarly spirit. Mr. Aston shows ap-