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It must be understood that no special significance is to be attached to the use of such words as “Duke,” “Suzerain,” etc. They are merely, so to speak, labels by which titles that are distinct in the original are sought to be kept distinct in the translation. Many of them also are used as that species of hereditary titular designation which the translator has ventured to call the “gentile name.” Where possible, indeed, the etymological meaning of the Japanese word has been preserved. Thus omi seems to be rightly derived by Motowori from oho-mi, “great body”; and “grandee” is therefore the nearest English equivalent. Similarly murazhi, “chief,” is a corruption of two words signifying “master of a tribe.” On the other hand, both the etymology and the precise import of the title of wake are extremely doubtful. Hiko and hime again, if they really come from hi ko, “sun-child” and hi me, “sun-female” (or “fire-child” and “fire-female”), have wandered so far from their origin as, even in Archaic times, to have been nothing more than Honorific appellations, corresponding in a loose fashion to the English words “prince and princess,” or “lord and lady,”—in some cases perhaps meaning scarcely more than “youth and maiden.”

The four words kami, ma, miko and mikoto alone call for special notice; and ma may be disposed of first. It is of uncertain origin, but identified by the native philologists with the perpetually recurring honorific mi, rendered “august.” As, when written ideographically, it is always represented by the Chinese character, the translator renders it in English by “true”; but it must be understood that this word has no force beyond that of an Honorific.

Mikoto, rendered “Augustness,” is properly a compound, mi koto,