Page:Kojiki by Chamberlain.djvu/42

xxxii silkworm, to winch reference has already been made. In the later portions of the “Records” and “Chronicles”, dogs and cattle are alluded to; but sheep, swine, and even cats were apparently not yet introduced. Indeed sheep were scarcely to be seen in Japan until a few years ago, goats are still almost unknown, and swine and all poultry excepting the barn-door fowl are extremely uncommon.

The following enumeration of the animals and plants mentioned in the earlier portion of the “Records” may be of interest. The Japanese equivalents, some few of which are obsolete, are put in parenthesis, together with the Chinese characters used to write them:


 * Bear, (kuma ).

Boar, (wi ).

Deer, (shika .)

Hare, (usagi .)

Horse, (uma and koma ).

Mouse or Rat, (nedzumi ).

“Sea-ass” [Seal or Sea-lion?] (michi ).

Whale, (kujira ).


 * Barndoor-fowl, (kake ).

Cormorant, (u ).

Crow or Raven, (karasu ).

Dotterel or Plover or Sand-piper, (chi-dori ).

Heron or Egret (sagi ).

Kingfisher (soni-dori ).

Nuye,.

Pheasant (kigishi ).

Snipe, (shigi ).

Swan, (shiro-tori ).

Wild-duck, (kamo ).

Wild-goose, (kari ).