Page:Kojiki by Chamberlain.djvu/77

Rh with such metaphorical,—mythological,—phrases as “the hot wind melts the ice,” or “his conversation delights me,” where the words “wind” and “conversation” are spoken of as if they were personal agents. No, the idea is invariably rendered in some other and impersonal way. Yet what a distance separates such statements, in which the ordinary European reader unacquainted with any Altaïc tongue would scarcely recognize the existence of any personification at all, from the bolder flights of Aryan metaphor! Indeed, though Altaïc Asia has produced very few wise men, the words of its languages closely correspond to the definition of words as “the wise man’s counters”; for they are colourless and matter-of-fact, and rarely if ever carry him who speaks them above the level of sober reality. At the same time, it is patent that the sun plays some part in the Japanese mythology; and even the legend of Prince Yamato-Take, which has hitherto been generally accepted as historical or semi-historical, bears such close resemblance to legends in other countries which have been pronounced to be solar by great authorities that it may at least be worth while to subject it to investigation from that point of view. The present writer has already expressed his conviction that this matter is not one for the specialist to decide alone. He would only, from the Japanese point of view, suggest very particular caution in the application to Japanese legend of a method of interpretation which has elsewhere been fruitful of great results.

A further particular which is deserving of notice is the almost certain fact of a recension of the various traditions at a comparatively late date. This is partly shown by the amount of geographical knowledge displayed in the enumeration of the various islands supposed to have been given birth to by Izanagi and Izanami (the “Male who Invites” and the “Female who Invites”),—an amount and an exactness of knowledge unattainable at a time prior to the union under one rule of all the provinces mentioned, and significantly not extending much beyond those provinces. Such a recension may likewise be inferred,—if the opinion of the manifold origin of the Japanese traditions be accepted,—from the fairly ingenious manner in which their component parts have generally been welded together. The way in which one or two