Page:Nihongi by Aston.djvu/240

Rh Yamato-dake no Mikoto, not knowing that it was the master God who had become a serpent, said to himself:—"This serpent must be the Savage Deity's messenger. Having already slain a master God, is a messenger worth hunting after?" Accordingly he strode over the serpent and passed on. Then the God of the mountain raised up the clouds, and made an icy rain to fall. The tops of the hills became covered with mist, and the valleys involved in gloom. There was no path which he could follow. He was checked and knew not whither to turn his steps. However, braving the mist, he forced his way onwards, and barely succeeded in finding an issue. He was still beside himself like a drunken man. He therefore sat down beside a spring at the foot of the mountain, and, having drunk of the water, recovered his senses. Therefore that spring was called the Wi-same spring.

It was at this time that Yamato-dake no Mikoto first became ill. The disease gradually increased and he returned to Ohari. Here he did not enter the house of Miyazu-hime, but passed on to Ise and reached Otsu. Formerly, in the year when Yamato-date no Mikoto was proceeding eastwards, he halted on the shore at Otsu and partook of food. At that time he took off a sword which he laid down at the foot of a fir-tree. Eventually he went away forgetting it. When he now came to this place, the sword was still there. Therefore he made a song, saying:—

When he came to the moor of Nobo, his sufferings became very severe. So he made an offering of the Yemishi whom he had captured to the Shrine of the God. He therefore sent Kibi no Take-hiko to report to the Emperor, saying:—"Thy servant having received the command of the Celestial Court, undertook a distant expedition to the wilds of the East, where