Page:Nihongi by Aston.djvu/258

Rh Tabura-tsu-hime. Now Tabura-tsu-hime's elder brother Natsuha had raised an army and advanced against the Empress, but on hearing that his younger sister had been already put to death, he took to flight.

Summer, 4th month, 3rd day. Proceeding northwards, she arrived at the district of Matsura in the Land of Hizen, and partook of food on the bank of the river Wogawa, in the village of Tamashima. Here the Empress bent a needle, and made of it a hook. She took grains of rice and used them as bait. Pulling out the threads of her garment, she made of them a line. Then mounting upon a stone in the middle of the river, and casting the hook, she prayed, saying:—"We are proceeding westward, where we desire to gain possession of the Land of Treasure. If we are to succeed, let the fish of the river bite the hook." Accordingly, raising up her fishing-rod, she caught a trout. Then the Empress said:—"It is a strange thing." Wherefore the men of the day called that place the Land of Medzura. The present name Matsura is a corruption of this. For this reason, whenever the 1st decade of the 4th month comes round, the women of that land take hooks, which they cast into the river and catch trout—a custom which has not ceased unto this day. The men may angle for fish, but they cannot catch any.

This having been done, the Empress knew that there was virtue in the teaching of the Gods, and she made sacrifice anew to the Gods of Heaven and Earth. As it was her purpose in person to chastise the West, she set apart a sacred rice-field, and tilled it. Then, in order to divert water from the Naka-gaha with which to irrigate it, she dug a channel as far as the Hill of Todoroki. But a great rock stood in the way, and she was unable to pierce a channel through it. Then the Empress sent for Takechi no Sukune, and offering a sword and a mirror made him pray to the Gods of Heaven and Earth, and ask them to allow the channel to be completed. Straightway there came thunder and lightning, and stamped that rock asunder, so that the water passed through. Therefore the men of the time called that channel the Channel of Sakuta.