Page:Nihongi by Aston.djvu/80

Rh made horses lie down in the rice-fields. Notwithstanding all these wicked doings, which went on incessantly, the Sun-Goddess was not indignant, but treated him always with calmness and forbearance, etc., etc.

When the Sun-Goddess came to shut herself up in the Rock-cave of Heaven, all the Gods sent the child of Kogoto Musubi, Ama no Koyane no Mikoto, the ancestor of the Nakatomi no Muraji, and made him recite a liturgy. Hereupon Ama no Koyane no Mikoto rooted up a true Sakaki tree of the Heavenly Mount Kagu and hung upon its upper branches a mirror of eight hands, made by the ancestor of the mirror-makers, Ono-kori-dome, a child of Ama no Nukado; on the middle branches he hung curved jewels of Yasaka gem made by the ancestor of the jewel-makers, Ama no Akaru-dama, a child of Izanagi no Mikoto. On the lower branches he hung tree-fibre made by Ama-no Hi-washi, the ancestor of the Imbe of the province of Aha. Futo-dama no Mikoto, ancestor of the Imbe no Obito, was thereupon made to take these things in his hand, and, with lavish and earnest words of praise, to recite a liturgy.

When the Sun-Goddess heard this, she said:—'Though of late many prayers have been addressed to me, of none has the language been so beautiful as this.' So she opened a little the Rock-door and peeped out. Thereupon the God Ama no Tajikara-wo no Kami, who was waiting beside the Rock-door, forthwith pulled it open, and the radiance of the Sun-Goddess filled the universe. Therefore all the Gods rejoiced greatly, and imposed on Sosa no wo no Mikoto a fine of a thousand tables of (articles of) purification. Of the nails of his hands they made things abhorrent