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60 The people enjoy the protection of these universally until the present day.

Before this Oho-na-mochi no Mikoto spake to Sukuna-bikona no Mikoto, and said:—'May we not say that the country which we have made is well made?' Sukuna-bikona no Mikoto answered and said:—'In some parts it is complete and in others it is incomplete.' This conversation had doubtless a mysterious purport.

Thereafter Sukuna-bikona no Mikoto went to Cape Kumano, and eventually proceeded to the Everlasting Land.

Another version is that he went to the island of Aha, where he climbed up a millet-stalk, and was thereupon jerked off, and went to the Everlasting Land.

After this, wherever there was in the land a part which was imperfect, Oho-na-mochi no Kami visited it by himself, and succeeded in repairing it. Coming at last to the province of Idzumo, he spake, and said:—'This Central Land of Reed-plains had been always waste and wild. The very rocks, trees and herbs were all given to violence. But I have now reduced them to submission, and there is none that is not compliant.' Therefore he said finally:—'It is I, and I alone, who now govern this Land. Is