Page:Nihongi by Aston volume 2.djvu/385

378 20th day. The priests Hōjin and Gishō were granted fiefs of thirty houses each, to support them in their old age.

22nd day. The kitchen office at Nabari was burnt.

Autumn, 7th month, 2nd day. The Emperor commanded that men should again wear leggings, and that women should let down their hair on their backs, as was formerly the practice.

On this day the Sōjō and Sōdzu came into the Palace, and performed a penitential service.

3rd day. The Emperor commanded the provinces to perform the ceremony of Oho-barahi.

4th day. Half the commuted taxes were remitted throughout the Empire, and all forced labour was dispensed with.

5th day. Offerings were made to Kuni-gakari no Kami, who dwells in the province of Kiĭ, to the four shrines of Asuka, and to the Great God of Sumiyoshi.

8th day. One hundred priests were invited into the Palace, and made to read the Kon-kwō-myō Sutra.

10th day. There was lightning in the south, with a great clap of thunder. The buildings used by the Department of the Interior, for the storage of tax-cloth, met with destruction from Heaven. Some said that the fire broke out in the Palace of the Imperial Prince Osakabe, and that it spread to the Department of the Interior.

15th day. The Emperor gave orders that all matters of the Empire, without distinction of great and small, should be referred to the Empress-consort and the Prince Imperial.

On this day a general amnesty was granted.

16th day. Worship was paid to the Deities of Hirose and Tatsuta.

19th day. An Imperial edict was issued, as follows:—"Let all common people throughout the Empire who, owing to poverty, have contracted debts in rice or in valuables, whether to the State or to private persons, on or before the 30th day of