Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/280

258 except the apparent unimportance of his life. The Kojiki, however, condescends to tell us how it happened:—

"Before that (referring to a digression about a certain posthumous name of her son) the Empress was divinely possessed (kami-yori tamaeriki lit. got-god-approached). At the time when the Emperor, dwelling in the Oak Temple in Kyūshiū, was about to make war upon the land of Kumaso, the Emperor played upon the august harp, and Take-no-uchi-no-sukune went into the place of inquiring of the gods (saniwa lit. sand-court), and inquired of them. Then the Empress, being divinely possessed (kan-gakari shite), informed and instructed him, saying, 'To the west lieth a land full of all manner of precious things from gold and silver upward,' etc., etc. This glowing description, of which it were needless here to quote more, referred of all places in the world to Korea. It is perhaps not matter for wonder that the Emperor proved skeptical on the subject, and made light of the divine information; upon which he was promptly killed by the gods for contempt of court. After which the Nihonshoki takes up the narrative, and tells us that the