Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/289

Rh. How, then, may we correct our mistake? Do you, attendants, taking counsel together, advise us in the matter.' Then the attendants, with one voice, answered: 'O Emperor! if pointing out the mistakes and correcting the wrong, the Emperor settles this matter of family names, we, even risking death, will tell the Emperor the truth.' So, in the year of the monkey, the Emperor gave instructions, saying: 'The Lords, High Dignitaries, and other officers, down to the governors, have together made answer, and said: Verily the generations of the Emperor and the generations of his people are both likewise descended from heaven. Yet, since the day when the three bodies [heaven, earth, and humanity] were one, many years have passed, and from one name now many descendants have spread abroad and taken many family names, and it is not easy to tell the true from the false. Therefore, let all the people bathe and purify themselves, and let each take oath before the gods to perform the ordeal by boiling water (kuagadachi su).' So the priest gave orders, saying, 'At the end of the hill called the Amakashi hill, let an iron pot (kugae) be placed, and let