Page:Shinto, the Way of the Gods - Aston - 1905.djvu/115

Rh The circumstance that the scene of this episode in Susa no wo's career is the bank of a river is therefore by no means immaterial. Indeed, we may plausibly conjecture that the description of the serpent with its eight (or many) heads and eight tails, its length extending over eight valleys and eight hills, its body overgrown with moss, pines, and cedars, and its propensity for devouring human beings is nothing more than a fanciful representation of the river, with its serpentine course, its numerous tributaries and branches, its wooded banks, and the danger by drowning in its pools or at its fords.

The poem ascribed to Susa no wo cannot be older than the sixth or seventh century. The word translated "on all sides," is idzumo. There is therefore a punning allusion to the province of that name. The "manifold fence," is the "nuptial hut," already referred to.

Ohonamochi.—Susa no wo had numerous children, among whom were Oho-toshi (great harvest), and Uka no mitama (food-spirit). The most famous of his progeny was a God called Ohonamochi. This is the Great Deity of Idzumo, a place second only to Ise for sanctity.

Ohonamochi's eighty brothers went to pay court to a female deity named Yakami-hime, taking him with them as porter "to carry the bag." On arriving at Cape Keta, they found a naked hare lying on the ground. The brothers maliciously advised the hare to bathe in the sea, and then expose himself to the wind on the slope of a high mountain. The hare did so, with the result that when the sea-water dried, his skin split, and he was weeping with pain, when Ohonamochi came up in the rear of the party. He had pity on it, and taught it remedies which gave relief. The grateful hare promised that he should have the lady Yakami-hime in marriage, and not his brothers. When