Page:The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 13.djvu/62

44 deceived and lay down in a row, and I trod on them and counted them as I came across, and was just about to get on land, when I said: 'You have been deceived by me.' As soon as I had finished speaking, the crocodile who lay the last of all seized me and stripped off all my clothing. As I was weeping and lamenting for this reason, the eighty deities who went by before thee commanded and exhorted me, saying: "Bathe in the salt water, and lie down exposed to the wind.' So, on my doing as they had instructed me, my whole body was hurt." Thereupon the deity Great-Name-Possessor instructed the hare, saying: "Go quickly now to the river mouth, wash thy body with the fresh water, then take the pollen of the sedges growing at the river-mouth, spread it about, and roll about upon it, whereupon thy body will certainly be restored to its original state." So the hare did as it was instructed, and its body became as it had been originally. This was the White Hare of Inaba. It is now called the Hare deity. So the hare said to the deity Great-Name-Possessor: "These eighty deities shall certainly not get the Princess of Yakami. Though thou bearest the bag, Thine Augustness shall obtain her."

Thereupon the Princess of Yakami answered the eighty deities, saying: "I will not listen to your words. I mean to marry the deity Great-Name-Possessor." So the eighty deities, being enraged, and wishing to slay the deity Great-Name-Possessor, took counsel together, on arriving at the foot of Tema in the land of Hahaki, and said to him: "On this mountain there is a red boar. So when we drive it down, do thou wait and catch it. If thou do not wait and catch it, we will certainly slay thee." Having thus spoken, they took fire, and burned a large stone like unto a boar, and rolled it down. Then, as they drove it down and he caught it, he got stuck to and burned by the stone, and died. Thereupon Her Augustness his august parent cried and lamented, and went up to