CHAPTER XVIII

JAPANESE GODS AND DRAGONS

Japanese Version of Egyptian Flood Myth—A Far Eastern

Merodach—Dragon-slaying Story—The River of Blood—Osiris as a Slain

Dragon—Ancient Shinto Books—Shinto Cosmogony—Separation of Heaven

and Earth—The Cosmic “Reed Shoot” and the Nig-gil-ma—The Celestial

Jewel Spear—Izanagi and Izanami—Births of Deities and Islands—The

Dragons of Japan—The Wani—Bear, Horse, and other

Dragons—Horse-sacrifice in Japan—Buddhist Elements in Japanese

Dragon Lore—Indian Nagas—Chinese Dragons and Japanese Water-Snakes.

There is no Shinto myth regarding the creation of man; the Mikados and

the chiefs of tribes were descendants of deities. Nor is there a Deluge

Myth like the Ainu one, involving the destruction of all but a remnant

of mankind. The Chinese story about Nu Kwa, known to the Japanese as

Jokwa, was apparently imported with the beliefs associated with the

jade which that mythical queen or goddess was supposed to have created

after she had caused the flood to retreat, but it does not find a place

in the ancient Shinto books. There is, however, an interesting version

of the Egyptian flood story which has been fused with the Babylonian

Tiamat dragon-slaying myth. Susa-no-wo, [567] a Far Eastern Marduk,

slays an eight-headed dragon and splits up its body, from which he

takes a spirit-sword—an avatar of the monster.

Hathor-Sekhet, of the Egyptian myth, was made drunk, so that she might

cease from slaying mankind, and a flood of blood-red beer was poured

from jars for that purpose. Susa-no-wo provides sake (rice beer) to

intoxicate the dragon which has been coming regularly—apparently once a

year—for a daughter of an earth god. When he slays it, the River Hi is

“changed into a river of blood”.

Another version of the Egyptian myth, as the Pyramid Texts bear

evidence, appears to refer to the “Red Nile” of the inundation season

as the blood of Osiris, who had been felled by Set at Nedyt, near

Abydos. [568] Lucian tells that the blood of Adonis was similarly

believed to redden each year the flooded River of Adonis, flowing from

Lebanon, and that “it dyed the sea to a large space red”. [569] Here

Adonis is the Osiris of the Byblians. Osiris, as we have seen, had a

dragon form; he was the dragon of the Nile flood, and the

world-surrounding dragon of ocean. [570] He was also the earth-giant;

tree and grain grew from his body. [571] The body of the eight-headed

Japanese dragon was covered with moss and trees.

Susa-no-wo, as the rescuer of the doomed maiden, links with Perseus,

the rescuer of Andromeda from the water-dragon. [572] The custom of

sacrificing a maiden to the Nile each year obtained in Ancient Egypt.

In the Tiamat form of the Babylonian myth, Marduk cut the channels of

the dragon’s blood and “made the north wind bear it away into secret

places”. [573] The stories of Pʼan Ku of China and the Scandinavian

Ymir, each of whose blood is the sea, are interesting variants of the

legend. [574]

The Japanese dragon-flood myth is merely an incident in the career of a

hero in Shinto mythology, which is a mosaic of local or localized and

imported stories, somewhat clumsily arranged in the form of a connected

narrative.

Our chief sources of information regarding these ancient Japanese myths

are the Shinto works, the Ko-ji-ki and the Nihon-gi. [575] Of these

works, the Ko-ji-ki (“Records of Ancient Matters”) is the oldest; it

was completed in Japanese in A.D. 712; the Nihon-gi (“Chronicles of

Japan”) was completed in A.D. 720 in the Chinese language.

Although the myths, formerly handed down orally by generations of

priests, were not collected and systematized until about 200 years

after Buddhism was introduced into Japan, they were not greatly

influenced by Indian ideas. Dragon-lore, however, became so complex

that it is difficult to sift the local from the imported elements.

In the preface to the Ko-ji-ki, Yasumaro, the compiler, in his summary,

writes:

“Now when chaos had begun to condense, but force and form were not

yet manifest, and there was nought named, nought done, who could

know its shape? Nevertheless Heaven and Earth first parted, and the

Three Deities performed the commencement of Creation; the Passive

and Active Essences then developed, and the Two Spirits became the

Ancestors of all things.”

The myth of the separation of Heaven and Earth dates back to remote

antiquity in Egypt. Shu, the atmosphere-god, separated the sky-goddess

Nut from the earth-god Seb. In Polynesian mythology Rangi (Heaven), and

Papa (Earth), from whom “all things originated”, were “rent apart” by

Tane-mahuta, “the god and father of forests, of birds, of insects”. But

in this case the earth is the mother and the sky the father. [576]

About the “Three Deities” referred to by Yasumaro, we do not learn

much. The idea of the trinity may have been of Indian origin. The

Passive and Active Essences recall the male Yang and its female Yin

principles of China. These are represented in the Ko-ji-ki by Izanagi

(“Male who Invites”) and Izanami (“Female who Invites”).

Dr. Aston translates the opening passage of the Nihon-gi as follows:

“Of old, Heaven and Earth were not yet separated, and the In and

the Yo not yet divided. They formed a chaotic mass like an egg,

which was of obscurely defined limits, and contained germs. The

purer and clearer part was thinly diffused and formed Heaven, while

the heavier and grosser element settled down and became Earth. The

finer element easily became a united body, but the consolidation of

the heavy and gross element was accomplished with difficulty.

Heaven was therefore formed first, and Earth established

subsequently. Thereafter divine beings were produced between them.”

Here we meet with the cosmic egg, from which emerged the Chinese Pʼan

Ku, the Indian Brahma, the Egyptian Ra or Horus, and one of the

Polynesian creators. It might be held that China is the source of the

Japanese myth, because the In and the Yo are here, quite evidently the

Yang and the Yin, representing not Izanagi and Izanami as in the

Ko-ji-ki, but the deities of heaven and earth. But the Ko-ji-ki form of

the myth may be the oldest, and we may have in the Nihon-gi evidence of

Chinese ideas having been superimposed on those already obtaining in

Japan, into which they were imported from other areas.

But to return to the Creation myth. An ancient native work, the

Kiu-ji-ki, which has not yet been translated into English, refers to

seven generations of gods, beginning with one of doubtful sex, in whose

untranslatable name the sun, moon, earth, and moisture are mentioned.

This First Parent of the deities was the offspring of Heaven and Earth.

The last couple is Izanagi and Izanami, brother and sister, like Osiris

and Isis, who became man and wife.

According to the Ko-ji-ki the first three deities came into being in

Takama-no-hara, the “Plain of High Heaven”. They were alone, and

afterwards disappeared, i.e. died. The narrative continues: “The names

of the deities that were born next from a thing that sprouted up like

unto a reed-shoot when the earth, young and like unto floating oil,

drifted about medusa-like, [577] were the

Pleasant-Reed-Shoot-Prince-Elder-Deity, next the

Heavenly-Eternally-Standing-Deity. These two Deities were likewise born

alone, and hid their persons.” [578] Earth and mud deities followed,

and also the other deities who were before Izanagi and Izanami.

It may be that the “reed-shoot” was the Japanese nig-gil-ma. (See

Chapter XIII.) As in one of the early Sumerian texts, the mysterious

plant, impregnated with preserving and perpetuating “life substance”,

was the second product of Creation.

Izanagi and Izanami were told by the elder deities that they must

“make, consolidate, and give birth to this drifting land”. They were

then given the Ame no tama-boko, the “Celestial Jewel-spear”. It is

suggested that the spear is a phallic symbol. The jewel (tama) is “life

substance”. Izanagi and Izanami stood on “the floating bridge of

heaven”, which Aston identifies with the rainbow, or, as some Japanese

scholars put it, the “Heavenly Rock Boat”, or “Heavenly Stairs”, and

pushed down the tama-boko and groped with it until they found the

ocean. According to the Ko-ji-ki, they “stirred the brine until it went

curdle-curdle (koworo-koworo)”, that is, as Chamberlain suggests,

“thick and glutinous”. Others think the passage should be translated so

as to indicate that the brine gave forth “a curdling sound”. When the

primæval waters and the oily mud began to “curdle” or “cook”, the

deities drew up the spear. Some of the cosmic “porridge” dropped from

the point and formed an island, which was named Onogoro

(“self-curdling”, or “self-condensed”). The deities descended from

heaven and erected on the island an eight-fathom house [579] with a

central pillar. Here we meet with the aniconic pillar, the “herm” of

Kamschatkan religion, the pillar of the Vedic world-house erected by

the Aryo-Indian god Indra, the “branstock” of Scandinavian religion,

the pillar of the “Lion Gate” of Mycenæ; the “pillar” is the “world

spine”, like the Indian Mount Meru. [580] “The central pillar of a

house (corresponding to our king-post) is,” writes Dr. Aston, “at the

present day, an object of honour in Japan as in many other countries.

In the case of Shinto shrines, it is called Nakago no mibashira

(‘central august pillar’), and in ordinary houses the Daikoku-bashira.”

[581]

Izanagi and Izanami become man and wife by performing the ceremony of

going round the pillar and meeting one another face to face. Their

first-born is Hiruko (leech-child). At the age of three he was still

unable to stand upright, and was in consequence placed in a reed boat

and set adrift on the ocean.

Here we have what appears to be a version of the Moses story. The

Indian Karna, who is similarly set adrift, was a son of Surya, god of

the sun. The Egyptian Horus was concealed after birth on a floating

island, and he was originally a solar deity with a star form. [582] Ra,

the Egyptian sun-god, drifted across the heavens on reed floats before

he was given a boat. Osiris was, after death, set adrift in a chest.

When the Egyptians paid more attention to the constellations than they

did in the early period of their history, they placed in the

constellation of Argo the god Osiris in a chest or boat. In the Greek

period Canopus, the chief star of the constellation of Argo, is the

child Horus in his boat. Horus was a reincarnation of Osiris. The

Babylonian Ea originally came to Eridu in a boat, which became

transformed into a fish-man. As the sign for a god was a star, Ea was

apparently supposed to have come from one. Lockyer refers to Egyptian

and Babylonian temples, which were “oriented to Canopus”. [583]

Sun-gods were the offspring of the mother-star, or their own souls were

stars by night. “Hiruko,” says Aston, “is in reality simply a masculine

form of Hirume, the sun female.” [584] The sun and moon had not,

however, come into existence when he was set adrift, and it may be that

as the “leech-child” he was a star. He became identified in time with

Ebisu (or Yebisu), god of fishermen, and one of the gods of luck.

Izanagi and Izanami had subsequently as children the eight islands of

Japan, and although other islands came into existence later, Japan was

called “Land-of-the-Eight-great-Islands” (Oho-ya-shima-kuni). “When,”

continues the Ko-ji-ki, “they (Izanagi and Izanami) had finished giving

birth to countries they began afresh, giving birth to deities (kami).”

These included “Heavenly-Blowing Male”, “Youth of the Wind”, the

sea-kami, “Great-Ocean-Possessor”, “Foam Calm”, “Foam Waves”,

“Heavenly-Water-Divider”, or “Water-Distributor”

(Ame-no-mi-kumari-no-kami), and the deities of mountains, passes, and

valleys.

According to the Nihon-gi, the gods of the sea to whom Izanagi and

Izanami gave birth are called Watatsumi, which means “sea children”,

or, as Florenz translates it, “Lords of the Sea”. Wata, so like our

“water”, is “an old word for sea”. It is probable that, as De Visser

says, “the old Japanese sea-gods were snakes or dragons”. [585]

In the Ko-ji-ki two groups of eight deities are followed by “the Deity

Bird’s-Rock-Camphor-Tree-Boat”, another name for this kami being

“Heavenly Bird-Boat”. Then came the food-goddess, “Deity

Princess-of-Great-Food”. She was followed by the fire-god, kagu-tsuchi.

This deity caused the death of his mother Izanami, having burned her at

birth so severely that she sickened and “lay down”. Before she died, an

interesting group of deities, making a total of eight from “Heavenly

Bird-Boat” to the last named, “Luxuriant Food Princess”, came into

being. From her vomit sprang “Metal-Mountain Prince” and

“Metal-Mountain Princess”; from her fæces came “Clay Prince” and “Clay

Princess” (earth deities); and from her urine crept forth Mitsu-ha

no-Me, which Japanese commentators explain as “Female-Water-snake”, or

“The Woman who produces the Water”. In the first rendering ha is

regarded as meaning “snake” (dragon), and in the second as “to

produce”. Neither Florenz nor De Visser can decide which explanation is

correct. [586] The dragon was, of course, a water-producer, or

water-controller, or a “water-confiner”, who was forced to release the

waters, like the “drought demon”, slain by the Aryo-Indian god Indra,

and the water-confiner of the Nile, whose blood reddened the river

during inundation.

When Izanami died, the heart of Izanagi was filled with wrath and

grief. Drawing his big sabre, he, according to the Ko-ji-ki, cut off

the head of the fire-god; or, as the Nihon-gi tells, cut him into three

pieces, each of which became a god. Other gods sprang from the pieces,

from the blood drops that bespattered the rocks, the blood that clung

to the upper part of the sabre, and the blood that leaked out between

the fingers of Izanagi.

According to the Nihon-gi, the blood dripping from the upper part of

the sword became the gods Kura-okami, Kura-yama-tsumi, and

Kura-mitsu-ha. The meaning of the character kura is “dark”, and

Professor Florenz explains it as “abyss, valley, cleft”, [587] and

notes that okami means “rain” and “dragon”. According to De Visser,

Kura-okami is a dragon- or snake-god who controls rain and snow, and

had Shinto temples “in all provinces”. Another reading in the Nihon-gi

states that one of the three gods who came into being from the pieces

of the fire-god’s body was Taka-okami, a name which, according to a

Japanese commentator, means “the dragon-god residing on the mountains”,

while Kura-okami means “the dragon-god of the valleys”. [588] The

second god born from the blood drops from the upper part of the sword,

Kura-yama-tsumi, is translated “Lord of the Dark Mountains”, and

“Mountain-snake”; and the third, Kura-mitsu-ha, is “Dark-water-snake”

or “Valley-water-snake”. According to the Ko-ji-ki, the deities

Kura-okami and Kura-mitsu-ha came from the blood that leaked out

between Izanagi’s fingers.

It is of interest to note here that other dragon deities to which

Izanagi and Izanami gave origin, included the mizuchi or “water

fathers”, which are referred to as “horned deities”, “four-legged

dragons”, or “large water-snakes”. As Aston notes, [589] these “water

fathers” had no individual names; they were prayed to for rain in times

of drought. Another sea-dragon child of the great couple was the wani,

which appears to have been a combination of crocodile and shark. Aston

thinks that wani is a Korean word. De Visser, on the other hand, is of

opinion that the wani is the old Japanese dragon-god or sea-god, and

that the legend about the Abundant Pearl Princess (Toyo-tama-bime)

[590] who had a human lover and, like Melusina, transformed herself

from human shape into that of a wani (Ko-ji-ki) or a dragon (Nihon-gi),

was originally a Japanese serpent-dragon, which was “dressed in Indian

garb by later generations”. [591] Florenz, the German Orientalist,

thinks the legend is of Chinese origin, but a similar one is found in

Indonesia. “Wani,” De Visser says, “may be an Indonesian word,” and it

is possible, as he suggests, that “foreign invaders, who in prehistoric

times conquered Japan, came from Indonesia and brought the myth with

them.” [592]

There is a reference in the Nihon-gi (Chapter I) to a “bear-wani, eight

fathoms long”, and it has been suggested that “bear” means here nothing

more than “strong”. [593] The Ainu, however, as we have seen (Chapter

XVII), associated bear and dragon deities; the bear-goddess was the

wife of the dragon-god, and that goddess had, like the Abundant Pearl

Princess, a human lover. “Bear-wani” may therefore have been a

bear-dragon. There was a dragon-horse “with a long neck and wings at

its sides”, which flew through the air, and did not sink when it trod

upon the water, [594] and there were withal Japanese crow-dragons,

toad-dragons, fish-dragons, and lizard-dragons.

The horse played as prominent a part in Japanese rain-getting and

rain-stopping ceremonies as did the bear among the Ainu. White, black,

or red horses were offered to bring rain, but red horses alone were

sacrificed to stop rain. Like the Buriats of Siberia and the

Aryo-Indians of the Vedic period, the Japanese made use of the

domesticated horse at the dawn of their history. No doubt it was

imported from Korea. There is evidence that at an early period human

beings were sacrificed to the Japanese dragon-gods of rivers, lakes,

and pools. Human sacrifices at tombs are also referred to. In the

Nihon-gi, under the legendary date 2 B.C., it is related that when a

Mikado died his personal attendants were buried alive in an upright

position beside his tomb. [595]

In his notable work on the dragon, M. W. de Visser [596] shows that the

Chinese ideas regarding their four-legged dragon and Indian Buddhist

ideas regarding nagas were introduced into Japan and fused with local

ideas regarding serpent-shaped water-gods. The foreign elements added

to ancient Japanese legends have, as has been indicated, made their

original form obscure. In the dragon place-names of Japan, however, it

is still possible to trace the locations of the ancient Shinto gods who

were mostly serpent-shaped. An ancient name for a Japanese dragon is

Tatsu. De Visser notes that Tatsu no Kuchi (“Dragon’s mouth”) is a

common place-name. It is given to a hot spring in the Nomi district, to

a waterfall in Kojimachi district, to a hill in Kamakura district,

where criminals were put to death, and to mountains, &c., elsewhere.

Tatsu ga hana (“Dragon’s nose”) is in Taga district; Tatsukushi

(“Dragon’s skewer”) is a rock in Tosa province; and so on. Chinese and

Indian dragons are in Japanese place-names “ryu” or “ryo”. These

include Ryo-ga-mine (“Dragon’s peak”) in Higo; Ryu-ga-take (“Dragon’s

peak”) in Ise; Ryu-kan-gawa (“Dragon’s rest river”) in Tokyo, &c.

The worship of the Water Fathers or Dragons in Japan was necessary so

as to ensure the food-supply.

CHAPTER XIX

RIVAL DEITIES OF LIFE AND DEATH, SUNSHINE AND STORM

Izanagi visits Hades—Origin of Thunder Deities—The Flight from

Hades—Japanese Version of the “Far-travelled Tale”—The Sacred Peach

Tree—Izanami as Goddess of Death—Births of Sun and Moon from Eyes

of Izanagi—The Sun-goddess’s Necklace—Susa-no-wo as “Impetuous Male

Deity”—Connection with Typhoon and Rain—A Japanese Indra—Vitalizing

and Blighting Tears of Deities—Deities Born from Jewels and

Sword—The Harrying of Heaven—Flight of Sun-goddess—How Light was

Restored—The Sacred Mirror—Banishment of Susa-no-wo.

After Izanagi had slain his son, the fire-god, and brought into being

new gods, including dragons, he was seized with longing to see Izanami

once more. Accordingly he set out to find her in Yomi (“Yellow

stream”), the dark Hades of the Underworld. “The orthodox Japanese

derivation of Yomi,” says Chamberlain, “is from yoru, ‘night’, which

would give us for Yomo-tsu-kuni some such rendering as ‘Land of

Gloom’.” Another view is that “Yomi” is a mispronunciation of “Yama”,

the name of the Aryo-Indian god of death. [597]

When Izanagi reached the gloomy dwelling of his sister, she raised the

door, and he spoke to her, saying: “Thine Augustness, my lovely young

sister! the lands that I and you made are not yet finished; so come

back”. She replied out of the darkness: “It is sorrowful that you did

not come hither sooner, for I have eaten of the food of Yomi.

Nevertheless, it is my desire to return. I will therefore speak with

the kami of Yomi.” [598] She added in warning, “Look not at me!”

Izanami then went back to the place she had come from. She tarried

there for so long a time that Izanagi grew impatient. At length he felt

he could not wait any longer, so he broke off the end tooth of his

hair-comb, which is called the “male pillar”, and thus made a light,

and entered. [599] He found his sister. Her body was rotting, and

maggots swarmed over it. The Ko-ji-ki proceeds:

“In her head dwelt the Great Thunder, in her breast dwelt the Fire

Thunder, in her belly dwelt the Black Thunder, in her private parts

dwelt the Cleaving Thunder, in her left hand dwelt the Young

Thunder, in her right hand dwelt the Earth Thunder, in her left

foot dwelt the Rumbling Thunder, in her right foot dwelt the

Couchant Thunder; altogether eight thunder deities had been born

and dwelt there.”

Horrified at the spectacle, Izanagi drew back suddenly; whereupon his

sister exclaimed, “You have put me to shame!” and became angry.

Here Izanagi has broken a taboo, as did the Japanese youth who married

the dragon-maid, Abundant Pearl Princess, and as did the husband of

Melusina in the French legend. It was an ancient custom in Japan to

erect “parturition houses”. These were one-roomed huts to which women

retired so as to give birth to children unseen. Ernest Satow tells that

on the island of Hachijo, until comparatively recent times, “women,

when about to become mothers, were ... driven out to the huts on the

mountain-side, and according to the accounts of native writers, left to

shift for themselves, the result not infrequently being the death of

the new-born infant”. [600] It was taboo for a man to enter a

“parturition house”. Apparently Izanami had retired to a “parturition

house” in Yomi.

Enraged against Izanagi, because he had put her to shame, Izanami

commanded the Ugly Females of Yomi to pursue and slay him.

At this point in the mythical narrative begins a version of the

widespread folk-story about the young man who makes escape from his

enemy or enemies, and in the course of his flight throws down articles

that are transformed into obstacles, or into things which tempt the

pursuers to tarry and eat. [601]

The first article that Izanagi cast down behind him was his wreath or

head-dress, which was instantly turned into grapes. This is according

to the Ko-ji-ki; the Nihon-gi makes the head-dress the second obstacle.

His pursuer (Ko-ji-ki) or pursuers (Nihon-gi), having devoured the

grapes, resumed the chase. Then Izanagi, as he fled, broke his

hair-comb and threw it down; it instantly turned into bamboo sprouts.

While these were being pulled up and eaten, he continued his flight.

The Ko-ji-ki (but not the Nihon-gi) here introduces another set of

pursuers. Izanami, finding that her brother had outwitted the Ugly

Female (or Females), “sent the eight Thunder-Deities with a thousand

and five hundred warriors of Hades to pursue him. Izanagi, drawing the

ten-grasp sabre that was augustly girded on him, fled forward,

brandishing it in his back hand (brandishing it behind him); and as the

demons still continued to pursue him, he took, on reaching the base of

the Even Pass of Hades, [602] three peaches that were growing at its

base, and waited and smote (his pursuers therewith) so that they all

fled back.” [603]

Having thus rid himself of his pursuers, Izanagi addressed the peaches,

saying: “As you have helped me, so must ye help all living people in

the Central Land of Reed-Plains, when they are troubled and harassed”.

Here we have not only a native name of China (“Land of Reed-Plains”)

applied to Japan, but also the sacred Chinese peach, a symbol of the

Great Mother, the Western Queen of Immortals (Si Wang Fu). The story of

a hero’s flight from the Underworld has not survived in China, if ever

it existed there. It is, however, found in the myths of Scandinavia.

In the Nihon-gi (Aston) the comment is added to the peach incident:

“This was the origin of the custom of exorcising evil spirits by means

of peaches”.

The peach, like the bean, was in Japan a symbol of the mother-goddess,

as was the shell in Egypt and the pig-shell in Greece.

Izanami herself was the last to pursue Izanagi. When he saw her coming,

Izanagi blocked up the Pass of Yomi with a huge boulder of rock, which

it would take a thousand men to lift, and he stood on one side of it,

while she stood on the other to “exchange leave-takings” (Ko-ji-ki), or

to pronounce the formula of divorce (Nihon-gi).

In the Ko-ji-ki Izanami threatens to slay a thousand inhabitants in the

land of the living, but Izanagi retorts that he will arrange for the

birth of one thousand and five hundred, so that the number born may

exceed the number who must die.

Izanami became thereafter Yomo-tsu-oho-kami (Yomi’s Great Deity). [604]

The rock which blocks the Pass of Yomi became the

“Great-Deity-of-the-Road-Turning-back”.

In the Nihon-gi (Aston’s translation) it is related that Izanagi flung

down various articles on leaving Hades, as the goddess Ishtar in

Babylonian mythology flung down her clothing and ornaments on entering

the dread abode of Erish-ki-gal (Persephone). Having pronounced the

divorce formula:

“He also said, ‘Come no farther’, and threw down his staff, which

was called Funando-no-kami (pass-not-place-deity), or

Kunado-no-kami (come-not-place-deity). Moreover, he threw down his

girdle, which was called Nagachiha-no-kami. Moreover, he threw down

his upper garment, which was called Wadzurahi-no-kami (god of

disease). Moreover, he threw down his trousers, which were called

Aki-guhi-no-kami. Moreover, he threw down his shoes, which were

called Chi-shiki-no-kami.”

On returning to the land of the living, Izanagi exclaimed: “I have come

from a hideous and polluted place. I will therefore perform the

purification of my august body.”

He went to bathe at a river mouth on a plain covered with bush-clover,

beside a grove of orange trees confronting the sun. It is here,

according to the Ko-ji-ki, that he flings down his staff and the

various articles of clothing that are transformed into deities. Two

evil deities were born from the filth of Hades that fell from his

person when he entered the water. He dived, and three sea-gods came

into being. He washed his left eye, and thus gave origin to the goddess

of the sun, Ama-terâsu-oho-mi-kami (The

Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity). He washed his right eye, and there

came into being the god of the moon, Tsuki-yomi-no-kami

(Moon-Night-Possessor). He washed his nose, and from it was born

Take-haya-susa-no-wu-no-mikoto [605]

(His-Brave-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness).

Izanagi took off his necklace of jewels or beads (tama), and, shaking

it so that the beads jingled, bestowed it on Ama-terâsu, the sun kami

or goddess, and set her to rule the “Plain of High Heaven”. He

commanded the moon-god to rule the night, and Susa-no-wo to rule the

“Sea Plain”.

“At this point,” as Chamberlain says, “the story loses its unity. The

moon-goddess is no more heard of, and the traditions concerning the

sun-goddess diverge from those concerning the ‘Impetuous-Male-Deity’ in

a manner which is productive of inconsistencies in the rest of the

mythology.” [606]

Chamberlain translates Susa-no-wo as “Impetuous-Male-Deity”, connecting

his name with susama, “to be impetuous”. But, as Aston points out, the

implied noun susa, “impetuosity”, does not exist. There is, however, a

town named Susa in Idzumo, [607] with which area the legends regarding

the god are specially associated. Susa-no-wo may therefore have been

simply “the god of Susa”. Aston, following Dr. Buckley, Chicago,

regards him as a personification of the rain-storm. Japanese writers,

on the other hand, have connected him with Godzu Tenno, an Indian Hades

deity, and with the moon-god, or regarded him as a war-god, while some

European scholars have referred to him as a “rotating-heavens god”.

Having been born from the nose of Izanagi, we should expect Susa-no-wo

to have a connection with wind and “the air of life”, as well as with

rain and the sea. It is of special interest to note in this connection

that, as Aston says, [608] “Japan is annually visited by destructive

typhoons, accompanied by great darkness and a terrific downpour of

rain”. Susa-no-wo is “continually weeping, wailing, and fuming with

rage”, and is “a lover of destruction”, and he is associated with Yomi,

the habitation of the deities that work evil against mankind.

Susa-no-wo may be the Japanese Indra, who brings rain. Japanese

wind-gods were givers of rain, as well as wind. [609] Like Indra,

Susa-no-wo is a dragon-slayer. A festival “celebrated in his honour at

Onomochi in Bingo” is described by a Japanese writer in these words:

[610]

“The procession is a tumultuous trial of speed and strength. Bands

of strong men seize the sacred cars, race with them to the sea, and

having plunged in breast-deep, their burden held aloft, dash back

at full speed to the shrine. There refreshments are served out, and

then the race is resumed, the goal being the central flag among a

number set up in a large plain. Their feet beat time to a wildly

shouted chorus, and they sweep along wholly regardless of obstacles

or collisions.”

Indra, with Agni, the fire-god, was the winner in a race of the gods;

he links with Vayu or Vata, the wind-god, and he wages war against the

Danavas, the demons of ocean. [611]

In China dragon-boat races were held so as to cause rain. Imitation

boats were likewise carried through the streets to the seashore, and

there burned so as to take away evil influences. The boats represented

fighting dragons, and these were rain-bringers. The Japanese imitated

these Chinese customs, but not, however, until about the eleventh

century. [612]

As a trickster among the gods, Susa-no-wo bears some resemblance to the

Scandinavian Loki; he is, like that deity, an ally of the powers of

darkness and destruction, and he similarly suffers banishment from the

celestial land. Susa-no-wo also recalls Nergal, the Babylonian

warrior-god, who conquered Hades, and was “the death spreader”

(Mushtabarrû-mûtanu).

The deities of the sun and moon proceeded to rule the day and the night

as commanded by their parent Izanagi, but Susa-no-wo did not depart to

the ocean, which had been committed to his charge; instead, he cried

and wept until his eight-grasp beard reached the pit of his stomach.

Says the Ko-ji-ki:

“The fashion of his weeping was such as by his weeping to dry up

all the rivers and seas. For this reason the sound of bad deities

was like unto the flies of the fifth moon as they all swarmed, and

in all things every portent of woe arose.”

The reference to the god’s tears causing the green mountains to wither

and the waters to dry up has greatly perplexed Japanese commentators.

But there are statements in Asian and American mythologies regarding

“evil” or “poisonous rain” distributed, to the injury of vegetation, by

dragons that may be sick or badly disposed towards mankind. De Visser

refers to a Buddhist legend about a poisonous Naga that guarded a big

tree and killed all those who took a branch from it; when angry it sent

thunder and rain. [613] Central Asian legends tell that evil rains were

sent out of season by disturbed and enraged dragons. A Chinese story

tells of a sick dragon that, having been roused by prayers, gave “a

badly-smelling rain which would have spoiled the crops if a diviner had

not discovered it in time and cured the dragon at the latter’s

request”. Thereupon a fertilizing rain fell and a very clear spring

dashed forth from a rock. [614]

In Ancient Egypt the deities wept vitalizing tears (see Index). Ra’s

tears gave life to gods and men, the tears of the god Shu and the

goddess Tefnut became incense-bearing trees. The tears of Osiris and

Isis caused life-giving herbs, &c., to grow, but the tears shed on the

world by the evil Set and his partisans produced poisonous plants. When

deities were enraged, their saliva, sweat, and blood on touching the

earth germinated and produced poisonous plants, scorpions, serpents,

&c. [615]

The Chinese Buddhists believed in a Naga that, by means of a single

drop of water, could give rain to one or two kingdoms, and even prevent

the sea from drying up. [616] Similarly a single tear from Isis-Hathor,

as the star Sirius, that fell on the “Night of the Drop”, caused the

Nile to rise in flood.

The blighting and ocean-drying tears of Susa-no-wo were evidently those

of an evil or angry deity, or of one who was sick with sorrow.

Izanagi, beholding the ocean-ruler in tears, asked him why he wailed

and wept.

Susa-no-wo made answer: “I wail because I wish to depart to the land of

my dead mother (Izanami) in the Nether-Distant Land (Yomi, i.e.

Hades)”.

Izanagi was very angry, and said: “If that be so, you shall not dwell

in the ocean domain”. He then banished Susa-no-wo to Afumi. [617]

Susa-no-wo made answer that he would first take leave of his sister,

Ama-terâsu, goddess of the sun. He rose in the air, as does a

thunder-bringing dragon. Says the Ko-ji-ki:

“(With these words) he forthwith went up to Heaven, whereupon all

the mountains shook, and every land and country quaked. So

Ama-terâsu, alarmed at the noise, said: ‘The reason of the ascent

hither of His Augustness my elder brother [618] is surely no good

intent. It is only that he wishes to wrest my land from me.’” [619]

The goddess unbound her hair, twisted it into bunches, put on her

string of five hundred curved jewels (maga-tama, i.e. claw-shaped),

[620] and armed herself with bow and arrows. She stood “valiantly like

unto a mighty man”, and asked her brother why he had ascended.

Susa-no-wo declared he had no evil intention, and she asked him to give

proof of his sincerity and goodwill. He proposed that they should

pledge their faith and produce children. To this she consented, and

they “swore to each other from the opposite banks of the Tranquil River

of Heaven”. [621]

Ama-terâsu asked Susa-no-wo for his sword. He gave it to her and she

broke it into three pieces. She then made a jingling sound with her

jewels, brandished and washed them in the True-Pool-Well of Heaven

[622] and “crunchingly crunched them”. Then from the mist (of her

breath) were born the deities Torrent-Mist-Princess,

Lovely-Island-Princess, and Princess-of-the-Torrent.

Susa-no-wo then asked for and obtained from Ama-terâsu the string of

five hundred curved jewels [623] which was twisted in the left bunch of

her hair. He made a jingling sound with the jewels, washed them in the

Pool, and, having crunched them, “blew them away”. From his breath were

born the god

“Truly-Conqueror-I-Conquer-Conquering-Swift-Heavenly-Great-Great-Ears”,

the god Ame-no-hohi, [624] the god “Prince-Lord of Heaven”, the god

“Prince-Lord of Life”, and the god of Kumano. In all eight

deities—three goddesses and five gods—were born.

From these deities the Japanese noble families have claimed descent.

The Mikados were supposed to be descended from the Conquering God with

Great Ears (Masa-ya-a-katsu-kachi-haya-hi-ama-no-oshi-ho-mi-mi).

Another myth makes the Mikado a descendant of the sun-goddess and

Taka-mi-musubi (the High, August God of Birth and Growth), who, in a

sense, is a Japanese Osiris. He has been compared to the Hindu god

Shiva. Aston says that “musubi” is “the abstract process of growth

personified—that is, a power immanent in nature and not external to

it”. [625] Breasted similarly regards Osiris as “the imperishable

principle of life wherever found”. [626] Shiva, as “the fructifying

principle”, is represented by the phallus. It is believed that this

symbol was the “shintai” (god body) of Musubi. [627]

After the three goddesses and five gods had come into being, Susa-no-wo

declared, “I have undoubtedly gained the victory”. He then proceeded to

harry the celestial regions. He broke down the divisions of the

rice-fields, filled up the ditches, and fouled with excrement and urine

the palace in which the goddess took food. He became even more violent.

Having broken open a hole in the sacred house in which sat Ama-terâsu

superintending the weaving of the garments of deities, he let fall into

it a heavenly piebald horse that had been flayed backwards (a criminal

offence). The celestial female weavers were terrified.

Alarmed by Susa-no-wo’s doings, the sun-goddess entered her cave, the

Heavenly Rock Dwelling, [628] shut the door and made it fast. All the

land became dark.

Then the eight hundred myriad deities took counsel, sitting in the bed

of the River of Heaven, so as to plan how they could entice the

sun-goddess from her hiding-place. They made the cocks (“the

long-singing birds of eternal night”) to crow loud, they caused the

Heavenly Smith to shape a mirror of iron (the “true metal”) from the

Heavenly Metal-Mountains (the mines), and charged the Jewel-Ancestor

(Tama-noya-no-mikoto) to make a complete string of five hundred curved

jewels. A tree was then taken from the celestial Mount Kagu [629] and

on it were hung the mirror, the jewel, cherry bark, and other

offerings. The ritual was recited, and thereafter Ama-no-Uzume (the

Dread Celestial Female), wearing metal head-gear (flowers of gold and

silver) and a sash of club-moss from the celestial mountain, and

holding in her hands a posy of bamboo grass, danced on a tub [630]

until the eight hundred myriad deities laughed. Wondering to hear

sounds of merriment, instead of sounds of woe, the sun-goddess opened

the door of her cave a little and asked why they all laughed. She was

told that the deities rejoiced because they had among them a more

august goddess than herself.

One of the gods then held up the mirror, and the sun-goddess was

astonished to behold a bright deity, not knowing it was her reflected

image, and gradually came forth, fascinated by her own beauty and

brightness. A strong deity took her hand and drew her out while another

deity, Grand Jewel, drew a straw rope behind her so as to prevent her

retreating. [631] In this manner the sun-goddess was enticed to return

and light up the world.

The second expulsion of Susa-no-wo followed. He was fined an immense

fine of table-offerings, his beard was shorn, and his finger and toe

nails were drawn out.

According to the Ko-ji-ki, he begged for food from the food-goddess.

She took “dainty things” from various parts of her body which he

regarded as filth, so he slew her. Then from her head “were born

silk-worms, in her two eyes were born rice-seeds, in her two ears were

born millet, in her nose were born small beans, in her private parts

were born barley, in her fundament were born large beans”. These were

used as seeds. According to the Nihon-gi, they were sown “in the narrow

fields and in the long fields of Heaven”.

The reason for keeping the mirror and jewels (tama) in the shrine of

Ise, and for worshipping the sun-goddess and the food-goddess there,

are thus explained in Shinto mythology. Virgin priestesses danced at

religious ceremonies as did the tub-thumping goddess, and offerings

were suspended from trees as in the celestial regions, while the straw

rope was utilized to keep back demons and to ensure the rising of the

sun by preventing the retreat of the sun-goddess.

The finding of the dragon-sword is dealt with in the next mythical

story.

CHAPTER XX

THE DRAGON-SLAYER AND HIS RIVAL

The Eight-headed Dragon—Sacrifices of Maidens—How the Dragon was

intoxicated and slain—Finding of the Dragon-sword—The Nuptial

House—Adventures of Ohonamochi—The Jealous Brothers—Flight of

Ohonamochi to Hades—Susa-no-wo as Giant-god of Hades—Princess

Forward—Far Eastern Version of Jack-and-the-Beanstalk Story—The

Life-sword, Life-bow and arrows, &c.—Ohonamochi’s Conquest of

Japan—A Japanese Odin—Another Creation Myth—The Elfin Deity in Bird

Skins—A Shining Sea-god.

After Susa-no-wo had been banished from heaven, he descended on

Tori-kami, beside the river Hi, in the province of Idzumo. A chopstick

came floating down the river, so he knew that people were dwelling

near, and he set out to search for them. He soon met an old man and an

old woman who were weeping bitterly; between them walked a lovely

maiden.

“Who are you?” asked Susa-no-wo.

The old man made answer: “I am a god of earth, son of a mountain god,

and my name is Ashi-na-dzu-chi (‘foot-stroker’); this woman is my wife,

and her name is Te-na-dzu-chi (‘hand stroker’); the maiden is my

daughter Kush-inada-hime (‘Miraculous-rice-field-sun-maiden’).”

“Why do you weep?” asked Susa-no-wo.

Said the old man: “I have had eight daughters, but each year the

eight-forked serpent (dragon) of Koshi has come and devoured one after

the other. I weep now because the time is at hand to give

Kush-inada-hime to the serpent.”

“What is the serpent like?”

“Its eyes are red as the winter cherry [632]; it has a body with eight

heads and eight tails, and on its body grow moss and trees. It is so

long that it stretches over eight valleys and eight hills. Its belly is

constantly bloody and inflamed.” [633]

“If this maiden is your daughter,” said Susa-no-wo, “will you give her

to me?”

“You honour me,” the old man made answer, “but I do not know your

name.”

“I am the dear brother of the sun-goddess, and have just descended from

heaven.”

“Most obediently do I offer my daughter to you,” the old man said with

reverence.

Susa-no-wo then transformed the girl into a comb, which he placed in

his hair. Having done this, he bade the old couple to brew rice-beer

(sake). They obeyed him, and he asked them to construct a fence with

eight gates and eight benches, and to place on each bench a vat filled

with the beer.

In time the eight-forked serpent came nigh. It dipped each of its heads

into each of the vats, drank the sake, became drunk, and then lay down

and slept. Susa-no-wo drew his two-handed sword, [634] and cut the

serpent in pieces. The Hi River turned red with blood.

When Susa-no-wo cut the middle tail his sword broke. He marvelled at

this. Taking the point of the sword in his hand, he thrust and split,

and looked inside, and found a keen-cutting blade within this tail. He

took it out and sent it to his sister, Ama-terâsu, the sun-goddess.

This sword is the Kusa-nagi-no-tachi (the “herb-quelling”

dragon-sword).

Susa-no-wo afterwards built a house in the land of Idzumo, at a place

called Suga. Clouds rose up from that place. He made an ode regarding

the eight clouds that formed an eight-fold fence for husband and wife

to retire within the house. Then he appointed the maiden’s father to be

keeper, or head-man of the house.

In this nuptial house children were born to Susa-no-wo and the young

woman he had rescued from the dragon. These children included

Oho-toshi-no-kami (Great Harvest deity), Uka-no-mitama (the August

Spirit of Food), and Ohonamochi (“Great Name Possessor”), the god of

Idzumo, [635] who could assume snake form or human form at will.

Ohonamochi and his eighty brothers desired to marry the Princess of

Yakami in Inaba. On their way thither the eighty brothers tricked a

hare, which came by a distressing injury, but Ohonamochi caused it to

be cured. The grateful hare of Inaba, now called “the Hare Deity”,

promised Ohonamochi, who carried the bag as a servant to his brothers,

that he would get the princess for wife.

The princess afterwards refused to marry any of the eighty brothers,

saying she favoured Ohonamochi. Being enraged, the brothers took

counsel together and said to Ohonamochi: “There is a red boar on this

mountain, named Tema, in the land of Hataki. When we drive it down, you

must catch it. If you fail to catch it, we shall certainly slay you.”

[636]

Having thus spoken, the eighty deities kindled a fire, in which they

heated a great boulder, shaped like to a boar. They rolled the stone

down the mountain-side, and when Ohonamochi seized it he was so

grievously burned that he died.

Then his mother wept and lamented, and ascending to heaven, appealed to

Kami-musu-bi-no-kami (Divine-Producing Wondrous-Deity), one of the

elder gods, [637] who sent Kisa-gahi-hime (Princess Cockle-Shell) [638]

and Umugi-hime (Princess Clam) [639] to restore the dead deity to life.

Kisa-gahi-hime “triturated and scorched her shell”, and Umugi-hime

“carried water and smeared him as with mother’s milk”. [640] Thereupon

Ohonamochi came to life as a beautiful young man and walked again.

The eighty deities again deceived Ohonamochi. They led him to the

mountains. There they cut down a tree, which they split, inserting a

wedge in it, and having made him stand in the middle, they took away

the wedge, and thus killed him.

Ohonamochi’s mother again wailed and wept. She cut the tree, and,

taking him out, restored him to life once more. Then he fled to the

Land of Trees, escaping from his pursuers, who had fixed arrows in

their bows, by dipping under the fork of a tree and disappearing. [641]

Ohonamochi was advised to seek refuge in the Nether-Distant-Land

(Hades), where dwelt Susa-no-wo. Princess Forward met him, and they

exchanged glances, and were married. She then informed her father,

Susa-no-wo, that a very beautiful god had arrived. But Susa-no-wo was

angry, and called the youthful deity “Ugly-Male-God-of-Reed-Plain”, and

commanded him to sleep in the snake-house. The Princess Forward gave

Ohonamochi a snake-scarf, instructing him to wave it thrice when the

snakes threatened to bite him. This he did, and was protected. On the

next night Susa-no-wo placed the young god in the house of centipedes

and wasps, but the princess gave him another scarf that protected him

against attack.

Next day Susa-no-wo shot a “humming arrow” [642] into the middle of a

moor, and made Ohonamochi fetch it back. But when the young god went

out on the moor Susa-no-wo set fire to it all round. Ohonamochi could

perceive no way of escape. As he stood there, a mouse [643] came and

told him of a hollow place in which he could shelter himself.

Ohonamochi hastened to the hole and hid in it till the fire had gone

past. Then the mouse discovered and brought the humming arrow to

Ohonamochi. “The feathers of the arrows were brought in their mouths by

all the mouse’s children” (Ko-ji-ki, p. 73). [644]

Princess Forward lamented for her husband, and Susa-no-wo believed he

was dead. But the princess found Ohonamochi, and took him to the house.

He returned the arrow to Susa-no-wo. This god had many centipedes in

his hair, and bade the youth take them out. Ohonamochi made pretence of

doing this, and Susa-no-wo fell asleep.

Then Ohonamochi tied the hair of Susa-no-wo to the rafters, placed a

great boulder against the door, and fled away with Princess Forward on

his back. He carried away, too, Susa-no-wo’s life-sword and life-bow

and arrows, and the heavenly-speaking lute. [645]

As Ohonamochi fled, the lute touched a tree, and the earth resounded

with its call. Susa-no-wo was awakened by the spirit-call. He pulled

down the great house so as to get out, but was so long delayed in

disentangling his hair from the rafters, that when he went in pursuit

he did not get within call of Ohonamochi until he reached the Even Pass

of Yomi (Hades). [646]

Susa-no-wo shouted to Ohonamochi, advising him to pursue the eighty

half-brothers with the life-sword and life-bow and arrows until they

were swept into the river rapids. “Then, wretch,” said he, “become

Oho-kuni-nushi (Great Master god of the land), and make Princess

Forward thy consort. Set up the temple-pillars at the foot of Mount Uka

on foundations of rock and raise the cross-beams to the Plain of High

Heaven. Dwell there, you villain.”

Ohonamochi pursued and destroyed the eighty deities. “Then,” the

narrative continues, “he began to make the land.”

Here we meet with another Creation myth.

Two children were born to Ohonamochi and Princess Forward; these were

Ki-no-mata-no-kami (Tree-fork-deity) and Mi-wi-no-kami (Deity of August

Wells).

Like Odin, Ohonamochi woos in the course of his career more than one

goddess. One of these, the Princess of Nuna-kaha (Lagoon-river), sings

to him:

“Being a man probably (thou) hast on the various island headlands

that thou seest, and on every beach headland that thou lookest on,

a wife like the young herbs. But as for me, alas! being a woman, I

have no man except thee.” [647]

An elfin deity comes across the ocean to assist Ohonamochi to “make and

consolidate the land”. He is named Sukuna-bikona (the Little Prince

god). Attired in bird [648] skins, the little god sailed in a boat of

the heavenly Kagami. [649]

After Little Prince had for a time assisted to consolidate the land, he

crossed over to Toko-yo-no-kuni (the Eternal Land).

Then came a deity illuminating the sea to assist in consolidating the

land. He asked for a temple on Mount Mimoro and was afterwards

worshipped there. He himself passed to the Eternal Land

(Toko-yo-no-kuni), where grows the orange tree of life. [650] The deity

there who revealed Little Prince is called Crumbling Prince; his legs

do not walk, but he knows everything beneath the Heavens. [651]

CHAPTER XXI

ANCIENT MIKADOS AND HEROES

End of Dynasty of Susa-no-wo—Dynasty of Sun-goddess—The First

Emperor of Japan—Mikado as Descendant of the Sea-god, the “Abundant

Pearl Prince”—A Japanese Gilgamesh—Quest of the Orange Tree of

Life—The “Eternal Land”—The Polynesian Paradise and Tree of

Life—Yamato-Take, National Hero of Japan—Conflicts with Gods and

Rebels—Enchantment and Death of Hero—The Bird-soul—Empress

Jingo—Mikado deified as God of War—Shinto Religion and

Nature-worship—The Goddess Cult in Japan—Adoration of the Principle

of Life in Jewels, Trees, Herbs, &c.—Buddhism—Revival of Pure

Shinto—Culture-mixing in China and Japan—China “not a nation”.

Many children were born to Ohonamochi, but the Celestials would not

give recognition to the Dynasty of Susa-no-wo, and resolved that

Ninigi, the august grandchild of the sun-goddess, should rule Japan.

Ohonamochi was deposed, and several deities were sent down from heaven

to pacify the land for the chosen one.

Ninigi’s wife was Konohana-sakuyahime, and two of their children were

Hohodemi, the hunter, and Ho-no-Susori, the fisherman.

It was Hohodemi who wooed and wed the “Abundant Pearl Princess” and

lived with her for a time in the land under the ocean. [652] After she

gave birth to her child, she departed to her own land, deeply offended

because her husband beheld her in dragon (wani) shape in the

parturition house he had built for her on the seashore.

This child was the father of the first Emperor of Japan, Jimmu Tenno.

[653] The Mikados were therefore descended from the sun-goddess

Ama-terâsu and the Dragon-king of Ocean, the “Abundant Pearl Prince”.

When engaged pacifying the land, Jimmu followed a gigantic crow [654]

that had been sent down from heaven to guide him. He possessed a magic

celestial cross-sword and a fire-striker. His two brothers, who

accompanied him on an expedition across the sea, leapt overboard when a

storm was raging so that the waves might be stilled. They were

subsequently worshipped as gods.

Yamato now becomes the centre of the narrative, Idzumo having lost its

former importance.

Jimmu Tenno reigned until he was 127 years of age, dying, according to

Japanese dating, in 585 B.C. His successor was Suisei Tenno. There

follows a blank of 500 years which is bridged by the names of rulers

most of whom had long lives, some reaching over 120 years.

At the beginning of the Christian era, the Mikado was Sui-nin, who died

at the age of 141 years. This monarch sent the hero Tajima-mori to the

Eternal Land with purpose to bring back the fruit of the “Timeless (or

Everlasting) Fragrant Tree”. The Japanese Gilgamesh succeeded in his

enterprise. According to the Ko-ji-ki:

“Tajima-mori at last reached that country, plucked the fruit of the

tree, and brought of club-moss eight and of spears eight; but

meanwhile the Heavenly Sovereign had died. Then Tajima-mori set

apart of club-moss four and of spears four, which he presented to

the Great Empress, and set up of club-moss four and of spears four

as an offering at the door of the Heavenly Sovereign’s august

mausoleum, and, raising on high the fruit of the tree, wailed and

wept, saying: ‘Bringing the fruit of the Everlasting Fragrant Tree

from the Eternal Land, I have come to serve thee.’ At last he

wailed and wept himself to death. This fruit of the Everlasting

Fragrant Tree is what is now called the orange.”

Chamberlain explains [655] that “club-moss oranges” signifies oranges

as they grow on the branch surrounded by leaves, while spear-oranges

are the same divested of leaves and hanging to the bare twig.

The location of the Eternal Land has greatly puzzled native scholars.

Some suppose it was a part of Korea and others that it was Southern

China or the Loocho Islands. According to the Nihon-gi, Tajima-mori

found the Eternal Land to be inhabited by gods and dwarfs. As it lay

somewhere to the west of Japan, it would appear to be identical with

the Western Paradise which, according to Chinese belief, is ruled over

by Si Wang Mu (the Japanese Seiobo), the “Royal Mother” and “Queen of

Immortals”. Instead of the Chinese Peach Tree of Life, the Japanese had

in their own Western Paradise the Orange Tree of Life. The orange was

not, however, introduced into Japan until the eighth century of our

era. [656] Whether or not it supplanted in the Japanese paradise an

earlier tree, as the cassia tree supplanted the peach tree in the

Chinese paradise, is at present uncertain. It may be that the idea of

the Western Paradise was introduced by the Buddhists. At the same time,

it will be recalled that the Peach Tree of Life grew on the borderland

of Yomi, which was visited by Izanagi.

A similar garden paradise was known to the Polynesians, and especially

the Tahitians. It was called Rohutu noanoa (“Perfumed or Fragrant

Rohutu”). Thither the souls of the dead were conducted by the god

Urutaetae. This paradise “was supposed”, writes Ellis, [657] “to be

near a lofty and stupendous mountain in Raiatea, situated in the

vicinity of Hamaniino harbour and called Temehani unauna, ‘splendid or

glorious Temehani’. It was, however, said to be invisible to mortal

eyes, being in the reva, or aerial regions. The country was described

as most lovely and enchanting in appearance, adorned with flowers of

every form and hue, and perfumed with odours of every fragrance. The

air was free from every noxious vapour, pure, and most salubrious....

Rich viands and delicious fruits were supposed to be furnished in

abundance for the frequent and sumptuous festivals celebrated there.

Handsome youths and women, purotu anae, all perfection, thronged the

place.”

Another Polynesian paradise, called Pulotu, was reserved for chiefs,

who obtained “plenty of the best food and other indulgences”. Its

ruler, Saveasiuleo, had a human head. The upper part of his body

reclined in a great house “in company with the spirits of departed

chiefs”, while “the extremity of his body was said to stretch away into

the sea in the shape of an eel or serpent”. [658]

The Japanese had thus, like the Polynesians, a garden paradise and a

sea-dragon-king’s paradise, as well as the gloomy Yomi. It may be that

the beliefs and stories regarding these Otherworlds were introduced by

the earliest seafarers, who formed pearl-fishing communities round

their shores. The Ainu believe that Heaven and Hell are beneath the

earth, “in Pokna moshiri, the lower world”, but they have no idea what

the rewards of the righteous are. [659] Nothing is definitely known

regarding the beliefs of the earlier and more highly civilized people

remembered as the Koro-pok-guru.

The Mikado Sui-nin was succeeded by the Mikado Kei-ko, who died in A.D.

130, aged 143 years. One of his sons, Yamato-Take, is a famous

legendary hero of Japan. He performed many heroic deeds in battle

against brigands and rebels. At Ise he obtained from his aunt,

Yamato-hime, the priestess, the famous Kusanagi sword, and a bag which

he was not to open except when in peril of his life. He then set out to

subdue and pacify all savage deities and unsubmissive peoples. The

ruler of Sagami set fire to a moor which Yamato entered in quest of a

“Violent Deity”. Finding himself in peril, he opened the bag and

discovered in it a fire-striker (or fire-drill). He mowed the herbage

with the dragon-sword, and, using the fire-striker, kindled a

counter-fire, which drove back the other fire. The Kusanagi

(herb-quelling) sword takes its name from this incident. Yamato-Take

afterwards slew the wicked rulers of that land. He also slew a god in

the shape of a white deer which met him in Ashigara Pass. He lay in

ambush, and with a scrap of chive [660] hit the deer in the eye and

thus struck it dead. Then he shouted three times “Adzuma ha ya” (Oh, my

wife!). The land was thereupon called Adzuma.

Then follows the mysterious story of the death of the hero. He went to

the land of Shinanu, in which Ohonamochi had taken refuge when Japan

was being subdued for the ruler chosen by the sun-goddess, and where,

being pursued and threatened with death, Ohonamochi consented to

abdicate and take up his abode in a temple. The country takes its name

from shina, a tree resembling the lime, [661] and nu or no, “moor”.

Yamato-Take entered this land through Shinanu Pass (Shinanu no saka),

between the provinces of Shinano and Mino. He overcame the deity of the

pass, and went to dwell in the house of Princess Miyazu, of fragrant

and slender arms. She welcomed him with love. In the house of the

princess he left the Kusanagi sword, and went forth against the deity

of evil breath (or influence) on Mount Ibuki. As he climbed the

mountain he met a white boar, big as a bull. Believing it was a

messenger of the deity, he vowed he would slay it when he returned, and

continued to climb the mountain. But the boar was not a messenger; it

was the very deity in person, and it sent a heavy ice-rain. [662] The

rain-smitten and perplexed hero was thus misled by the deity.

On descending the mountain, Yamato-Take reached the fresh spring of

Tama-kura-be (the “Jewel-store-tribe”). He drank from it, and revived

somewhat. The spring was afterwards called Wi-same (the “well of

awakening” or “resting”).

Then Yamato-Take departed, and reached the moor of Tagi, [663]

lamenting the loss of bodily strength. He passed on to Cape Wotsu in

Ise, and there found a sword he had left at a pine tree, and sang:

“O pine tree, my brother,

If thou wert a person,

My sword and my garments

To thee would I give”.

Having sung this song, he proceeded on his way, yearning for his native

land, delightful Yamato, situated behind Mount Awogaki. His next song

was one of love and regret.

“How sweet o’er the skies

From Yamato, my home,

Do its white clouds arise,

Do its white clouds all come.”

His sickness and weariness made him feel more and more faint, and he

sang in his distress:

“Oh! the sharp sabre-sword

I left by the bedside

Of Princess Miyazu—

The sabre-sword”. [664]

Yamato-Take sank and died as soon as he had finished his song.

In time his wives came and built for him a mausoleum, weeping and

moaning the while, because he could not hear them or make answer. Then

Yamato-Take was transformed into a white bird, [665] which rose high in

the air and flew towards the shore. The wives pursued the bird with

lamentations and entered the sea. They saw the bird flying towards the

beach, and followed it. For a time it perched on a rock. Then it flew

from Ise to Shiki, in the land of Kafuchi, where a mausoleum was built

for it, so that it might rest. [666] But the white bird rose again to

heaven and flew away. It was never again seen.

After Mikado Kei-ko, father of Yamato-Take, had passed away, Sei-mu

reigned until he was 108 years old. Then followed the Mikado Chiu-ai.

His capital was in the south-west on the island of Kyushu. A message

came from the goddess through the Empress Jingo, who was divinely

possessed, promising him Korea, “a land to the westward” with

“abundance of various treasures, dazzling to the eye, from gold and

silver downwards”.

The Mikado refused to believe there was a land to the west, and

declared that the gods spoke falsely. Soon afterwards the heavenly

sovereign was struck dead.

Now the Empress Jingo was with child. Having received the instructions

of the deities to conquer Korea for her son, she delayed his birth by

taking a stone and attaching it to her waist with cords. Korea was

subdued, the Empress having made use of the “Jewels of flood and ebb”,

as related in a previous chapter. Her child was born after she returned

to Japan.

Empress Jingo is further credited with subduing and uniting the Empire

of Japan, and again establishing the central power at Yamato. She lived

until she was 100 years old.

Her son Ojin Tenno, [667] who had a dragon’s tail, lived until he was

110 years old, and died in A.D. 310. He was worshipped after death as a

war-god, and the patron of the Minamoto clan. His successor, Nin-toku,

who died at the age of 110, was the last of the mythical monarchs, or

of the monarchs regarding whom miraculous deeds are related. Japanese

history begins and myth ends about the beginning of the fifth century

of the Christian era.

The cult of Hachiman (Ojin Tenno) came into prominence in the ninth

century with the rise of the Minamoto family; its original seat was

Usa, in Buzen province. Hachiman’s shintai (“god body”) is a white

stone, or a fly-brush, or a pillow, or an arm-rest.

Jimmu Tenno, the Empress Jingo, and Yamato-Take were similarly deified

and worshipped. A ninth century scholar, Sugahara Michizane, was

deified as Temmangû, god of scholars. Living as well as dead Mikados

were kami (deities). “The spirits of all the soldiers who died in

battle,” writes Yei Ozaki, [668] “are worshipped as deified heroes at

the Kudan shrine in Tokyo.”

The worship of human ancestors in Japan is due to Chinese influence,

and had no place in old Shinto prior to the sixth century. In the

Ko-ji-ki and Nihon-gi the ancestors of the Mikados and the ruling

classes are the deities and their avatars. As we have seen, the Mikados

were reputed to be descended from the sun-goddess, and from the

daughter of the Dragon King of Ocean, called the “Abundant-Pearl

Princess”, a Japanese Melusina.

It is far from correct, therefore, to refer, as has been done, to

Shinto religion as “the worship of nature-gods and ancestors”. Even the

term “nature-worship” is misleading. The adoration in sacred shrines of

the mi-tama (the “August jewel”, or “Dragon-pearl”, or “spirit”, or

“double”) of a deity is not “the worship of Nature”, but the worship of

“the imperishable principle of life wherever found”. At Ise, the

“Mecca” of Japan, the goddess cult is prominent. Both the sun-goddess

and the food-goddess are forms of the Far Eastern Hathor, the

personification of the pearl, the shell, the precious jewel containing

“life substance”, the sun mirror, the sword, the pillow, the

standing-stone, the holy tree, the medicinal herb, the fertilizing

rain, &c. The Mikado, as her descendant, was the living Horus, an

avatar of Osiris; after death the Mikado ascended, like Ra, to the

celestial regions, or departed, like Osiris, to the Underworld of the

Dead. The Mikado of Japan, like the Pharaoh of Egypt, was a Son of

Heaven.

After Buddhism had been introduced into Japan in the sixth century, it

was fused with Shinto. The Shinto deities figured as avatars of Buddha

in the cult of Ryobu-Shinto. Even the Mikados came under the spell of

Buddhism.

In the eighteenth century began the movement known as the “Revival of

Pure Shinto”. It was promoted chiefly by Motöori and his disciple

Hirata. In time it did much to bring about the revolution which

restored to supreme political power, as the hereditary high priest and

living representative of the sun-goddess, the Mikado of Japan. Shinto

is the official religion of modern Japan; but Buddhism, impregnated

with Shinto elements, is the religion of the masses. “Pure Shinto”,

however, was not “pure” in the sense that Motöori and Hirata professed

to believe. It was undoubtedly a product of culture mixing in early

times. “The Ko-ji-ki and Nihon-gi,” as Laufer says, “do not present a

pure source of genuine Japanese thought, but are retrospective records

largely written under Chinese and Korean influence, and echoing in a

bewildering medley continental-Asiatic and Malayo-Polynesian

traditions.” [669] In China, Korea, Polynesia, &c., a similar process

of culture mixing can be traced. Buddha and Mohammed were not the

earliest founders of cults which have left their impress on the

religious systems of the Far East. Vast areas were influenced by the

cultures of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia.

The history of civilization does not support the hypothesis that the

same myths and religious practices were of spontaneous generation in

widely-separated countries. Culture complexes cannot be accounted for

or explained away by the application of the principles of biological

evolution. As has been shown in these pages, there are many culture

complexes in China and Japan, and many links with more ancient

civilizations.

Touching on the problem of culture mixing in China, Laufer writes:

“In opposition to the prevalent opinion of the day, it cannot be

emphasized strongly enough on every occasion that Chinese civilization,

as it appears now, is not a unit and not the exclusive production of

the Chinese, but the final result of the cultural efforts of a vast

conglomeration of the most varied tribes, an amalgamation of ideas

accumulated from manifold quarters and widely differentiated in space

and time; briefly stated, this means China is not a nation, but an

empire, a political, but not an ethnical unit. No graver error can

hence be committed than to attribute any culture idea at the outset to

the Chinese, for no other reason than because it appears within the

precincts of their empire.” [670]

NOTES

[1] Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe, pp. 26 et seq.

[2] Ibid. See illustrations opposite p. 20.

[3] Professor Cherry The Origin of Agriculture (Mem. and Proc.

Manchester Lit. and Phil. Soc., 1920).

[4] In Babylonian legends civilization is introduced by the “goat-fish”

god Ea, who came from the Persian Gulf.

[5] Those who give Osiris a Libyan origin believe his name signifies

“The Old One”, or “The Old Man”.

[6] The Ancient Egyptians, pp. 41–42.

[7] Breasted’s Religion and Thought in Egypt, p. 18.

[8] S. Squire, Plutarch’s Treatise of Isis and Osiris (Cambridge,

1744).

[9] In Egypt this was the Solutrean stage of the so-called “Palæolithic

Age”.

[10] There was no “Neolithic Age” in Egypt.

[11] The Scope of Social Anthropology (London, 1908), pp. 12–13.

[12] Primitive Man (Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. VII), p.

50.

[13] The Yakut (in Russian), Vol. I, p. 378.

[14] The Evolution of the Dragon, G. Elliot Smith (London, 1919), pp.

178 et seq.

[15] O. T. Mason, Origins of Invention, p. 166; and Woman’s Share in

Primitive Culture, p. 91.

[16] The Beginnings of Porcelain in China, by Berthold Laufer and H. W.

Nichols (Field Museum of Natural History Publication, 192,

Anthropological Series, Vol. XII, No. 2. Chicago, 1917).

[17] Ibid., pp. 153–154.

[18] The Journal of Egyptian Archæology, April, 1914, p. 14.

[19] Aboriginal Pottery of the Eastern United States, p. 50 (Twentieth

Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1903).

[20] The Khasis, p. 61.

[21] Tao Shuo, chap. ii, p. 2 (new edition, 1912).

[22] The Beginnings of Porcelain in China, pp. 154–5. In “culture

mixing” old local religious beliefs were not obliterated.

[23] Chavannes, Mémoires historiques de Se-ma Tsʼien, Vol. I, pp. 72–4.

[24] The Beginnings of Porcelain in China, p. 160.

[25] Antiquities of India, L. D. Barnett, p. 176.

[26] Madras Government Museum Catalogue of Prehistoric Antiquities, p.

111.

[27] Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, Macdonell and Keith, Vol. I,

pp. 31, 32.

[28] Book I, chap. 194.

[29] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Egypt, pp. 108, 158.

[30] Early Modes of Navigation, Journal of the Anthropological

Institute, Vol. IV, p. 402.

[31] Holmes’s Ancient and Modern Ships, E. K. Chatterton’s Sailing

Ships and their Story, Cecil Torr’s Ancient Ships, Warrington Smith’s

Mast and Sail in Europe and Asia, Elliot Smith’s Ships as Evidence of

the Migrations of Early Culture, and the works of Pâris and Assmann,

and Pitt Rivers (op. cit.).

[32] Sailing Ships and their Story, pp. 25–6.

[33] Ships as Evidence, &c., pp. 5, 6.

[34] Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe, pp. 146 and 191, et seq.

[35] Breasted’s A History of Egypt, pp. 114–5.

[36] Sailing Ships and their Story, pp. 31, 32.

[37] Maspero in his The Dawn of Civilization protests against this

view.

[38] Egyptian Myth and Legend, p. 372.

[39] English translation of M. Huc’s Recollections (London, 1852), p.

21.

[40] E. Kebel Chatterton’s Sailing Ships and their Story, pp. 7 and 31,

and illustration opposite page 8.

[41] Sailing Ships and their Story, pp. 32–3.

[42] Polynesian Researches, First Edition, 1829, Vol. I, p. 169.

[43] Ancient Ships, p. 78.

[44] Polynesian Researches, First Edition, 1829, Vol. I, pp. 181, 2.

The crescent-shaped vessel is quite Egyptian in character.

[45] Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 50, 51.

[46] Book II, 67.

[47] 1 Kings, x, 22.

[48] 1 Kings, ix, 26–8.

[49] 1 Kings, x, 2.

[50] Breasted’s A History of Egypt, p. 274.

[51] Breasted’s Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 279.

[52] Quoted from a Chinese work by Dr. W. M. W. de Visser in The Dragon

in China and Japan (Amsterdam, 1913).

[53] Muir’s Sanskrit Texts, Vol. I, p. 516 (1890).

[54] Dr. W. M. W. de Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 69.

[55] Ibid., p. 223.

[56] Shi i ki, chap. ii.

[57] Religious System of China, Vol. V, p. 867.

[58] This is the name of the Indian Naga king.

[59] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 139.

[60] Chinese-English Dictionary, p. 1092.

[61] Chine Ancienne, pp. 94 et seq.

[62] Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, pp. 216 et seq.

[63] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 109.

[64] Quoted by Prof. G. Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, p.

160.

[65] Ellis, Polynesian Researches, First Edition, Vol. I, p. 178.

[66] Rev. George Turner’s Nineteen Years in Polynesia (1861), pp.

238–9. The god emerging from the shell-fish is found in Mexico.

Jackson’s Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture, p. 52.

[67] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 88.

[68] Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe, pp. 306–7. Pierced fish

vertebræ have been found in Malta, Italy, the south-east of Spain, and

Troy. See Malta and the Mediterranean Race, R. N. Bradley (London,

1912), p. 136.

[69] Manuel d’Archéologie Américaine, Fig. 21, p. 114.

[70] Ibid., p. 169.

[71] Ibid., p. 169.

[72] This mammal belongs to the order Sirenia, which includes manatees.

It is native to Indian seas. A variety has been found in the Red Sea.

[73] Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology), 1915, pp. 255–6.

[74] A form of the mother-goddess.

[75] The Religious System of China, Vol. III, p. 1143.

[76] Hibbert Lectures, pp. 280–84.

[77] Legends of Babylonia and Egypt, Leonard W. King, pp. 116–7 (1918).

[78] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 20.

[79] Ibid., p. 26.

[80] The Voice of Africa, Vol. II, p. 467.

[81] The Evolution of the Dragon, p. 130.

[82] See illustration of the serpent enclosing the waters in the shrine

of the Nile, from a bas-relief in the small temple of Philæ. Maspero’s

The Dawn of Civilization, p. 39.

[83] Breasted, op. cit., p. 38.

[84] A kiao-lung is a dragon with fish scales.

[85] A horned dragon.

[86] A dragon with wings.

[87] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, pp. 72 et seq.

[88] Horus while alive, and Osiris after he died, as Dr. Gardiner

insists.

[89] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 42.

[90] Nehemiah, ii, 13.

[91] Æschylus, Prometheus Vinctus, 351–72.

[92] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 46.

[93] Dr. A. Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, Vol. I, p. 169.

[94] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 89.

[95] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, pp. 99 et seq.

[96] The Religious System of China, Vol. VI, p. 1087.

[97] See English translation by Walter Gorn Old (London, 1904).

[98] The Religious System of China, Vol. IV, p. 26.

[99] De Visser, The Dragon in Japan and China, p. 62.

[100] Breasted’s Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 21.

[101] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 67.

[102] De Groot’s The Religious System of China, Vol. I, p. 369.

[103] Chats on Oriental China (London, 1908).

[104] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 79.

[105] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 112.

[106] A dragon appeared at the birth of Confucius.

[107] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 145.

[108] Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology, 1915), p. 258.

[109] Melanesians and Polynesians (London, 1910), pp. 334–5.

[110] Ibid., p. 364.

[111] Indo-China and its Primitive People, London (trans.), p. 192.

[112] Hawaiian Mythology, p. 257.

[113] Buddhist India, pp. 222–3.

[114] Manual of Indian Buddhism, pp. 593 et seq.

[115] Iliad, Book XII (Lang’s, Leaf’s, and Dyer’s Trans.), p. 236.

[116] The Natural History of Animals (Gresham, London), Vol. III, p.

176 and pp. 46 et seq.

[117] Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. I, p. 481.

[118] Chavannes’ Contes et Apologues.

[119] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 314–5.

[120] Laufer, The Diamond: a study in Chinese and Hellenistic

Folk-lore, p. 7 (Chicago, 1915).

[121] Açwamedha Parva, Section XC, Sloka 5.

[122] Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. II, p. 107.

[123] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 120.

[124] Ibid., p. 62.

[125] The Evolution of the Dragon, G. Elliot Smith, pp. 83 et seq.

[126] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 130.

[127] Westervelt’s Legends of Gods and Ghosts, p. 258.

[128] Buddhist India, pp. 224–5.

[129] Teutonic Myth and Legend, p. 174 et seq.

[130] Teutonic Myth and Legend, p. 286.

[131] The Irish term sed (pronounced “shade”), the old form of which is

set, signified a cow, a measure of value, property, and “a pearl, a

precious stone, or a gem of any kind”. Joyce, Irish Names of Places, p.

355 (Dublin, 1875).

[132] Breasted, A History of Egypt, p. 357.

[133] Egyptian Myth and Legend, pp. 341, 342.

[134] Seven Tablets of Creation.

[135] The belief that the cat has nine lives may be cited, and also the

belief that if an eel or a serpent is cut in two it will come to life

again. A Chinese dragon may revive after being cut up and buried. The

story is told in Japan of a man who killed a snake-dragon, cut it into

three pieces, and buried them, but thirteen years later, on the same

day of the year on which he slew the dragon, he cried out “I drink

water,” choked, and died. His death was caused by the dragon he had

endeavoured to kill (de Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 195).

The “Deathless Snake” in an ancient Egyptian story comes to life until

the severed parts are buried separately.

[136] Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology), pp. 256–7.

[137] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 127. See also the Egyptian Bata

story, Egyptian Myth and Legend, pp. 49–56.

[138] Egyptian Myth and Legend, p. 55.

[139] The Dragon’s Kupuas.

[140] The odour of the herb was the body odour of the dragon. It helped

to restore vitality, as did incense, when burned before an Egyptian

mummy. Gods were similarly “fed” by offerings of incense. The

Babylonian Noah burned incense, and the gods smelt the sweet savour.

The gods gathered like flies about him that offered the

sacrifice.—King, Babylonian Religion, p. 136.

[141] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 63. Kwan Chung died

in 645 B.C.

[142] Polynesian Mythology, Sir George Grey, p. 33.

[143] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 174.

[144] A Galloway herbalist who was searching for herbs to cure a

consumptive girl, named May, saw a mermaid rising in the sea. According

to the folk-story, the mermaid recommended mugwort (southernwood) as a

cure by singing:

Would you let bonnie May die in your hand,

And the mugwort flowering in the land?

[145] Jade disks, decorated with the rush pattern, were in China images

of Heaven and badges of rank. The rain-dragon in human form carries in

his right hand a blue rush. The rush was connected with water—the water

below the firmament and the water above the firmament. Reeds were

likewise connected with the deities. In Babylonia, priests had visions

in reed huts and the dead lay on reed mats. The reed and river-mud were

used by Marduk when he created man. Apparently, the reed was an avatar

of the water deity: it contained “soul substance”. Linen made from flax

was sacred and inspiring. It was wrapped round the dead, instead of

animal skins, in pre-Dynastic Egypt. The linen ephod was inspiring;

like the “prophet’s mantle” it gave the wearer power to foretell

events.

[146] S. Baring-Gould’s Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, pp. 471 et

seq.

[147] A similar belief regarding supernatural beings prevailed in

India. See story of Nala in Indian Myth and Legend.

[148] The appearance of four servants (the gods of the four quarters)

with the dragon-god, indicates that the coming storm is to be one of

exceptional violence.

[149] The deep slumberer in a folk-tale is usually engaged “working a

spell”. As will be gathered from the story, the boy received his

knowledge and power from his grandmother. She resembles the Norse Vala

and the Witch of Endor.

[150] The Norse Vala makes similar complaint when awakened by Odin. It

looks as if this Chinese story is based on one about consulting a

spirit of a “wise woman” who sleeps in her tomb.

[151] An interesting glimpse of the connection between colour symbolism

and magic. Everything is yellow because a yellow dragon is being

invoked.

[152] This sleep appears to be as necessary as that of the grandmother.

[153] The latest spell had been worked, and it was not necessary that

the father should sleep any longer.

[154] Indian fairy girl. There are apsaras in the Paradise of Indra.

[155] Indian Fairy Stories (London, 1915), pp. 47 et seq.

[156] Egyptian Tales (first series), W. H. Flinders Petrie (London,

1899), pp. 81 et seq.

[157] Folk Lore Journal, Vol. V, p. 257.

[158] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 177 et seq.

[159] L. W. King, Legends of Babylonia and Egypt (London, 1918), p.

146.

[160] See references in Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 184 et seq.

[161] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 256 and p. 381.

[162] Book III.

[163] Tennyson’s The Passing of Arthur.

[164] Like the Indian god Vishnu, who lies asleep on the Naga. This

sleep, like that of magicians, is a spell-working or power-accumulating

sleep.

[165] Like the Egyptian hero who slays the river serpent which guards

the box containing magic spells. Sigurd, Siegfried, and other

dragon-slaying heroes may be compared with this Far-Eastern hero.

[166] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan.

[167] Jade: A Study in Chinese Archæology and Religion, Berthold Laufer

(Chicago, 1912), pp. 209–10.

[168] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Egypt, pp. 133–7.

[169] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Egypt, p. 102.

[170] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 181–3.

[171] Mémoires Historiques de Se-ma Tsʼien (1895–1905).

[172] He figures as a character (not a real one) in the writings of

Kwang-tze, who was born in the fourth century B.C.

[173] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 145.

[174] Dr. J. Legge, Chinese Classics, Vol. III, Part I, p. 240, and

Part II, p. 554.

[175] In Scottish giant-lore giants sit on mountains in like manner and

fish for whales, using trees as fishing-rods.

[176] Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.

[177] Genesis, ii, 8.

[178] Navarrette, Coll. de Documents, I, p. 244, quoted in Curious

Myths of the Middle Ages, p. 525.

[179] William Ellis, Polynesian Researches (1st edition, London, 1829),

Vol. II, pp. 47 et seq.

[180] Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, Vol. III, Tale

LXXXVI.

[181] Legends of Gods and Ghosts, p. 246.

[182] Nineteen Years in Polynesia, p. 353.

[183] Swarga-rohanika Parva, Section III (Roy’s translation), p. 9. The

chief of the gods says to Yudhishthira: “Here is the celestial

river.... Plunging into it, thou wilt go to thine own regions

(Paradise).” Having bathed, the hero “cast off his human body” and

“assumed a celestial form”.

[184] Odyssey, XV (Butcher and Lang’s trans.), p. 253.

[185] S. H. O’Grady, Silva Gadelica, Vol. II, pp. 393–4.

[186] Ibid., Vol. II, p. 113.

[187] The Voyage of Bran.

[188] Ancient Irish Poetry, p. 8.

[189] The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great, trans. by E. Walter

Budge, pp. 11 et seq., and 167 et seq.

[190] “Vana Parva” of Mahábhárata, and Indian Myth and Legend, pp.

105–9.

[191] Description of Sukhāvatī, the Land of Bliss, in Buddhist Mahayana

Texts (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XLIX), pp. 16, 17.

[192] Ibid., p. 35.

[193] Ibid., p. 56.

[194] Ibid., p. 174.

[195] Ibid., p. 180.

[196] Ibid., p. 50.

[197] B. Laufer, The Diamond (A Study in Chinese and Hellenistic

Folk-lore) (Chicago, 1915).

[198] L. W. King, Babylonian Religion (London, 1903), p. 171.

[199] L. W. King, Legends of Babylon and Egypt (London, 1918), p. 136.

[200] Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 130.

[201] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 71.

[202] Westervelt, Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology), p.

245.

[203] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, pp. 120 et seq.

[204] Ibid., p. 134.

[205] G. Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, pp. 23 et seq.

[206] Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, Vol. III, pp. 14, 30; Cook,

Zeus, Vol. I, p. 537.

[207] Westervelt, Legends of Old Honolulu, pp. 22 et seq., and p. 29.

[208] Teutonic Myth and Legend, pp. 424–32.

[209] Westminster Review, November, 1892, p. 523.

[210] When, some years ago, an ass was acquired by a tenant on a

Hebridean island, a native, on seeing this animal for the first time,

exclaimed, “It is the father of all the hares”.

[211] Dr. Joseph Edkins, Religion in China, p. 151.

[212] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 185 et seq.

[213] Laufer, Sino Iranica (Chicago, 1919), pp. 539 et seq.

[214] Laufer, Sino-Iranica, p. 543.

[215] Transactions Am. Phil. Association, Vol. XXIII, 1892, p. 115.

[216] Sino-Iranica, pp. 542–3.

[217] G. Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, pp. 36 et seq.

[218] Religious System of China, Vol. IV, pp. 272–6: and Elliot Smith,

The Evolution of the Dragon, pp. 38–9.

[219] The Jack and Jill of the nursery rhyme.

[220] Teutonic Myth and Legend, pp. 22 et seq.

[221] Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, pp. 190 et seq.

[222] Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. II, p. 104.

[223] Babylonian Myth and Legend, p. 126–7.

[224] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 173 et seq., and 192–94.

[225] Egyptian Myth and Legend, p. 19 et seq.

[226] Teutonic Myth and Legend, pp. 352 (n.), 376, 383, 389, 391, 446.

[227] For beliefs connected with pearls and shells, see Shells as

Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture, I. Wilfrid Jackson

(London, 1917).

[228] Some thunder birds are dark as thunder-clouds.

[229] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 63.

[230] G. A. Reisner, Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ad-Dêr, Vol. I,

1908, Plates 6 and 7, and Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early

Culture, 1917, p. xxi.

[231] Jade, p. 1.

[232] The Norse gods grew old when the apples of immortality, kept by

the goddess Idun, were carried away. After the apples were restored,

they ate of them and grew young again.—Teutonic Myth and Legend, p. 57.

[233] De Groot, The Religious System of China, Vol. I, p. 300.

[234] De Groot, The Religious System of China, Vol. I, p. 295.

[235] Shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth.—Romeo and Juliet,

iv, 3.

Give me to drink mandragora ...

That I may sleep out the great gap of time

My Anthony is away.—Anthony and Cleopatra.

[236] The Ascent of Olympus, pp. 107 et seq.

[237] Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, p. 184; Rendel Harris,

The Ascent of Olympus, p. 73.

[238] The Ascent of Olympus, p. 126.

[239] Artemis, as goddess of birth, was a specialized form of the Great

Mother, who was herself the goddess of love and birth, of treasure,

&c.—the All-mother.

[240] The Ascent of Olympus, p. 87.

[241] Ibid., p. 86.

[242] Joly, Legend in Japanese Art, p. 165.

[243] Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, pp. 183, 199 et seq.

[244] The Ascent of Olympus, 79–80.

[245] The Chinese Traveller (London, 1772), Vol. I, p. 247.

[246] The Ascent of Olympus, p. 82.

[247] The Chinese Traveller, Vol. I, p. 239.

[248] The Chinese Traveller, Vol. I, pp. 237 et seq.

[249] Genesis, xlix, 11.

[250] The Ascent of Olympus (note on Ivy and Mugwort in Siberia), pp.

96 et seq.

[251] Sino-Iranica (Chicago, 1919), pp. 385 et seq.

[252] Ibid., p. 386.

[253] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 100.

[254] Sino-Iranica, pp. 339–42.

[255] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 234–5.

[256] Perry, Megalithic Culture of Indonesia, p. 68.

[257] Megalithic Culture of Indonesia, p. 92.

[258] Legend in Japanese Art, p. 195.

[259] Religions of Ancient China, pp. 24–5.

[260] Ibid., pp. 38–9.

[261] See Chapter XIII re shining gems, jade, coral, &c.

[262] The Dragon in China and Japan, pp. 39 and 64.

[263] Laufer, Sino-Iranica, p. 568.

[264] Elliot Smith, The Migration of Early Culture (London, 1915), and

The Evolution of the Dragon (London, 1919).

[265] The other names are Jăta-rūpa, Su-varna, Harita, and Hiranya.

[266] Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index of Names and Subjects (London,

1912), Vol. II, p. 504. See also for moon and gold, Vol. I, 254.

[267] Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (London, 1703 Edition),

p. 243.

[268] History of Sumer and Akkad, pp. 326–7.

[269] Breasted, A History of Egypt, p. 48.

[270] Breasted, A History of Egypt, p. 190.

[271] Ibid., p. 48.

[272] L. W. King, A History of Sumer and Akkad, pp. 74, 75.

[273] British Museum Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age, p. 10.

[274] British Museum Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age, p. 9.

[275] Ibid., p. 9.

[276] A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians, p. 74.

[277] In the Tell-el-Amarna letters, Western-Asian monarchs are

eloquent in their requests for gold from Egypt. In one a Babylonian

king “asks for much gold” and complains that the last supply was base,

and that there was “much loss in melting”.

[278] Sino-Iranica: Chinese Contributions to the History of

Civilization in Ancient Iran. Chicago, 1919.

[279] Ibid., p. 185.

[280] The Relationship between the Geographical Distribution of

Megalithic Monuments and Ancient Times. Manchester, 1915.

[281] Mrs. Hawes, Gournia, p. 33.

[282] The Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization, pp. 62–3.

[283] Elliot Smith, The Ancient Egyptians, pp. 41 et seq.

[284] It seems ridiculous to suggest that irrigation had origin in

mid-Asia and not in areas like the deltas of Egypt and Sumeria.

[285] British Museum Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities,

p. 157.

[286] Peter, Nippur II, p. 134.

[287] Scythians and Greeks (1913), p. 280.

[288] Chapter V.

[289] Religion in China (London 1878, 2nd Ed.), p. 38.

[290] British Museum Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age, p.

107.

[291] Archæologia, p. 276.

[292] Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. XLII, p.

279.

[293] Religion in China, p. 6.

[294] Jade and other stone mirrors are referred to in ancient texts. No

doubt these were religious symbols. None survives. Jade shoes are

mentioned too, but there are no surviving specimens. In Ireland bronze

shoes were worn in ancient times—perhaps in connection with religious

ceremonies. Obsidian mirrors were used in Mexico for purposes of

divination, and there were stone mirrors in Peru.

[295] Jade: A Study in Chinese Archæology and Religion, Berthold Laufer

(Field Museum of Natural History, Publication 154, Anthropological

Series, Vol. X, Chicago, 1912, p. 23).

[296] Laufer notes that yu included nephrite, jadeite, bowenite, and

sometimes “beautiful kinds of serpentine, agalmatolite, and

marble”.—Jade, p. 22.

[297] Ibid., p. 29.

[298] De Groot, The Religious System of China, Book I, pp. 275 et seq.

[299] Jade, p. 299.

[300] The Religious System of China, Book I, pp. 274 et seq.

[301] Pronounced muk’ăra.

[302] See illustrations in Professor Elliot Smith’s The Evolution of

the Dragon, pp. 88, 89.

[303] Like the ginseng (mandrake) in the Kang-ge mountains in northern

Korea. (See Chapter XVII.)

[304] De Groot, The Religious System of China, Book I, Vol. I, pp.

272–3.

[305] The Diamond, pp. 55, 56, n.

[306] She is thus the divine spinner as the god Ptah of Egypt is the

divine potter.

[307] The Syrian Goddess, Strong and Garstang (London, 1913), pp. 71,

72.

[308] Chicago, 1915, p. 58.

[309] The Diamond, p. 7. Lesser Fu-lin was Syria, and Greater Fu-lin

the Byzantine Empire.

[310] Ibid., pp. 55, n. 2, 56.

[311] The Religious System of China, Book I, Vol. I, pp. 277–8.

[312] Laufer, The Diamond, p. 22 and n. 3, and p. 69 and n. 7.

[313] Ibid., pp. 68–9.

[314] Laufer, Chinese Clay Figures, pp. 138, 151.

[315] The Diamond, p. 71.

[316] Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, p. 157, n. 1. Laufer,

Sino-Iranica, pp. 520 and 525.

[317] The Religious System of China, Book II, Vol. IV, p. 331.

[318] The Religious System of China, Book I, pp. 278–9.

[319] Legend in Japanese Art, pp. 354, 355.

[320] Legend in Japanese Art, pp. 355–6.

[321] Ibid., p. 355.

[322] Jade, p. 21, n. 4.

[323] Breasted, A History of Egypt, p. 357.

[324] Laufer, Jade, p. 299, n. 1.

[325] Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. I, pp. 357–8.

[326] Jade, p. 301 and n. 1.

[327] Ibid., p. 310.

[328] Jade, pp. 306–7.

[329] The Religious System of China, Book I, p. 284.

[330] The Religious System of China, Book I, p. 284.

[331] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 332.

[332] Legge, The Shih King, p. 395.

[333] Ibid., p. 338.

[334] Joly, Legend in Japanese Art, p. 297.

[335] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 100.

[336] The Religious System of China, Book I, Vol. III, p. 962.

[337] De Groot, op. cit., Book I, Vol. III, p. 983.

[338] Legge, The Yi King, pp. 43–44.

[339] The Religious System of China, Book I, p. 327.

[340] Op. cit., p. 327.

[341] De Groot, op. cit., p. 317.

[342] Legge, Texts of Taoism, Vol. II, p. 265.

[343] Legge, The Shu King, pp. 38, 39.

[344] Teutonic Myth and Legend, p. 5.

[345] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 330, 331.

[346] Religion in China (London, 1878), p. 109.

[347] Religion in China, p. 107.

[348] Quoted by De Groot, The Religious System of China, Book I, Vol.

III, p. 983.

[349] Green and blue are interchangeable in China.

[350] Biot, Vol. I, pp. 434, 435, quoted by Laufer in Jade, p. 120.

[351] The Religious System of China, Book I, Part III, p. 935.

[352] Ibid., Book I, Vol. III, p. 949.

[353] In Scotland south-flowing water is specially good and

influential.

[354] The Religious System of China, Book I, Vol. III, pp. 949, 950.

[355] Jade, pp. 182–3.

[356] Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XXI, pp. 128–9.

[357] See Egyptian Myth and Legend, Myths of Babylonia and Assyria,

Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe, and Indian Myth and Legend.

[358] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 130.

[359] See terra-cotta image of pig marked with stars in Schliemann’s

Troy and its Remains (translation by Smith, London, 1875), p. 232.

[360] Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, p. 96.

[361] Laufer, Jade (for illustrations of tigers with thunder pattern),

pp. 180–4.

[362] De Groot, Religious System of China, Vol. I, Book I, pp. 94 and

110; Book II, pp. 5 et seq.

[363] The Religious System of China, Book I, Vol. I, p. 226, n. 2.

[364] De Groot, op. cit., Book I, p. 72.

[365] The Religious System of China, Book I, Vol. I, pp. 241 et seq.

[366] See references in Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 69, 70, and

70 n.

[367] Mrs. Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbours, Vol. II, pp. 84–5.

[368] The Evolution of the Dragon, p. 50.

[369] The Evolution of the Dragon, pp. 51–2.

[370] De Groot, op. cit., p. 396, and Elliot Smith, op. cit., p. 48,

and n. 1.

[371] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 19.

[372] Biot, Vol. I, p. 125.

[373] Laufer, Jade, pp. 296 et seq.

[374] Ibid., p. 1.

[375] Ibid., p. 296.

[376] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 23.

[377] Laufer, Jade, p. 1.

[378] Legends of Babylonia and Egypt in relation to Hebrew Tradition

(The Schweich Lectures), London, 1918, pp. 56 et seq. and pp. 88 et

seq.

[379] The Babylonian Noah, who became an immortal and lived on an

“Island of the Blest” and near the island on which were the Plant of

Life and the Well of Life.

[380] Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, p. 205.

[381] The Ascent of Olympus, pp. 120–1.

[382] History of the Rhinoceros in Chinese clay figures (Field Museum

of Natural History, Publication 177), Chicago, 1914, pp. 73 et seq.

[383] Legge, The Chinese Classics, Vol. II, p. 281.

[384] Laufer, op. cit., pp. 160–1.

[385] Op. cit., p. 161.

[386] Legge, Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXVII, p. 158, and Laufer,

Chinese Clay Images, p. 172.

[387] Rhys David, Buddhism (London, 1903), p. 183.

[388] Laufer, op. cit., p. 138.

[389] Chinese Clay Images, pp. 150 et seq.

[390] Like the “golden sun”.

[391] Chinese Clay Images, pp. 152–3 and p. 153 n. 2.

[392] The Chinese Commercial Guide, p. 95 (Hong-Kong, 1863).

[393] Chinese Clay Images, p. 139.

[394] Ibid., p. 108.

[395] Referred to by the philosopher Wang Chʼung in his work Lun heng

(A.D. 82 or 83), quoted by Laufer, op. cit., p. 171 n. 3.

[396] Schliemann’s Ilios, p. 242.

[397] Letter to the Times, 18th December, 1879.

[398] Laufer’s Jade, p. 2.

[399] Jade, pp. 4–5.

[400] Laufer’s Jade, p. 196.

[401] Ibid., pp. 186–9.

[402] Athenæus Deipnos, Book III, chap. xlvi; and Jackson, Shells as

Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture, p. 77.

[403] Like rhinoceros horn.

[404] Heber R. Bishop, Investigations and Studies in Jade (New York,

1906), Vol. I, p. 47; and A. Wylie, Notes on Chinese Literature

(Shanghai, 1901), p. 194.

[405] The Migration of Early Culture: A Study of the Significance of

the Geographical Distribution of the Practice of Mummification, &c.,

pp. 20 et seq.

[406] Recollections of a Journey through Tartary, Tibet, and China, by

M. Huc (English translation, London, 1852), pp. 219–20.

[407] Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. I, p. 500 et seq.

[408] The Elder Edda, translation by O. Bray, p. 19.

[409] Ibid., p. 51.

[410] Ibid., p. 277.

[411] In Norse mythology the earth trembles when Loki moves.

[412] The “breath” which is “soul substance”.

[413] Quoted by Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, pp.

21–2.

[414] Babylonian Myth and Legend, pp. 146–7.

[415] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 95.

[416] James Legge, The Texts of Confucianism, Part II, p. 430 (Sacred

Books of the East).

[417] Legge, The Chinese Classics, Vol. III, Part I, p. 108.

[418] This reference to the use of personal ornaments is highly

significant.

[419] King, Babylonian Religion, p. 136.

[420] Religions of Ancient China, pp. 43–44.

[421] For a discussion on “Early Biological Theories” in this

connection see Professor G. Elliot Smith’s The Evolution of the Dragon,

pp. 26 et seq., and pp. 178 et seq.

[422] Wells Williams, Chinese-English Dictionary, p. 1092.

[423] The Dragon in China and Japan, pp. 83–4.

[424] De Groot, The Religious System of China; and De Visser, The

Dragon in China and Japan, p. 85.

[425] Chinese Literature, p. 52.

[426] King, Legends of Babylonia and Egypt (1916), p. 56.

[427] Like the mountain-goddess of Crete.

[428] Chinese Literature, pp. 52, 53.

[429] Legge, Shu King, Shih King, Hsiao King (Sacred Books of the

East), Vol. III, pp. 396, 397.

[430] Religions of Ancient China, pp. 21–3.

[431] Religion in China (London, 1878, second edition), pp. 99 et seq.

[432] The season controlled by the White Tiger-god of the west.

[433] Religion in China, p. 104.

[434] The Religious System of China, Book I, p. 959.

[435] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 107.

[436] Legge, The Texts of Taoism, Vol. I, pp. 370–1.

[437] Legge, The Shu King (Sacred Books of the East), Vol. III, p. 255

and n. 1.

[438] Giles, Religions of Ancient China, p. 22.

[439] Three Irish Glossaries, Whitley Stokes (London, 1862), p. lxxiii.

[440] Legge, The Chinese Classics, Vol. III, Part I, p. 117.

[441] Legge, The Shu King (Sacred Books of the East), pp. 64 et seq.

[442] Boats, carriages, sledges, and spiked boots.

[443] W. G. Old, The Shu King (London, 1904), pp. 36–7.

[444] Legge, The Shu King, p. 139.

[445] Legge, Ibid., p. 309.

[446] The sky is the “dark sphere”, and the mace is therefore a

sky-mace.

[447] Legge, The Annals of the Bamboo Book, pp. 128, 129 (The Chinese

Classics, Vol. III, Part 1).

[448] Legge, The Shu King, n. 5, p. 269 (The Chinese Classics, Vol.

III, p. 1). Herodotus tells (Book II, chapter 122) that Pharaoh

Rhampsinitus (? Rameses) of Egypt descended to Hades and played dice

with Ceres (Isis), “sometimes winning and sometimes suffering defeat”.

A curious festival celebrated the event.

[449] Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting

Voyages and Travels (London, 1814), XVI, 696.

[450] Legge, The Shih King, p. 397.

[451] Legge, The Shih King, p. 398, n.

[452] Legge, The Annals of the Bamboo Books, p. 143.

[453] Giles, Religions of Ancient China, p. 20.

[454] The Annals of the Bamboo Books, p. 147.

[455] Geographical Journal, XXII, 1904, pp. 24, 176, 331, 772.

[456] Sailing Ships and their Story, p. 310.

[457] In Yūn-nan

[458] Sino-Iranica, p. 469.

[459] Pliny, XV, 11, 13, and Sino-Iranica, p. 539.

[460] Sino-Iranica, p. 185.

[461] King, Babylonian Religion, p. 165.

[462] One of his names during his lifetime was Li Po-Yang: after his

death he was Li Tan.

[463] Journal of Egyptian Archæology.

[464] Macbeth, Act v, scene 7.

[465] As has been stated, tea was an elixir.

[466] “King” signifies “classic”.

[467] Breasted, A History of Egypt, p. 357.

[468] Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, pp. 46–7.

[469] In Egypt the “rays” were the creative tears of the sun-god.

[470] The Speculations in Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality of “The Old

Philosopher”.

[471] The Modern Speech New Testament (London, 1903): John, Chap. i,

verse 1 et seq.

[472] The Ancient Faiths of China, p. 49.

[473] History of Religions (Edinburgh, 1914), p. 49.

[474] Christ and Other Masters, Vol. II, p. 67.

[475] Language and Languages, pp. 184–5. Jowett, in a letter to Mrs.

Asquith in 1893, wrote, “I think also that you might put religion in

another way, as absolute resignation to the Will of God and the order

of Nature” (Autobiography of Mrs. Asquith).

[476] The Texts of Taoism p. 13 (Sacred Books of the East).

[477] Ibid., p. 15.

[478] The Religious System of China, Book I, p. 936.

[479] Rigveda, X, 129.

[480] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 97–9.

[481] The Bhagavad-Gita, Book 18.

[482] The Texts of Taoism, p. 19.

[483] The beginnings of Alchemy can be traced back to the early

dynastic period in ancient Egypt.

[484] The Egyptian gods Ra and Ptah similarly emerged from cosmic eggs.

[485] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 100–2.

[486] Dr. Legge, Taoist Texts, p. 47.

[487] Ibid., p. 85.

[488] Ibid., pp. 74, 75.

[489] Dr. Legge, Taoist Texts, p. 51.

[490] Ascent of Olympus, p. 73.

[491] For discussions on these gates see Elliot Smith in Journal of the

Manchester and Oriental Society (1916), and The Evolution of the

Dragon, pp. 184, 185.

[492] Dr. Legge, Taoist Texts, p. 52.

[493] Ibid., p. 104.

[494] Ibid., p. 87.

[495] Dr. Legge, Taoist Texts, pp. 94, 95.

[496] Ibid., pp. 67–9.

[497] Ibid., p. 82.

[498] Ibid., p. 94.

[499] The Texts of Taoism, p. 96.

[500] Ibid., p. 95.

[501] Ibid., pp. 53, 54.

[502] Herbert A. Giles, Religions of Ancient China, p. 47.

[503] The Texts of Taoism, p. 59.

[504] Giles, Chuang Tzu, Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer.

[505] The Texts of Taoism, pp. 92, 93.

[506] The Texts of Taoism, p. 60.

[507] Kwang Tze, Book VI, par. 7 (Balfour’s translation).

[508] Analects VII, 1.

[509] The Texts of Taoism, p. 167 n.

[510] The Texts of Taoism (The Writings of Kwang Tze), p. 245.

[511] The Texts of Taoism, pp. 244 et seq.

[512] Ibid., p. 245.

[513] The Texts of Taoism, p. 364.

[514] Ibid., pp. 364–5.

[515] Customs of the World, p. 380.

[516] The terraced mound tombs of the Emperors of Japan appear to be

survivals of the ancient tombs. Although true dolmens have been found

in Korea, they do not, so far as is known, occur in Japan (Journal

Anthrop. Inst., xxiv, p. 330, and 1907, pp. 10 et seq.).

[517] Chinese Clay Figures, p. 265, n. 3.

[518] Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. X

(supplement), p. xxxvi.

[519] Chinese Clay Figures (Chicago, 1914), p. 265, n. 3.

[520] Ibid., p. 271 and n. 3, p. 272 and n. 1.

[521] In their own language Ainu-utara: “utara” is the plural suffix.

Their Japanese name is Yemishi; the Chinese came to know of them first

in A.D. 659, and called them Hia-i. A later Chinese name is Ku-hi.

[522] Pira, “cliff”; toru, “to stay”.

[523] Turesh, “younger sister”; machi, “wife”.

[524] For other versions, see Hartland, The Science of Fairy Tales

(London, 1891), pp. 71 et seq.

[525] See Index under “Melusina”.

[526] Genesis, chapter xxxv, 4.

[527] Elliot Smith, Distribution of Mummification: Manchester Memories,

Vol. LIX (1915), pp. 90 et seq.

[528] Laufer, Chinese Clay Figures, p. 269.

[529] Rendel Harris, The Ascent of Olympus, pp. 56 et seq., with its

Note on Ivy and Mugwort in Siberia, pp. 96 et seq.

[530] Rendel Harris, op. cit., pp. 101–2.

[531] Egyptian Myth and Legend, pp. 6 et seq.

[532] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 143–4.

[533] Batchelor, The Ainu and their Folk-lore. Batchelor, Notes on the

Ainu (Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan), Vol. X, pp. 206 et

seq. Milne, Notes on the Koro-pok-guru (Transactions of the Asiatic

Society of Japan), Vol. X, pp. 187 et seq. Chamberlain, Ainu Folk-tales

(Folk-lore Society’s Publications, Vol. XXII, 1888).

[534] Note on Ivy and Mugwort in Siberia in The Ascent of Olympus, pp.

99–100.

[535] The god Ea of the Sumero-Babylonians.

[536] Zipangu and Cipangu are renderings of the Chinese Jih-pên (“the

place the sun comes from”), with the word Kuo, “country”, added. The

Japanese Nihon or Nippon, and our Japan, are other renderings of the

Chinese name which was first used officially in Japan in the seventh

century A.D. Earlier Japanese names include Yamato and Ō-mi-kuni, “the

great dragon (mi) land”, &c.

[537] Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo (Book III, chapter iii), Vol.

III, p. 200. Kunz, Folk-lore of Precious Stones (Memoirs Internat.

Congr. Anthrop., Chicago, 1894), pp. 147 et seq. G. A. Cooke, System of

Universal Geography, Vol. I (1801), p. 574. J. W. Jackson, Shells as

Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture (London, 1917), pp. 106 et

seq.

[538] Korea and her Neighbours (London, 1898), Vol. II, pp. 95 et seq.

[539] The Chinese dragon, K’üh-lung, originated from a sea-plant called

hai-lü. De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 72.

[540] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 137.

[541] The temple of the Mexican dragon- and rain-god, Tlaloc, was

called “Ep-coatl”, which signifies “pearl-serpent” or “serpent-pearl”.

Young children sacrificed to Tlaloc by being thrown into the whirlpool

(pan tit lan) of the lake of Mexico, were also called “Ep-coatl”. This

sacrifice took place at the water festival in the first month of the

Mexican year. The infants were sacrificed at several points, some being

butchered on holy hills, including the “place of mugwort”, sacred to

the mugwort and gem-goddess Chalchihuitlicue, wife of Tlaloc. But only

the children thrown into the lake were called “Ep-coatl”.

[542] Shinto (London, 1905), pp. 27 et seq.

[543] This does not seem to be the reason for the sanctity of a round

object.

[544] Or shaped like the teeth of tigers or bears.

[545] Archæologia, 1897 (The Dolmens and Burial Mounds in Japan), p.

478.

[546] Legend in Japanese Art, pp. 354–6.

[547] Ancestor of the Mikado.

[548] Goddess of the Sun.

[549] Legend in Japanese Art, pp. 350–1.

[550] The Maga-tama and the Kuda-tama.

[551] Jade, pp. 353–4.

[552] Ise is the name of a province, and the nearest town to the

“Mecca” is Yamada.

[553] Shinto (1905), pp. 231–2.

[554] See Index under Artemis.

[555] The temple of the sun-goddess is called Naiku, and that of the

food-goddess Geku. These temples are of wood, with thatched roofs.

Every twenty years the buildings are renewed.

[556] Shinto, p. 38.

[557] Shinto (1907), pp. 15–6.

[558] King, Babylonian Religion and Mythology, pp. 35, and 174 et seq.

[559] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 72–3.

[560] Ibid., p. 95.

[561] Aston, Shinto (1907), p. 14.

[562] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, pp. 99 et seq.

[563] Shinto (1907), p. 6.

[564] Here we have the sanctity of jewels and other so-called

“ornaments” brought out very clearly.

[565] Aston, Shinto (1907), pp. 6–7.

[566] The Dragon in China and Japan.

[567] See Chapter XX.

[568] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 26. The Texts

referred to are: “His brother Set felled him to the earth in Nedyt....

Osiris was drowned in his new water (the inundation).”

[569] De Dea Syria, Chapter VIII.

[570] Breasted, op. cit., p. 20. Osiris was addressed: “Thou art great,

thou art green, in thy name of Great Green (Sea); lo, thou art round as

the Great Circle (Okeanos); lo, thou art turned about, thou art round

as the circle that encircles the Haunebu (Ægeans)”.

[571] Ibid., 22–3.

[572] For various versions of this legend see Hartland, Legend of

Perseus and River deities in Index.

[573] King, Babylonian Religion, p. 77.

[574] See Index under Ymir and Pʼan Ku.

[575] A translation into English of the Ko-ji-ki, by Professor B. H.

Chamberlain, was printed as a supplement to Vol. X of the Transactions

of the Asiatic Society of Japan (1893). The Nihon-gi was translated

into English by Dr. Aston, and printed in the Transactions of the Japan

Society for 1896.

[576] Grey, Polynesian Mythology, pp. 1 et seq.

[577] Like the Floating Island or Islands of the Blest.

[578] “Hid their persons” signifies, according to some commentators,

that they died. But certain Egyptian deities were “hidden”; their

influence remained: the Japanese hidden deity had a “mi-tama” (soul).

[579] Eight is a sacred number in Japan.

[580] See Myths of Crete and pre-Hellenic Europe, pp. 305–9.

[581] Shinto (1905), p. 90.

[582] He is the green falcon of the Morning Star in the Pyramid Texts.

[583] The Dawn of Astronomy (London, 1894), pp. 383 et seq.

[584] Shinto (1905), p. 132.

[585] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 137.

[586] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, pp. 136–7; and Florenz,

Japanische Mythologie, Chap. III, p. 33.

[587] Japanische Mythologie, p. 46.

[588] De Visser, op. cit., pp. 135–6.

[589] Shinto (1905), p. 73.

[590] See Index under wani.

[591] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 140.

[592] Ibid., pp. 141–2.

[593] De Visser, op. cit., pp. 139–40.

[594] De Visser, op. cit., pp. 147 et seq.

[595] Aston, Shinto (1905), p. 56 and pp. 219–20.

[596] The Dragon in China and Japan, pp. 231 et seq.

[597] Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. X

(supplement), p. 34.

[598] The spirits of disease, decay, destruction, and darkness.

[599] This phallic symbol had, apparently, like jade, rhinoceros-horn,

&c., nocturnal luminosity.

[600] Transactions of Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. VI, Part III, pp.

455–6.

[601] For representative versions in various lands, see Andrew Lang’s

Custom and Myth (A Far-travelled Tale), pp. 87 et seq.

[602] Or “Flat Hill of Hades”, the frontier line between the land of

the living and the land of the dead.

[603] In the Ainu story about the man who visited the Underworld and

was transformed into a snake, a pine tree, inhabited by a goddess,

occupies the spot on which grows the peach tree in this Japanese myth.

[604] The Japanese Persephone.

[605] “Susa-no-wo” for short.

[606] Things Japanese, p. 145.

[607] Shinto (1905), p. 141.

[608] Shinto (1905), p. 137.

[609] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, pp. 153–4.

[610] Shinto (1905), p. 140.

[611] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 14, 15, 24, 64, 65.

[612] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, pp. 83 et seq.

[613] Ibid., p. 15.

[614] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 121.

[615] Maspero, Dawn of Civilization, pp. 156 et seq.

[616] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 13.

[617] The modern Omi, Afumi (Aha-humi), “Fresh-water Lake”:

Chamberlain, Transactions of Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. X

(supplement), p. 45, n. 12.

[618] That is, the elder brother of her family. He was really younger

than herself.

[619] As the Babylonian Nergal wrested Hades from Eresh-ki-gal

(Persephone).

[620] The so-called “comma-shaped” beads, which represented the claws

of tigers or bears, or a cut sea-shell.

[621] The “Milky Way” by night, also called the “Heavenly River of

Eight currents (or ‘reaches’)”.

[622] The ancient Egyptian Celestial Pool of the Gods.

[623] Each jewel was eight feet long.

[624] The “hohi of Heaven”. What “hohi” signifies is a puzzle.

[625] Shinto (1905), p. 172.

[626] Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 23.

[627] Shinto (1905), p. 174. Professor Benoy K. Sarkar compares Shiva

to Osiris. See The Folk-Element in Hindu Culture (London, 1917), p. 7.

[628] In Ancient Egypt the mountain that splits when the sun emerges at

dawn.

[629] The tree Sakaki (Cleyera japonica) planted beside Shinto shrines.

[630] The dance was a gross and indelicate one.

[631] This rope (shime-naha) is tied round trees at Shinto shrines. At

Ise it stretches across a ravine, through which the sun is seen and

adored at dawn. The straw is pulled up by the roots.

[632] The modern hohodzuki (Physalis Alkekengi).

[633] De Groot refers to a “venerable” Chinese dragon living in a pond;

it had nine heads and eighteen tails, and “ate nothing but fever

demons”. The Religious System of China, Vol. VI, p. 1053. Another

dragon is 1000 miles long; his breath causes wind; when he opens his

eyes it is day, and when he closes them it is night. De Visser, The

Dragon in China and Japan, p. 62.

[634] In the Nihon-gi this sword is called Ama no-hawe-giri (the

heavenly fly-cutter).

[635] Idzumo is the next holiest place to Ise. The god had other names

including Oho-kuni-nushi (“Great Land Master”).

[636] An incident that recalls the Diarmid story in Scottish and Irish

Gaelic folk-tales.

[637] One of the first three deities, the children of Heaven and Earth.

[638] The Arca inflata.

[639] The Cytherea meretrix.

[640] Chamberlain, in his translation of the Ko-ji-ki (p. 70), says

“the meaning is that a paste like milk was made of the triturated and

calcined shell mixed with water”. Mother (omo) may be read as “nurse”

too. Mrs. Carmichael, widow of Dr. Alexander Carmichael, the Scottish

folk-lorist, informs me that in the Outer Hebrides women burn and grind

cockle-shells to make a “lime water” for delicate children. The clam is

likewise used. The ancient Japanese and ancient Hebrideans may have

received this folk-medicine from the ancient seafarers who searched for

shells and metals.

[641] This was a magical act. He rendered himself invisible.

[642] The “sounding arrow” with a whistling contrivance made of bone.

It was known in China during the Tʼang Dynasty, and was used by hunters

to make birds rise, and by soldiers to scare enemies. Laufer thinks the

Japanese sounding arrows were of Chinese origin.—Chinese Clay Figures,

p. 224, n. 4.

[643] Or a rat.

[644] Here one is tempted to see mouse-Apollo, or the mouse of the

Homeric Apollo who shoots the arrows of disease. The mice that strip

the arrows of their feathers may be the arresters of disease. Mouse

medicine is of great antiquity in Egypt.

[645] “Divine messages,” says Chamberlain, “were conveyed through a

person playing on the lute.” The language of the “lute” was thus like

the “language of birds”.

[646] This is a Far Eastern version of the Jack-and-the-Beanstalk

story.

[647] Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. X

(supplement), p. 81.

[648] Native commentators say “goose” or “wren”; some consider that

owing to a copyist’s error “insect” has been changed to bird, and that

the reading should be “moth” or “silk-worm moth” or “fire insect”.

[649] Some think this plant is one that bears a berry three or four

inches long, and that the boat was a scooped-out berry.

[650] This is not Yomi, but either the Chinese Paradise of the West or

the Paradise of the Buddhists.

[651] A Chinese phrase signifying anciently the Chinese world or

empire. The “Crumbling Deity” may be the “leech-child”, or the

caterpillar worshipped by a Japanese cult.

[652] See Index.

[653] This is his posthumous name. During his life he was

Kamu-Yamato-Iware-Biko.

[654] The golden crow of the sun had three legs. In the moon was the

jewelled hare.

[655] Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. X

(supplement), p. 199, n. 5.

[656] Chamberlain, Things Japanese, p. 57.

[657] Polynesian Researches (First Edition, 1829), p. 327.

[658] Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia (1861), p. 237.

[659] Batchelor, Notes on the Ainu (Transactions of the Asiatic Society

of Japan, Vol. X), p. 218.

[660] Nira, the Allium odorum.

[661] Tilia cordata. See Chamberlain’s Ko-ji-ki, pp. 102 n. 26, and

215.

[662] An evil rain which did harm like the evil rain sent by a sick or

an angry and destroying dragon.

[663] The moor of the waterfall of the River Yoro in Mino.

[664] Apparently the sword would have protected him against the fatal

enchantment wrought by the white boar-god of Mount Ibuki.

[665] Chidori, a dotteril, plover, or sandpiper.

[666] As a god’s mi-tama rests in a temple to be worshipped.

[667] His posthumous title. During life he was called Hachiman.

[668] Customs of the World (Japan), pp. 380 et seq.

[669] Chinese Clay Figures, Part I, p. 272 (Field Museum of Natural

History, Publication 177; Anthropological Series, Vol. XIII, No. 2).

Chicago, 1914.

[670] Jade, p. 57.